Walking around Alki

Today my husband and I had a beautiful afternoon walk around Alki in Seattle. Alki is a close yet popular destination beach. After getting off the Harbor Ave SW exit of the West Seattle Bridge, I like to park near Salty's on Alki and walk around Alki Point to the 3400 block of Beach Ave SW, where there are neat condos on a pier over the water.
It's about a 6 mile walk round trip filled with fantastic views of downtown and Puget Sound, facts about the first settlers in Seattle, sidewalk star charts, amazing houses, and sea life. Here are some of the photos from our walk today.
Telescopes dot the walkway with sweeping views of the skyscrapers, Queen Anne, Magnolia, nearby islands and the Olympic Mountains. When the beach is not directly next to the walkway, there are often stairs leading down to the beach, in particular, on the Northeast side of Alki Ave SW.
The sandy beach part of Alki is a beautiful half mile stretch. Today there were several volleyball tournaments and beach soccer matches being held here.
Beyond the popular beaches, there are rocky outcrops perfect for tide pool watching.
All along Beach Ave SW are the star charts, like this picture of Andromeda!
There's a mini park and nice view point of Blake Island on the corner of Benton Ave SW and Beach Ave SW with wheelchair access and an octopus sculpture.
Walking back around the main drag, I saw this cute apartment sign on Alki Ave SW.
Along the South side of Alki Ave SW are several fun and funky older West Seattle homes, as well as many fancy houses and condos for sale.
My favorite part of the walk is always walking towards Salty's on Alki Ave SW with the breathtaking 180 degree view of the city skyline. This area also tends to be more windy, so we like to bring windbreakers, but today it was a pleasant 75 degrees!
Where are your favorite views of Seattle?