38. Seattle

While it’s true that I love living where I do, far from the madding crowd, I do have some cities that I love and go to often. I already mentioned San Francisco and New York, but I seldom go to either of those. Seattle is different. I go there all the time. Never less than once a year and sometimes five or six times a year. It is a big city and I always used to shy away from it in my younger years because I get frightened of getting lost or stuck in some wrong neighborhood. But that’s never happened to me in Seattle and my more frequent visits have calmed that fear. I don’t even know if Seattle has any truly “bad” neighborhood. Every time we (my family and I) go there we try to take in something new. We have been taken to Seattle more often than not for medical reasons so Seattle could easily be equated with all the negativity of hospital stays. But the outcomes of those visits have been positive and the people we’ve acquainted ourselves with have been so wonderful.

On a sunny clear day I have gone for runs in the Laurelhurst area above Children’s Hospital and there you can take in views of Lake Washington, the Puget Sound, Mt. Rainier and the Cascades and the Olympic mountains. Similar views (with Lake Union instead of Lake Washington) can be seen from the top of the Space Needle with a fancy dinner. Watching people throw fish in a market where you can buy anything Northwest is something to do at Pike Place Market and you can step out on the street there and see the Olympics rising above Eliot Bay with the high rises of the city at your back. If you want the arts you can find them downtown or in Seattle Center. And professional sports with the Mariners Baseball team, the Seahawks football team or the Sounders soccer team are all at hand and easily accessible for me with a direct flight from Pullman and a half hour transit ride from SeaTac. I won’t lie and tell you that Seattle is an easy city to drive in, but you can do fine with public transportation so there’s nothing to fear. Seattle is my second home and I’m grateful for it.