Mukilteo Musings

Only In Mukilteo

Those of you who have read this blog before know that I do "Only In Seattle" lists. This morning I am doing an "Only In Mukilteo".

1. Only in Mukilteo does one see an airplane before Christmas pulling a banner that reads: "Give Apples. Give Washington Apples as gifts!" I am not kidding. I had no camera because I was in my car on Mukilteo Speedway. Talk about a traffic hazard trying to read the thing. You see, Mukilteo is next to a large non-commercial airport. Boeing uses it for testing the airplanes they build and it serves as a private airport for private jets, blimps, and apparently airplanes pulling giant pictures of apples.

2. Only in Mukilteo do they need a special helicopter to repair a deteriorating sewer pipe. We are a town of gulches. The biggest one is Big Gulch and our back yard borders it. At the very bottom along with a salmon stream is Mukilteo's main sewer line. All of the floodiness we had lately exposed the pipe making it vulnerable to rupture. The thing is, it is impossible to get down to the bottom of Big Gulch easily by foot or truck. A very special helicopter had to be brought in from Oregon to transport materials to the spot that needs fixing. Yep, inaccessible wilderness right here in the "city".


picture taken from my back door yesterday

3. Only in Mukilteo do we make a prestigious list in Business Week Magazine. Evidently, we are considered one of the top 25 suburbs in the entire United States. The story was in the Everett Herald today. Yikes! I'd like to keep this a secret. Our traffic is bad enough and our property taxes are going up, up, and more up as our homes all become worth a million and more. But on the other hand, look at the competition and compare:

Would you rather live here??

(picture taken by Apolo and me yesterday three blocks from my house)

Or here which is Shawnee, KS and also on the list??


I lived in Kansas City for 5 1/2 years and I know what Shawnee, KS is like. Though you may be able to buy a fancier house for the money in Shawnee, you will never find a water and mountain view no matter how hard you try.

http://www.businessweek.com/bwdaily/dnflash/content/nov2006/db20061116_063534.htm?chan=rss_topStories_ssi_5

http://www.heraldnet.com/stories/06/12/09/100bus_a8mukilteo001.cfm

The question in my mind is: Are we really a suburb? Mukilteo is a ferry town with a lighthouse and our existence began independent of Seattle.