When I was 8 years old, I lived in Federal Way, WA. My house was at 30003 4th Ave SW. I attended Adelaide Elementary school. I walked to Mirror Lake often to swim with my dog in tow. Other days, down to Redondo Beach to checkout the fishing pier. I only dared to wade into Puget Sound once. Way too cold. Mom would drive us out to Steel Lake to swim in the Summer. On select school nights, we went rollerskating. The old rink eventually burned down. It was the year in Federal Way that drew me back to the northwest to settle in Pocatello, ID.
Are you still riding your bikes? I'm waiting for some warmer weather to switch my motorcycle insurance back on and ride my bikes.
I am very familiar with area and I know where the school is at. My friends and I used to ride across the Tacoma Tide Flats on 11th St. turn left on Marine View Drive, and ride through Browns Point.
When you enter King County the name of the road changes to SW Dash Point Road. It goes past Dash Point and eventually turns right and goes up the hill to Lakota Park which is the play field for Lakota Middle School; Adelaide Elementary School is just a few blocks away West of Dash Point Road as it winds its way to the North East and eventually intersects with “Old 99”. Mirror Lake is a little past where the Elementary School is on the opposite side of SW Dash Point Road just off of 312th Street.
There used to be a convenience store at the intersection with 99 that we used to stop at and sometimes get slurpies or cold drinks at in the summer. We typically turned right on Redondo Way S to avoid riding on 99. Then we turned down 312th to and went past Mirror Lake to get back to Dash Point Road. It was one of our favorite routes because of the hills and the windiness. Back then it felt kind of rural most of the way from the Tacoma Tide Flats up to 99. The traffic these days is wall to wall cars on Dash Point Road because of all the new houses and apartments.
My wife and I still ride tandem bicycles, but during the winter we use a computer trainer mostly using a program called Rouvy which shows video of Italy or any place in the world while you are riding. It gets harder when you are climbing, and you can coast when you are going downhill if you want to. The traffic has gotten so bad here that even though we live in an outlying area we usually drive to one of our favorite bike paths. We were actually hit once on the road. I didn't get hurt but my wife's foot was crushed, and she had to have surgery.
I am sure that Southern California was a great place to ride when you were growing up. My wife and I were roller coaster fanatics for a while in the 1990s and we used to fly our small plane to Southern California frequently. We have a tandem that folds up and fits behind the rear seat. We used to love to ride in Southern California at that time. I am afraid that it probably is not as good for riding these days.
When my brother was flying for a commuter airline long ago he lived in Pocatello and he loved it there. My wife and I are going to have to move to a cheaper part of the country because my retirement has been severely impacted by the inflation of the Biden years.