Trip to Seattle & east side this weekend - what to see, what to avoid?

[allforcats]

Vancouver B C is great fun, especially for real Japanese restaurants and very expensive shopping on Robson St., but the purpose of your trip is to investigate Redmond, Bellevue and Kirkland. If you've arranged for a real estate agent to show you various homes, you won't have time to go to Vancouver BC, and it's a pretty expensive city anyway. Lodging is more expensive in Vancouver than in Bellingham; parking is impossible.

[jenlion]

Oh, wow, it's beautiful here. We weren't ready for an organized tour yet today and got here earlier than expected, so we hopped on 90 and drove east into the mountains. Got a little ways over snoqualmie pass. Cloudy sure, but soooooooooooooooooooooooooooo pretty! And the air... it feels so... thick, but in a good way. You look outside and it's cold and you expect it to be hard to get enough air, but then you breathe and it's perfect. (I have asthma and I pay more attention to air than a lot of people, probably, but even this was just shocking today, to breathe it).

Traffic, on the other hand, appears to be pretty ugly. Smack in the middle of a workday and you can't get into a plaza with a grocery store without lines for several light cycles to get in and out. Appears that many of the people out today aren't so good at, well, driving, either. At least not compared to what I'm used to ;-)

So, I've seen Microsoft, picked up my 47th state, gone over the pass, enjoyed the air. Tomorrow we get a more organized tour and I think we'll go into downtown Seattle. I do hope to see mt st helens at some point. Dunno what else we'll see, but I am LOVING the trees and LOVING the mountains and LOVING the air. NOT loving the traffic. And Sir, I think I am feeling that cooooold feeling. It's not that cold by the thermometer -- I run around in a light jacket at 40 degrees all the time -- but today it was 40 out, and with it being damp (to me), it felt thoroughly, completely, all-out COLD. But, I think I could deal with that by dressing a little warmer. We'll see.

Just had to post, so happy and excited after that drive. And the sun was going down as we were driving back toward town, and there were breaks in the clouds that way, so we had pretty colors and pretty clouds across that part of the sky. Just beautiful. :-) :-) :-)

[Pittgal]

Glad you like what you see so far. I think this area is one of the prettiest I have ever seen across this country. Also, the stores were crowded today but you can equate that to the holiday season. Usually during the day traffic is not so bad.

[scirocco22]

It's good you're enjoying yourself, Jen. Yes, that 40 degrees with the high humidity is really different than the same temperature with low humidity. Where I am now, it can get down around freezing but in the arid desert, it's doesn't feel that cold. Seattle's 40 just goes right to your bones!

I'd forget St. Helens on this trip too. Again, to see St. Helens, you're going through that area of I-5 that was closed. Even though it's open now, the reduced speeds, the traffic, and the muddy road will make the trip more cumbersome than it really should be. Since you seem to be leaning toward making the northwest your home, I'd wait until you're living in the area to see those things. JMO.

[jenlion]

OK, it LOOKS like maybe we're just getting lucky with the weather.

Yesterday was BEAUTIFUL. The baby woke us up early and it was just too nice to stay in town -- we have sunday and monday to that, we wanted to see some scenery. So, we drove to Olympic National Park. (I "collect" parks like I do states. Visit as many as I can. I prefer to spend a week, but if I can't, a day is better than nothing). Half the roads are closed, but some were open, and it was SO SO nice. Driving through seattle the sun hit Rainier, hit the Olympics in the distance, could see the snow line, not a cloud in the sky. No wind, nice ferry ride, and the sunset on the return ferry over the Olympics was spectacular.

Today, it's overcast (finally, seenig what that looks like), but it's also snowing. Pretty flakes. It's been snowing for at least 2 hours now, just a light dusting collecting in a couple of grassy places but not, it seems, on the pavement. (Though the realtor we are meeting with in an hour seems afraid to go out in it anyway. What's up with that? It's just snow, not ice. At least, not here).

So, I was expecting gray and drizzle for a few days and was kinda hoping to get it, to see if it's depressing or OK. Instead, we so far have gotten spectacular views with clear skies and big chunky pretty snowflakes. I'm afraid of the bait-and-switch!!

Now we are really buckling down. We saw the mountains and stuff. Now we are seeing the city. Last night we drove through downtown, all lit up for the night. Pretty enough. Spent some time moving in traffic (and boy is there a lot of traffic). Kind of surprised me how small the actual city is, but I guess there's really not a lot of room to expand, sandwiched between the lake and the sound. Tomorrow morning we're going to get up with rush hour traffic and try to move in it, see how long it takes to drive to Microsoft from Sammamish and/or Issaquah. Seems everyone expects you to move out as far as Snoqualmie -- realtors definitely push that direction -- but it looks like too far of a commute to me. We shall see!!

[Seattleborn]

The commute for my hubby in Snoqualmie is 30 min in the morning, and 45 home. No Joke. It took us 30 mins door to door to get to the Sheraton downtown last night . ( I do realize you are going to Redmond though)

It's funny how people think it's so far. It takes just as long or longer to get up the plateau. Hey, I won't force Snoqualmie on anyone. I don't want people to know about this area, because then it will grow to big!

[hunter_mom]

Hi Jenlion - we just moved here and I think I was as overwhelmed with the beauty of the area as much as you are. It really is breathtaking.

Like Seattleborn (hi Seattleborn!!), we also live in Snoqualmie Ridge and it's such a great area - especially for a young family. My husband commutes to Bellevue and it's such an easy ride. However, I think the trip to Microsoft is a bit different as you have to take 405. I still haven't seen the traffic that everyone complains about, except on 405.

[Evlevo]

Originally Posted by jenlion

Oh, wow, it's beautiful here. We weren't ready for an organized tour yet today and got here earlier than expected, so we hopped on 90 and drove east into the mountains. Got a little ways over snoqualmie pass. Cloudy sure, but soooooooooooooooooooooooooooo pretty! And the air... it feels so... thick, but in a good way. You look outside and it's cold and you expect it to be hard to get enough air, but then you breathe and it's perfect. (I have asthma and I pay more attention to air than a lot of people, probably, but even this was just shocking today, to breathe it).

Traffic, on the other hand, appears to be pretty ugly. Smack in the middle of a workday and you can't get into a plaza with a grocery store without lines for several light cycles to get in and out. Appears that many of the people out today aren't so good at, well, driving, either. At least not compared to what I'm used to ;-)

So, I've seen Microsoft, picked up my 47th state, gone over the pass, enjoyed the air. Tomorrow we get a more organized tour and I think we'll go into downtown Seattle. I do hope to see mt st helens at some point. Dunno what else we'll see, but I am LOVING the trees and LOVING the mountains and LOVING the air. NOT loving the traffic. And Sir, I think I am feeling that cooooold feeling. It's not that cold by the thermometer -- I run around in a light jacket at 40 degrees all the time -- but today it was 40 out, and with it being damp (to me), it felt thoroughly, completely, all-out COLD. But, I think I could deal with that by dressing a little warmer. We'll see.

Just had to post, so happy and excited after that drive. And the sun was going down as we were driving back toward town, and there were breaks in the clouds that way, so we had pretty colors and pretty clouds across that part of the sky. Just beautiful. :-) :-) :-)

Keep in mind though that this is pretty much the worst weather of the year. About 0-3 times a year we get a "cold snap" that brings snow, which usually melts the next day. 2 days of snow is REALLY rare... usually it's just the 40 degree chillies until spring.

[jenlion]

We did visit Snoqualmie. But it was much, much colder there than it was in town! It looks like I-90 really is a viable commuting route (I'm surprised it's not busier!) but it is further away than we want to be and much colder and windier, at least it was Tuesday morning. It was definitely nice -- and a bit more affordable than, say Bellevue -- but we'd prefer to be closer in and have a smaller house, I think. So, we'll focus more in town. (The falls were pretty neat, BTW. Thanks).

We found a great little house in Sammamish. Price was right. A little small but it would work -- we just can't spend half a million on a house. This one had a wonderful yard. But, who knows if something like that will still be avaialable when we are ready to actually buy?? oh well. Anyone have an opinion on driving down from "the plateau"? Realtor said it's no big deal. Someone else said it's a nightmare. This place is on the east side of Lake Sammamish, about the middle north-southwise.

Thanks for all of the opinions so far. They really helped us know more about certain areas before we got into them. Downtown Seattle was really nice, though we didn't spend a whole lot of time there -- just did some driving around at night, too cold to walk around with the baby. (We might have done more if we had warmer clothes for him, but we live in TX so we don't -- yet!).

Crossing my fingers for making this job work with the housing prices and all. It's just beautiful up there and I think I'd love living there. Thanks all for sharing your local knowledge!!

[jwb123]

It IS a nightmare, the plateau commute. Going either way around Lake Samm. Husband and I did it from Redmond to Klahanie for awhile. BUT it's no worse than highways, and some days are a breeze. It's the days that aren't that will drive you insane - but at least you have better scenary.