Seattle Relocation Scouting Trip Report - Oct 2010

[Xanathos]

Originally Posted by CarawayDJ

3PM? The sun sets at 4:17 today. Nonetheless, the days are short up there, and the clouds probably make it seem as if the sun has set at 3PM. Fortunately for me, I'm used to it. Winter days in NH are only minutes longer than Seattle, and Germany has even shorter days than Seattle. On a related note, I guess if I knew about SAD back then I might have gotten it. Since I never heard of it, I never got it.

You forget, we've still got 13 days to go before we reach our shortest day. And we lose something like 4 minutes of daylight every day leading up to it.

[Gentoo]

Originally Posted by Xanathos

This won't be a good year to try to gauge the winter, because of that Il Nina thing we've got going on this year. However, you can come experience our 3 pm sunsets any winter

A friend of mine who lives there as well as a member of this forum told me that the sun sets around 4pm in winter. Still pretty early but only by about a half hour difference from the Bay Area. I was once used to it being dark early, especially on gloomy days. The thing is, the sun rises later in the morning in Seattle doesn't it? I'm thinking about 8am or so? Again, a half hour later than the Bay Area. However, when I was up there in September the days were still longer than they were in San Diego. I went to southern WA years ago in the summer and I remember it not getting dark till about 10pm.

[Inkpoe]

Yes, it does rise a bit later. We go to school/work in the dark and we go home in the dark.

Summer, we tend to get real long days... I'd usually tell people I know we get 18 hour daytime in the summer.

[TotalFat]

Originally Posted by aa85

"2) Pedestrian sudden movements. No pedestrian shall suddenly leave a curb or other place of safety and walk or run into the path of a vehicle which is so close that it is impossible for the driver to stop."

Not sure if this is actually enforced though.

This particular law is self-enforcing, actually. Offenders are occasionally sentenced to death.

[JesseJB]

I used to get a sort of "contact-SAD" when I was a teenager up here. I didn't know what SAD was, but it was making everyone around me so depressing, so it depressed me because I thought thats how everyone was supposed to act. Now when I see it, I just smile and count myself lucky. If I had the internet back then, it would have been different.

[texastrigirl]

Jesse JB, I teach cycling classes at a few gyms and I always tell folks the best way to beat the weather in the winter is to smile, smile, smile at those around you. Everyone looks so grim in the mizzle. What happened to "Singin' in the Rain" people??

[KnLBurks]

Curious how your second visit went....

[CarawayDJ]

Originally Posted by KnLBurks

Curious how your second visit went....

This thread is the report on my 2nd visit. My 3rd visit will be in May. I'll be renting a home in Edmonds for a week. On my agenda is checking out the area from Edmonds down to Shoreline. I also need to hit Bellevue. We're deciding between the Seattle area or the Bay area. Seattle is a little ahead right now. We'll make a tentative decision later this year, and if we decide on Seattle we'll spend some more time there in December or January.

I'm fortunate enough to be able to do my homework about as well as can be done sans actually moving there for a year. I'll have nobody to blame but myself if it doesn't work out. It's a tough decision though.

[CarawayDJ]

We finally pulled the trigger. We were all set to decide between Seattle-Magnolia, Kirkland or Bellevue and ended up on South Whidbey lol. Some friends joined us last week. We thought they would like Whidbey so we rented a place there for a week. We fell in love with the place and decided to live there ourselves. Fortunately I can run my business anywhere I have a computer and an Internet connection. That said, I don't find it anywhere near as remote as some think, at least not on the south end. We went to the mainland several times and it never took long to get to the mall and shopping. It took us about 1 hour to get to downtown Seattle (non rush hour traffic). I took our friends to the airport on a Saturday morning and it took 1 hour and 15 minutes to get from the rental to the airport. The ferry ride is rather short (15 min). A pleasant surprise was the Alderwood Mall in Lynnwood. Blue collar areas get quite a beating on this forum. We expected to find a po-dunk mall and found one every bit as good/upscale as any mall in San Diego. This will keep the wife happy when she needs her mall fix. Oh, and crime is very low on the south end. ALL crime is low. We know that the ferry can be backlogged in the summer. The locals advised us of the times to avoid.

I feel like we chose a rural New England seaside town that is only a short ferry ride away from all of the amenities you can want. Best of all are the people. The sense of community is amazing. An eclectic group of people of all ages who are just as friendly as they come. Some people walking even wave to you when you drive by. Reminds me of where I grew up in NH. Only time will tell if the charm lasts. A positive sign was that we encountered a lot of people young and old who have lived there a long time and were still happy. Many had the same story we had, they vacationed there and fell in love.

The cost of living seems to be decent too. Groceries are a little more expensive on the island. The ferry will cost us when we go to the mainland. If we had to make a daily commute it would add up. Housing is much cheaper though. We are renting a 3BR house steps from the water with unobstructed views of the Olympics for hundreds less than what we would have rented an old rambler in Kirkland/Bellevue with no view and probably smaller.