where to live - work in Everett, 2 small kids, good schools a priority, somewhat walkable community? (Seattle: neighborhoods)

[mitova]

I've read through many of the threads and narrowed my search into 3 categories:

Seattle neighborhoods that sound like they could work: green lake, wallingford, Fremont, Ballard and Queen Anne. Question - is the commute to Everett manageable? How are the schools?

Closer to Everett - Mulkiteo and Edmunds seem like a lot of folks have nice things to say, a lot about how beautiful it is...but is there any type of walkable community - shopping/restaurants/parks? Pretty is nice - but want to have a community where people are out and about and see each other.

East - Kirkland, Bellevue - schools, commute, stuff to do?

Any thoughts here would be helpful - ideally i would like to keep the commute to 30 minutes, have great schools, and live in a community with some life/action for the kids and us too!

Appreciate the local input, you really can't beat it!

[Ira500]

If you'd like to keep the commute to 30 minutes, and you want a somewhat walkable community, I'd say Edmonds would be your best bet. It's more than pretty, it also has a cool downtown, an arts center, Rick Steves' travel headquarters, parks, beaches, an off leash dog area,and a bunch of restaurants. It's not a huge city, but there is stuff to do, especially if you're close to downtown Edmonds.