Winter Wander 2023 Countdown
Presented by Alice Kuder
Winter Wander is a FREE, LIVE, 10-DAY Adventure designed to bring friends and families together for holiday fun! Open to all West Seattle residents and their friends!
Winter Wander Scavenger Hunt Welcomed 24 Teams in 2021
It’s been a little over a week since West Seattle scavengers checked off the last boxes on the clue sheet. You may be wondering why it has taken so long to see the results posted here. It’s because Winder Wander was so well-received that it has taken me all week to tally scores, label jpegs, retrieve yard signs, and notify the players.
Last year, 12 teams played Winter Wander and sent in 198 selfies. This year, 24 teams took part in the West Seattle scavenger hunt and sent in 466 selfies and several social media posts. 7 of the 24 teams solved all 25 clues.
The team of Rick & Morty, aka Steve and Charlie Bierman, (pictured below) solved all 25 clues AND were the big winners in the drawing for the $100 gift card!
The names and point totals for each of the Winter Wander scavenger hunt teams are listed below. The highest point total went to Charlie’s Angels. The youngest participant was 1-month-old, Lucy. Even though I made up a couple of the team names myself, I must admit that the one that tickled my fancy the most, was Sleighing It!
Team Murray: 55 points
Beyond the Disaster: 55 points
Go Gesings: 30 points
The Happy Travelers: 34 points
The Finding Falcons: 45 points
Viking and Milady: 7 points
Team Blitzen(berger): 47 points
Sleighing It!: 18 points
Louie, Louie: 47 points
Tinsel Trio: 53 points
Charlie’s Angels: 58 points
Rick & Morty: 56 points
Raining Cat & Dog: 38 points
Gill Family: 26 points
Laura Tyler: 50 points
Kim S.:50 points
Frosty Jingle Head: 43 points
Chunn Family: 46 points
Maria Wellington: 40 points
Victoria Wellington: 40 points
Lucy in the Sky with Snowflakes: 46 points
Mark & Kiarra: 10 points
The Long and Winding Lane: 50 points
Yay! Murdock: 10 points
Special thanks to the many volunteers who helped me plan and execute Winter Wander:
Randy Winn, Barb Joseph, Tammy Contreraz, Christian Jacobson, Dora-Faye Hendricks, Kathy Blackwell, Janine Michelsons, Randy Winn, John Sweetland, Kathy Mulady, Glenn Erickson, Jeff Keller, the Bui Family, the Ga/ Jacobs family, plus the West Seattle Blog.
Local businesses who played along, and albums of photos from their wanderers, are below:
Ampersand Cafe on Alki Winter Wander 2021 photos-Ampersand
The Bridge Winter Wander 2021 photos-The Bridge
C & P Coffee Winter Wander 2021 photos-C&P
Cactus Alki Beach Winter Wander 2021 photos-Cactus
Daystar Retirement Village Winter Wander 2021 photos-Daystar
Fire Station #32 Winter Wander 2021 photos-FS #32
Fresh Flours Bakery Winter Wander 2021 photos-Fresh Flours
HeartBeet Organic Superfoods Cafe Winter Wander 2021 photos-HeartBeet
Husky Deli Winter Wander 2021 photos-Husky Deli
Mountain to Sound Outfitters Winter Wander 2021 photos-M2S
Pegasus Book Exchange Winter Wander 2021 photos-Pegasus Books
Row House Winter Wander 2021 photos-Row House
Salvadorean Bakery and Restaurant Winter Wander 2021 photos-Salvadorean Bakery
Sea Pines Physical Therapy Winter Wander 2021 photos-Sea Pines
Seattle Auto Licensing Winter Wander 2021 photos-Auto Licensing
Clue: “Star Wars meets American Animation”-photos
I fully intend to make Winter Wander an annual event, and hopefully a West Seattle holiday tradition, as my way of giving back to the community I proudly call my home. Save the date now for the 3rd Annual Winter Wander: Dec. 2-11, 2022.
When I’m not busy planning scavenger hunts, I serve our community as a real estate broker, which enables me to sponsor events like Winter Wander. Referrals are the foundation of my business, so please consider calling me for a free consultation when it comes time for you or your friends to buy or sell a home. SingleMindedRealEState.com
Below are just a few of the 466 selfies submitted by Winter Wander 2021 participants.
Winter Wander Winners!
Congratulations to Terri C. of West Seattle! She, her husband and daughter did a great job of solving 13 Winter Wander clues and won the drawing for $200 in gift cards from local merchants. The businesses they chose are Northwest Art and Frame, Paper Boat Booksellers, Coastal Surf Boutique.
We had 12 groups submit a total of 193 selfies for the contest, and countless other groups who played just for fun!
Many thanks to the 15 neighborhood businesses and institutions who agreed to participate as solutions to our clues. We hope you will pay each of them a visit and express your gratitude as well. They are:
Wildwood Markethttps://wildwoodwestseattle.com/
Highland Park Improvement Club
Seattle Fire Department Station #11
Mark your calendar now for the SECOND annual Winter Wander, which will take place Dec. 4-12, 2021.
Special thanks, as well, to The West Seattle Blog, for helping us promote this free, community event, sponsored by Alice Kuder, REALTOR® and Preparedness Coach with Just in Case.
Winter Wanderers have a blast!
Here are the first selfies submitted by Winter Wander scavengers.
Send yours to WinterWander2020@gmail.com by Dec. 13th to be entered into a drawing for a $200 gift certificate to West Seattle businesses of your choice!
Remember, you have until 7PM, Sunday, Dec. 13th to keep hunting and submit your selfies to WinterWander2020@gmail.com
Join the West Seattle “Winter Wander” Scavenger Hunt
Hey, West Seattle, let’s start a new holiday tradition. Winter Wander is a free, neighborhood scavenger hunt and everyone is invited.
It will run from 5PM, Friday, December 4, 2020 until 7PM, Sunday, December 13, 2020.
Download the details about how to join the Winter Wander here.
Download the official clue sheet here.
Sponsored by Alice Kuder, REALTOR®, Berkshire Hathaway HomeServices Northwest Real Estate, AND Just in Case: Disaster Preparedness Services.
Guaranteed fun at Morgan Junction Community Festival!
Looking for some summer fun on a budget? If you’ve never been to the annual Morgan Junction Community Festival, you owe it to yourself to go and check it out. It’s so intimate they don’t even block off the street traffic!
This is the 13th year for the Morgan Junction Community Festival produced by the Morgan Community Association (MoCA). It will be celebrated on Saturday, June 16th, starting at 10:00 am and ending at 4:00 pm. That’s right! Just one, short, summer afternoon to enjoy this “little festival that could.”
The festival is family-friendly, but has something for everyone. Check out the local vendor booths which include some unusual products and services. These are folks you’ll want to support.
This year’s festival will feature live music, kid’s entertainment and activities, commercial vendor and community informational booths, and food vendors. The festival takes place in and around Morgan Junction Park, with the apex at California Avenue SW and SW Fauntleroy.
Visit their website for a schedule of activities for the day. http://morganjunction.org
Good Neighbors Increase Your Property Value
It’s true. Having and being a good neighbor, translates into increased home values when it comes time to sell. Meanwhile, good neighbors increase your enjoyment of your home today.
I recently became aware of three free local community resources that might interest and benefit you. All three are web based and designed to encourage personal connections among neighbors. Each is run by volunteers with a goal of enabling neighbors to help one another, somewhat like the barn raising traditions of a bygone era.
The first is NextDoor.com. Nextdoor describes itself as “a private social network” designed to “build stronger and safer neighborhoods.” Members use the online network to communicate with each other about things like lost pets, recent break-ins, recommendations for local tradespeople, and selling or giving away personal belongings. More info at: www.roxhillseattle.nextdoor.com
The second is Time Bank of West Seattle. At its most basic level, time banking is simply about spending an hour doing something for somebody in your community. That hour goes into your timebank account as one credit hour. You then have a credit hour to spend on having someone else do something for you. All hours are valued equally. www.tops.timebanks.org
The third is a group within Facebook called Buy Nothing. As the name implies, the objective of the group is to help members avoid buying things that others might already have but no longer want. It’s a way to share our communal wealth. There is no bartering, trading or selling. Members offer each other things they have and ask for things they need. Each “Buy Nothing” group is neighborhood specific (Westwood homes fall within the West Seattle-South grouping). Joining this closed group requires permission from the administrators but the only requirement is that you live within the geographic boundaries set for the group. If you have a Facebook account, simply access it and in the search bar type in: Buy Nothing West Seattle (South). Or ask me to send you an invitation to join.
If you know of other valuable local resources, please post a comment or contact me and I will post about them in the future.
Do West Seattle restaurants welcome single diners?
I am a single adult, living alone in West Seattle (not counting my awesome canine companion, Tess).
First, let me say that being alone and being lonely are not at all the same in my book. In fact, they’re not even on the same page. But that is not what this post is about. It is about my frustration at being excluded from the benefits of most “dining out” coupons.
I recently received yet another coupon book in the mail filled with money-saving offers from local businesses. Six West Seattle restaurants offered discount coupons. Guess how many of them would benefit me if I chose to dine solo? None. Zippo. Zilch. Zero.
Every single offer (pun intended) required that I buy one full-priced meal in order to get a second one free or at a discount. (Note: I am singling out West Seattle restaurants only because I live in West Seattle right now. Restaurants everywhere are guilty of this oversight.)
I don’t know whether I am the exception or the norm, but as a single person living by myself, I long ago abandoned any self-consciousness over eating alone in a restaurant or going solo to a movie theater.
Even so, there are definitely restaurants where I feel welcomed and others where I feel my business is undervalued and underappreciated.
Why should restaurant owners care about catering to singles? Don’t they make much more profit from tables of multiple diners? Consider this:
- Singles tend to eat out more frequently.
- Singles often take guests out to dinner and choose the restaurant based on their previous experiences there, whether dining alone or in tandem.
- Singles talk; we recommend (or don’t) restaurants to friends and family both online and in person.
Here are a few of the things that contribute to the likelihood that I will frequent a particular eating establishment. (Only a few are specific to dining alone.)
- I am welcomed promptly and politely
- I am able to look over the menu before being seated
- The menu includes “small plate” options
- There is comfortable seating available at the bar or small tables
- The eatery is clean and aesthetically pleasing
- The food is good
- The prices represent a good value
- The server is prompt, knowledgeable and gracious
- Neither the server nor management makes me feel rushed
- Plenty of available parking or transit-friendly options
Am I missing anything that you look for? If so, I hope you will take a moment to comment below.
In the coming weeks, I plan to survey a number of the West Seattle restaurants listed on the award-winning, West Seattle Blog to find out what they do, if anything, to welcome single diners? I will publish the results here.
If you are a restaurant owner, particularly a West Seattle restaurant owner, I invite you to beat me to the punch. Comment on this post to let singles know what you do to accommodate us and show you value our patronage.
One final note. Although the coupon book I mentioned above did not contain any dining discounts suitable to singles, I have since seen one that did. One West Seattle restaurant, and one West Seattle restaurant only, included a coupon good for 15% off the entire bill. No stipulations that you must spend a minimum amount or purchase more than one entree. That restaurant is…drumroll, please! Bang Bar Thai Restaurant and Lounge located at 4750 California Ave. SW in West Seattle’s Alaska Junction. I have eaten there (sans coupon) and had a very good experience.
You see? We do talk! Restaurant owners would be wise to listen.
New homes rising in West Seattle’s Westwood neighborhood
Reprinted from my December newsletter:
Another sign that we are easing out of the housing crisis is the spate of new homes being offered by Seattle-area builders. As lenders make more money available to builders, builders are more willing to speculate. • You may have noticed that many older homes in Westwood are being purchased by developers who “scrape” the dilapidated structures and replace them with new construction. Most of the new homes are much larger than the older homes. As a result, we are seeing sale prices in the $400K-$500k range in our neighborhood. The average existing-home sale price in Westwood (homes built before 1950) is closer to $320K. Over time, this is likely to change the demographics of our neighborhood. It is also an indication that West Seattle’s “east of 35th” vs. “west of 35th” mindset may be diminishing. Whether or not that has a positive impact on Westwood, remains to be seen. • Do you have an opinion about this? If so, please comment below.
I recently created a new Pinterest Board dedicated to home sales in the Westwood Neighborhood. Each month I will post info about the latest sales. You can access the board here: http://pinterest.com/aakuder/ The board is titled (not surprisingly) Westwood Home Sales.
Fauntleroy Open House, Sunday, Nov. 18, 2012
On Sunday, Nov. 18, 2012, from 1-4PM, I will be hosting an Open House at a custom built home near the Fauntleroy ferry dock in West Seattle. This 1,840 sq. ft., 3 bedroom/2.75 bathroom home includes a Mother-in-Law unit, a 2-car garage, heated office space above the garage. Set well back from the road, the house abuts Fauntleroy Creek in back, providing a truly serene environment.
The address is 4616 SW Wildwood Place, Seattle, 98136. LIst price is $499,950. MLS #400222. For more photos and information go to: www.SingleMindedReal Estate.com/400222
As usual, I will be giving away coupons for a free ice cream cone from West Seattle’s own Husky Deli, so be sure to stop by and ask for yours.
Want to know about other Open House events in the area? Here’s a link: Open Houses
Are you ready to buy and want to tour select local listings? Give me a call at 206-708-9800 to schedule an appointment.