So what's it like in Seattle?

General
After years of living in a small town like Ann Arbor, it's a little overwhelming to be back in a real city. Here in Seattle, you're never far from a ridge or other vista that lets you get a glimpse of the miles of neighborhoods and businesses all around. Fortunately, that view also includes a lot of trees and parks!

Food and Shopping
The other aspect of city living that takes some adjusting is the amount of choices. We were really lucky in Ann Arbor, in that there were enough palatable restaurants to provide a variety of dining choices (although when you're keeping to a budget, those choices drop off rapidly). I mean, the food wasn't world-beating, but you could get a great breakfast at Zola's, decent middle eastern at Jerusalem Garden, and, most of all, a reasonable price on pizza. I don't know what they pay for cheese and dough in this town, but they charge $17-22 for a basic one-topping large (14") pie here. And it's not really any better than the two large gourmet pizzas we'd get from Cottage Inn for $26 delivered, including tip.

But here, we have experienced the wonder of decent Thai food, DELIVERED AT A REASONABLE PRICE. Yes, please! And there's usually enough for leftovers. Seattle is loaded with restaurants, coffee shops, and bakeries, separated into distinct neighborhoods. Downtown is like most downtowns that have decent shopping and attractions--parking is expensive. Ballard is a large neighborhood that is also tricky for finding cheap parking, but, again, there's a lot of shopping and eating. Most of the other neighborhoods are very convenient. Simply park, and enjoy several blocks of stores and restaurants.

Driving in Seattle
We live north of the canal that connects Lake Washington to Lake Union and the Sound. Most of the streets up here are a grid, although there's just enough tricky geography to force some weird angles and confuse a newbie. Many of the intersections are unregulated: that is, no signs of any kind. You just sort of slow down a bit, look, say a little prayer and zoom on through. There's also no regulations in many places on how closely you can park to the corner, so visibility in these intersections can be quite atrocious. To slow traffic and reduce accidents, the city has installed many so-called roundabouts. These are not the traffic circles of Europe or the East coast. These are simply a circular island in the middle of the intersection that forces a driver to go around in a counter-clockwise direction, yielding to traffic in the intersection or to the right. I call them "Polish stop signs", but Jill thinks that makes me a smaller person, despite the well-known fact that I was raised Polish. If I can't even make Polish jokes, all I have left is bad beer, unhealthy food, passive-aggressiveness, and Polka music. I'm keeping the jokes!

A "roundabout" behind our house




Fun Stuff
In terms of recreation and culture, it appears that many people go skiing on a regular basis. There are many slopes within an hour's drive of here, and apparently it's decent downhill skiing. My only skiing experience has been skittering over the man-made snow and icy patches (and sometimes muddy or grassy patches) of the North Carolina resorts, so I'd be curious to see what powder is like.

More locally, Green Lake, two short blocks from our house, is completely surrounded by a park that includes a swimming pool, 3-mile lakeside path, community theatre, and various ballfields. We've seen lots of grebes, coots, boffleheads, shovelers, mallards and a hooded merganser paddling around the lake, which is closed to motorized vehicles. When the sun comes out, the path fills up quickly with cyclists, rollerbladers, strollers and joggers, and there's a great vibe in the park. We were on the trail this morning when it was just below freezing at mid-morning, and it was packed with people.

On a clear day, you can get a glimpse of the Cascades from the lakeside


A somewhat better view from a ways up the ridge...


...and over the other side of the ridge, you have the Olympic Mountains


Seattle is legendary for its music scene that shows great support for emerging talent. Unfortunately, I doubt that I'll be experiencing that anytime soon, since we're so busy with everything, and can't really afford to invest the time and money into live music (or even recorded music *sniff*) Especially when that's pretty much just my thing. We do hope to get out to the community theaters in the area, to maybe see the symphony, and to hit some galleries. As a center of intelligentsia, there's a lot of support for the arts here. Of course, that means that there's going to be a lot of C-R-A-P out there to wade through, but it also increases the chance of running across something truly transcendent. I think that the varied geography and that aspect of exposure to arts is the main reason that I'm excited to be able to raise Elaine here.

The community theatre on the lake, centered, is right where we get on the path from our house. Phinney Ridge rises in the background, separating us from Ballard and the Sound


Beer (it's fun stuff, but also serious business)
I live within two minutes walking distance of no less than 4 bars and a 24-hour breakfast place. Come visit!

Here is a picture of the local homebrew supply, as of this morning.


It rains in Seattle
So, the weather: It rains every day, just like everyone says. What they don't say is that it just barely rains from pre-dawn to sunrise, at which point it dries up. If there's a system overhead, then of course it will keep raining until that passes, but on any given day, you will get extremely light rain in the morning during the winter, enough to dampen the pavement. On many days, rain will sweep over the city in waves from the Olympic mountains to the west. So most days, there are 2-3 hour windows for going out for a walk in the sun. You just have to watch the sky for a change. And most of the rain is very soft, so that you can get by with a knit cap and a light jacket. There's only been a few days where the rain kept me inside, and I have yet to see a downpour. In the summer, the monthly rainfall drops to an average of 0.9", so this is only a temporary thing.

A dreary day on the lake doesn't mean a day off for the coots (and the hooded merganser)


On an unrelated note...
My DOD-level spy software detected a number of hits from Serbia-Montenegro yesterday. Could it be that Nestor and Ivana have visited these unremarkable halls of perfidy? Please, do speak up and say "Yes, Hello!" if you come back! I hope the move went well, and give Maria a hug for Jill and I.