Meeting people in Shoreline, Lake Forest Park and North Seattle

Most of our friendships arrived through work, through raising children, or from a neighborhood where you kept running into the same people. When those things end, the easy way of meeting people ends with them. These are the places in Shoreline, Lake Forest Park and North Seattle where people get together on purpose.

Senior centers

Shoreline-Lake Forest Park Senior Activity Center — 18560 1st Avenue NE, Building G, Shoreline · 206-365-1536. For adults 50+: fitness classes, social groups, workshops and meals, with new programs each quarter.

Greenwood Senior Center — 525 N 85th Street, Seattle · 206-297-0875. For adults 60+, part of the Phinney Center: a hot lunch Monday to Friday at noon ($5 suggested donation), classes in fitness, arts and technology, clubs, and an LGBTQ+ Community Circle. It makes social health a focus: free one-on-one connection consultations, a Social Health Group, Social Solos (afternoon tea for people aging without family, third Tuesday of the month), and a Backup Plan group for solo agers.

Ballard NW Senior Center — 5429 32nd Avenue NW, Seattle · 206-297-0403. Classes, fitness, clubs and groups, games and cards, trips, a daily community lunch at noon, and Wednesday Night Dinner & Bingo.

Library book groups

• Richmond Beach Library (Shoreline) — Richmond Beach Library Book Group, Wednesday evenings. New members always welcome.
• Seattle Public Library — Let’s Talk about Books, an informal club where people share what they have been reading, plus a Spanish-language club and a low-vision group. Branches and dates are on the library’s calendar.

Walking

The Burke-Gilman Trail runs along the north end of Lake Washington through Lake Forest Park and into Seattle — flat, paved and easy to join anywhere.

Villages

• NEST — a Northeast Seattle village since 2009 that also serves as the area’s senior center. Its calendar is full of groups that meet again and again: two walking groups, men’s and women’s “Growing Older Together” groups, American Mah Jongg, the Contemplative Aging Book Club, a poetry group and Let’s Speak Spanish. Social and full memberships.
• Northwest Neighbors Network — a membership village serving Shoreline to Lynnwood. Social membership is $120 a year, and no one is turned away.

Associations

• Sno-King School Retirees — for retired staff of the Edmonds, Northshore and Shoreline school districts: luncheons, general meetings with a speaker, field trips, trips and service projects.

Across Seattle

• Next Chapter at The Seattle Public Library — free programs for adults 50+ at branches across the city: arts workshops, talks on housing and retirement, and healthy-aging classes.
• Age Friendly Seattle — the city’s program for growing older well; it hosts a monthly Civic Coffee.
• OLLI at the University of Washington — lifelong learning for adults 50+, $50 a year: courses, talks, field trips, and study groups “designed and led by members.”
• UW Retirement Association — for University of Washington retirees. Its volunteer-led interest groups are Art Makers, Book Review, Birding, Coffee & Conversation and the Hi-Lites Garden Club, and it is “always looking for new interest groups.”
• Seattle School Retirees Association — more than 850 retirees of Washington school districts, meeting over lunch through the year.
• Jewish Family Service — Older Adult Services — programs for connection, including volunteers who visit.

Groups that meet regularly

• Meetup lists groups for people over 50 across Seattle — search for something you enjoy.

When you want the same few people every week

Most of what is listed here is built to bring people together. Far less is built to turn them into friends.

On Longtable, a circle is a small group of neighbors who meet regularly, in person, around one thing they enjoy — a few neighbors near you who share something you love, meeting for long enough that they become people who know you. You can see the circles near you, or start one: say what and when, and let neighbors find it. How it works.