I visited Seattle this weekend... (Pacific: apartment, home, school) - Washington (WA) -Seattle and King County Suburbs - City-Data Forum

415_s2k · 01-16-2013, 08:08 PM

... and had a very enjoyable time

A friend/ex of mine has been on me for the last couple months to come up to visit - she came to visit a couple times when I was in SF, but it's been a couple years now. I saw a cheap flight and decided to bite.

I stayed with her on First Hill - she lives in one of the new towers they've built in a pretty swank apartment, a couple blocks from Harborview where she works in the ER. My past grievances with Seattle mostly hinged upon my frustration with the passive-aggressiveness of people, which I generally countered with non-passive, Northeastern-style aggression - calling people out on being a sarcastic, bearded moron or a haughty, tights-wearing beyotch. I told myself that this time, I'd do no such thing... I'm on vacation, after all. In the event that I'm met with any passive-aggression, snootiness, or anything else, I'll do the Buddhist thing and be like the water, flowing seamlessly around and past the negativity and into a beautiful, translucent lake of tranquility.

And, it worked. I actually quite enjoyed all four days I was there. We went to the Ballard Farmer's Market, and after having a bowl of deliciously hearty mac & cheese at the Sexton, bought some locally-handmade artisan soap from Brown Butterfly (the "Garden" bar smells utterly sublime), and Samish Bay Cheese's "River Cheese" made for some awesome sandwiches back home the next night. I walked all around First Hill and Capitol Hill all three nights, and got some pretty awesome pictures. A trip to the Pike Place Market to revisit some of the shops I used to visit as a kid sent me back home with a bunch of pointless-but-heartwarming nick nacks from Rings and Things, The Great Windup, et al, an amazing infused olive oil from Sotto Voce.

I even got a sugar-free hazelnut mocha at Seattle Coffee Works... even though I don't drink coffee.

A few selected items:

- I got complimented on my skin at least a dozen times. Note to anyone experiencing the vaunted Seattle Freeze, which kicked my ass when I lived there: if you want to stand out and meet people, use facial cleanser.

- I also got complimented on my outfit a few times, and not just by guys on Capitol Hill. Which is odd, because I was wearing a slightly-updated version of what I wore when I lived in Seattle: a peacoat, jeans, a nice scarf, 10-hole Dr. Martens, and a scally cap... not overwhelmingly dissimilar from what I wore when I lived there before.

- After people had noted the above, they asked "where I was from." Telling them that I was from Seattle but now lived in LA elicited a much more positive response than just telling them that I was from California. A few times, there was still a somewhat-snarky following ("Oh, so that's where you get your unnatural glow from!"), but again, I just let it roll off my back ("Nah, Seattle-Scandanavian genetics.") and the party immediately rushed to apologize ("Oh, I didn't mean that in a bad way... I'm sorry if that came off rude!").

- The beer selection at the QFC on Capitol Hill is amazing, in that there are rows and rows of bombers of craft beers. The Pavilions (Safeway) by me here in BH has a "good" selection and it's about 1/3rd the size.

- Purse dogs in Seattle are infintely better-behaved than purse dogs in LA, to the point that I barely realized they were there and actually wanted to pet them and coo over them. Also, I saw like fifty Welsh Corgi's, which are my favorite dogs.

- There really, truly are Subarus everywhere... I didn't quite realize this till I was going through all my photos and realized that nearly every single one of them had a Subie in it.

After much soul-searching, I came to the conclusion that I could, indeed, live in Seattle again... temporarily, and contingent on my living downtown or on First or Capitol Hill and making a living off of my creative pursuits so that I didn't have to be up at ungodly hours in the cold as was the case when I lived there last. If I could do as I did this time and basically stay in doing artwork and writing until noon or so, then go out to leisurely shop, stroll, take photos and draw, then yeah: I'd certainly consider it. Admittedly, my creative output in Seattle was actually pretty good when I lived there before... it's just that everything else was lacking.

Well, we'll see what the future holds... especially considering that the trip also made me realize that I walked away from a really wonderful woman that by some miracle hasn't decided to sever contact with me

415_s2k · 01-16-2013, 08:19 PM

And, here are some pictures. I know that they aren't as cool as pwright's, and it all highlighted to me that I really, really need a better camera (anyone have any recommendations?)

Pigeons in a wall at the Ballard Farmer's Market.

I was fortunate that there were absolutely-amazing sunsets on both the 13th and 14th which I managed to capture.

Seacove · 01-16-2013, 08:26 PM

Well if you left without being annoyed and irritated by us, we're slacking and really need to up our game.

PollyGlott · 01-16-2013, 08:29 PM

It's not often we get reports of a trip after it's over, and with photos too!
Thank you for taking the time to share, and I'm glad it was a positive experience on so many levels!

super karate man · 01-16-2013, 08:43 PM

Nice pics. I have always wanted to visit the Pacific Northwest, with Seattle being the main target. Hopefully Wifey and I can get out there soon.

angelenogirl · 01-16-2013, 08:45 PM

There are purse dogs in Seattle?!

415_s2k · 01-16-2013, 08:48 PM

I went to school up on Beacon Hill as a lad, and we had to ride this stretch of freeway to and from school when I was a kid. This was around 5.00... I don't care what anyone says: Seattle rush hour really isn't that bad!! Look at how open those freeways are...