To be honest, I wasn’t sure what to expect this morning as Shannon, Darlene, Amy, Erin and I were waiting impatiently at our little sign-in table at 9:50 this morning in front of Cafe’ Bambino. At the time, we had only signed in one  neighbor for our tour. Regardless of how many people showed up, we all agreed we had worked too hard in preparation and we were still going to do it! As the clock started ticking toward 10, we started seeing people trickle in. A couple here, a couple there. This was great! We started signing folks in and getting name tags on. By 10, however, the masses started coming out the woodwork. Hey, we have 20 people, how cool is that! Wait a sec, here come more from down the street! Conversations started flowing, “Hi, how are you? Where do you live? What a great day for neighborhood walk!”  By 10 after, I was in complete shock. We had 45 people? How did that happen? Did you say the press was here from The Ballard News Tribune and MyBallard? Oh, wow, this is really happening isn’t it? What an inspiring sight! I had a lot of fun showing off my neighborhood this morning, and was just incredibly energized by being surrounded by such a supportive community. In the next few weeks, I’ll be posting our notes from the stops we made along the tour. In the meantime, we got some great press from The Ballard News Tribune and MyBallard. Make sure to check out the slideshow on the Ballard News Tribune! Thank-you so much to our local media for supporting our efforts. Thank-you to Gretchen at Cafe Bambino for allowing us to set up shop at her place and for giving us tour guides the caffeine buzz we so badly needed. A BIG thank-you goes to Dan, at Crash Landing Pizza, who gave everyone on our tour a free slice of well-deserved pizza. These businesses on NW 65th are all owner-operated small businesses. Chances are, if you walk into their shops, you’ll find them behind the counter . Businesses like these are very rare these days, so we’re very lucky in East Ballard to have them and to be able to support each other!

One more thing, Silver posted some great pics with commentary on her picassa site.  Make sure to check them out! If you have pictures you’d like to share, please feel free to post them in the comments section or send them to me and I”ll post them!