Observations about Seattle

We've been in Seattle a little over a week, and it's very different than Utah. Here are some observations I've noticed about the city so far, in no particular order.

• Utah has crazy drivers on large, wide roads with huge shoulders plus a parking lane in some cases. Seattle has crazy drivers with squished roads, no shoulder, and the right lane can suddenly turn into a parking lane on a 50 mph road. Don't drive in the right lane in general because there are lots of buses too that can stop in front of you and there's no room to maneuver around them, unless you're from here and then you just zip wherever you want to go. Defensive driving isn't a courtesy, its a survival tactic as you are in such close proximity to all the other drivers. Also, with all the photo enforced lights, no one is running the yellow and I haven't seen very many California stops. People don't speed like in Utah, but I think that's more because traffic is bad enough its difficult to do so. It was funny driving up here because it was obvious when we crossed state lined just based on the driving behaviors of the cars around us. The same cars that we drove next to in ID suddenly went exactly the speed limit once we got into OR and were VERY courteous. As soon as we got over the WA border we were back to slightly speeding (traffic in general). Interesting.
• Utah is a flat place with a mountain range as a backdrop. Seattle is rarely flat in the city. Huge hills are everywhere with roads going straight up them.This road doesn't look that steep in the picture, but it does in real life. Its nothing compared to the other roads here.
  
  
  
  
  
  

• Seattleites are very health conscious, in some ways.Half the produce section in the grocery store is organic. Driving down the road you see signs for restaurants boasting "healthy alternative to Chinese food" or "healthy Mexican restaurant". However, on the flip side, there are not nearly as many people out exercising, at least the visible exercising. Usually Gideon and I see very few fellow walkers, runners, bikers, etc in comparison to Utah. Smoking, drinking, and coffee all seem to be very in, though. Note: today I saw an organic espresso shop. 
• Not sure if its a health thing or part of the melting pot of cultures here, but Falafel is also here in abundance. In restaurants and in the frozen section of the grocery store. I've never had hummus, but it's all the rage here. I don't think I recognized half the stuff in their grocery store. I went to buy rolls to go with dinner and they had everything from Artisian breads to Take and Bake French Baguettes, but no normal cheap basic rolls. They have small sections on things I'm used to having a large selection on (I had a hard time finding Cool Whip) and huge selections on say wine and alcohol. Go figure.
• Seattleites are very friendly and welcoming. I tried two different groceries stores, neither of which are around in Utah, and was welcomed at both by stockers and the cash registrars. Not just a "welcome to Seattle" but a full blown 5-10 min where are you from, what do you think, here's a run down of x, y, and z, etc. The LDS people are always friendly, but here we've had several people jumping to meet us and introduce themselves at our ward. When we first got to church last week, a kind gentleman saw us looking around and quickly jumped in to establish which ward we were in, told us our bishop's name, etc, then at the end added that he was in the other ward, but he hoped everything went well. Even the parking attendant at one of the lots came to talk to me and tell me where better parking for where I was going was.
• Where the rest of the country has "snow days" in school where the weather is so poor that buses can't run they cancel school, one private school canceled school last week because the weather was so nice.  Sunny days are so rare here they wanted the kids to be able to enjoy it.
• It's green and beautiful here. Everywhere. And there's water. Everywhere. In Utah you see a large body of water and there's very few options of what it could be. Here, not so much. There's parks everywhere and it's just a beautiful place. 
• Parking is crazy. You have to pay to park, if you can find a spot, almost everywhere you go. So Trevor takes the bus instead of paying at least $10 to park while he's at work, that's $10 per 10 hour period.
• I've never seen so many people at local museums. Most museums here have free days, which may explain why so many people were there when we were there, but still. Droves of people at every museum we've been to!

Anyway, its an interesting place, with a people who love all things peculiar, so we're fitting right in!