Midwesterners of Seattle Support group (MOSS!) (Bellevue, Auburn: house, tornado, living in)

[PonyProse]

Okay, so for those of you midwesterners who have been transplanted, let's get a support group going, yeah? We can find a flat, windy part of the state, plant a little plot of corn, soybeans and/or wheat, adopt a couple cows, find a thunderstorm (with hail and tornado sounds?) CD, grab a couple bales of brome and sit and shoot the *****. Or find a local (non-Starbucks) coffee shop to just hang out and reminisce. I'll totally have some MOSS t-shirts made, just to make it official. Officially dorky.

So if you're interested (or you just want to chime in and make fun), leave a comment below with your state of origin and some things you miss from your home state. We can make MeetUp and facebook groups or something. Let's prevent the depression and demise of midwestern Seattlites!

I'm from Kansas, so (aside from the obvious family and friends) I'll be missing thunderstorms, amazing sunsets, sunshine, cows everywhere, thousands of acres of fields and pastures, crops, horses, friendly strangers, four distinct seasons, gravel roads, upscale suburbs with sprawling estates, lower prices for EVERYthing, and the general familiarity.

[DisRunR]

MOSS... Like it, and I love Moss Beach in CA too!
I have to say, I've done searches here and can't believe All the , I'm moving to Seattle threads, wealth of info tho!!

[Hemlock140]

Originally Posted by PonyProse

I'm from Kansas, so (aside from the obvious family and friends) I'll be missing thunderstorms, amazing sunsets, sunshine, cows everywhere, thousands of acres of fields and pastures, crops, horses, friendly strangers, four distinct seasons, gravel roads, upscale suburbs with sprawling estates, lower prices for EVERYthing, and the general familiarity.

Wait until you have been here a while and done some exploring, and you will find most of that here too.
Thunderstorms may only happen 2-3 times a year, but we do have incredible sunsets most of the summer (have to see the sun for a sunset). You will find acres of fields and pastures, and crops east of Seattle, in the Carnation area, Monroe, Snohomish, Maple Valley, Auburn, Puyallup. Horses as close in as Bellevue, but also the rural areas I mentioned, along with gravel roads. The upscale suburbs with sprawling estates are in several areas of Seattle as well as the Eastside. We do have 4 distinct seasons, though 3 of them involve rain. And, I have found in 20 years here that there are plenty of friendly strangers. About the only things you won't find are sunshine, limited to about 90 days in summer and the rare exception like today, and of course, the lower prices for everything.

[PonyProse]

Thanks, Hemlock. You've given me hope.

[Bimmerfanboy]

I'm originally from the Detroit area, does that count as Midwest?

[sean98125]

Pony, head out to Waterville, just east of Wenatchee. Once you climb on to the plateau it feels a lot like the Midwest to me. Wide open skies, lots of farm land, and a small town of older brick buildings. Take a look at Google maps and go to street view and you'll see what I'm talking about. Made me feel like I back in Kansas or western Nebraska.

[RunTheDistance476]

We can be friends, IF you don't support KU in any way (KSU OK).

Eastern WA is very flat, dry, and very windy. We should take a wine tasting trip over there this summer!

[Sonnenwende]

I'm from Indiana and I thought Kansas was even uglier than Indiana. Longest 8-9 hours of my life to get through that on the way to Denver. At least Indiana has some trees.

There isn't anything I miss about Indiana or the Midwest besides the gorgeous beaches of Lake Michigan. There are very few sandy beaches out here. Other than that, Washington is an amazingly beautiful state with lots to do. I have been here 2 years in a few weeks and feel sometimes like I have barely scratched the surface of what there is to do here.

[Adrian71]

This is so hilarious that I'm happy to join up!

I lived in southwest Michigan for the first 32 years of my life, just north of the Indiana border and about 90 minutes from downtown Chicago. I was in the "Michiana" area, as they called it. I always lived in Michigan but worked in Indiana -- South Bend and Kalamazoo were the nearest big towns, and I found work in South Bend. I also had friends and relatives in both states. (Seems like we have a lot of Michigan people here.)

I was literally surrounded by cornfields in the house where I grew up. My folks bought our house and a small plot of land from a farmer whose family owned pretty much all the property on our side of the road. I remember falling asleep many nights in the summer with my bedroom window open and hearing the click-click-click of the irrigation machines making their big circles around the fields.

The lower cost of living in the Midwest was great for sure, but the only thing I really miss a lot are the big summer thunderstorms. I've been in the PNW nearly three years now, and I can count on one hand the number of thunderclaps I've heard. But I love this part of the country too much to really miss the Midwest much. This is Home now.

One neat thing is that I still have a connection to where I grew up from the highways out here. I-90 was part of the Indiana Toll Road that ran about five miles south of my house. US-12 was the main drag through my hometown. And US-2 cut across the Upper Peninsula. So it's kind of neat to have those familiar roads out here!

If you ever pass through eastern Washington, it'll probably remind you of the Midwest. Lots of fields (more potatoes than corn, but fields nonetheless) and flat expanses.

[jm31828]

I have lived here just over three years now, moved here from Lincoln, Nebraska. There were corn fields I could see from my kitchen window and I actually drove by several of them within city limits on my way to work each day. Don't really miss them, the only thing about the Midwest I miss, as others have mentioned, are the big Spring/Summer thunderstorms. Nothing is more exhilarating than being out on a gravel road somewhere watching a supercell wind up and hearing the tornado sirens blaring from somewhere not too far in the distance (yes we were storm chasers
But all that having been said, I surprisingly found I don't feel any urge to go back to it- sure I wish we had storms here, but this place is so amazing, so beautiful that I don't find myself even thinking about the Midwest anymore. Sure that 10 minutes when a big thunderstorm passes is awesome, but out here I can get up any day I want and spend an entire day in some of the most amazing mountain scenery I have ever seen.