OK: so I’m not actually traveling anymore. Julia’s in Guatemala; I’m at home. Nonetheless, I’m commandeering this travel blog for a special post on just how much I love living in Seattle. It’s a city lots of people see as a travel destination, so it’s only fair.
When we lived in Dallas, it was tough to get people to visit us. Dallas is a perfectly decent place to live, but as for tourism potential, the script runs something like this:
Me: “C’mon, you can visit the JFK assassination museum!”
Friend: “Um, that sounds kind of morbid.”
Me: “Well, it’s actually a really good museum with a historically balanced point of view that refrains from overly sensationalist approaches and, well,–”
Friend: “…”
Whereas with Seattle, you can sell your friends on the Pike Place Market, the original Starbucks, or pretty much any one of fifteen other touristy selling points. But the most important factor, and the thing that makes this such an amazing place to live:
It’s freakin’ gorgeous.
We gripe and moan about the rainy weather. In part it’s totally true: winter here is depressing, dark and gray. But in part it’s an act to dissuade others from realizing what a paradise this place can be. They say the Vikings gave Iceland its name to ward off overly enthusiastic immigrants, and I can identify. If the rest of the country knew just how WORTH IT the sunny days make Seattle, they’d be flocking here en masse. And there are sunny days, believe it or not. Yesterday and today were two of them. So yesterday I took advantage of a sermon-prep break to go for a walk around Queen Anne Hill. (Non-Seattle friends take note: this is part of the city. It’s ten minutes from my apartment. Capitol Hill, where I live, is just as gorgeous: but you know, when you’re surrounded by this much beauty, you crave a little variety once in a while.)
Then there was today, when I preached at both morning services, then had a four-hour break before supplying at another nearby church whose pastor recently left. Four hours? A stunningly beautiful late-winter day? Time to light out for the mountains! Just a quick thirty-minute drive to exit 32, and I was hiking up the trail to Rattlesnake Ledge. Most of Seattle was there with me (did I mention that this scarily outdoorsy city is the headquarters for REI?). But who cares if it’s crowded? More company for the walk up.
Atlanta, New York, Dallas, you all have your charms. I’ve lived in you all and love you each in your own way. But you don’t have mountains. This Tahoe-bred boy needs some of those to call a town home for real. Seattle, it’s only been two years … but this relationship is feeling pretty serious.
Serious relationship, huh … should I be feeling threatened? =)
By: thejule on February 21, 2011
at 10:34 pm
silly love! you live here too. seattle is another member of our family. kind of like our kitten, with whom I also have a serious relationship. but being married to you is the basis of the whole thing … OBVIOUSLY.
(cue antoine dodson voice for the proper inflection of the word “obviously.”)
By: stephenshaver on February 21, 2011
at 11:16 pm