Tell me about Seattle, WA?

The airport isn't in Seattle. It's in Tacoma. It's very much like any other large US airport. My first reaction is always "Where is Dad's car?" and "Look out for all the circling traffic!" From some vantage points you can see Mt Olympia Rainier (edited because I am an idiot).

The floor of the airport in Concourse B is inset with flat bronze salmon and blue tiles to look like a river. This is not a very good photo of it. But I love it when I visit. It's called "Flying Fish" by Judith and Daniel Caldwell. There's a lot of art at the airport.

Late January is cold (by PNW standards) and damp, scattered with occasional ice storms. Spectacular the-streets-are-coated-in-an-inch-of-ice ice storms. Whee!

What Seattle is like depends on where in Seattle you are. St Ann is different from downtown and different from Pike Place Market, etc.

I love Seattle, though I'm about an hour away.

ULTRAGOTHA the first time I flew to SeaTac I fell in love with that floor. But the airport has some of the best airport I've ever seen.

The rain here is different from the rain in say, New England. It's often warm, even in Winter. And it can be a fine mist, rather than a downpour.

Thunder and lightening are rare.

Right now it's sunny and 75 Fall here is fabulous.

When it snows more than a couple of inches in Seattle, it's a huge problem because there aren't enough snow plows, and there are hills, and lots of people use the bus and bike.

I have never been able to get a real bialy in Seattle.

The business clients I know tend to go to the Kempton hotels. Microsoft used to use them a lot, two years ago.

Lots of hotels are near the Seattle convention center. The Hilton is there.

I live in Seattle.

The airport isn't in Seattle or Tacoma. It is located in SeaTac - a city in between Seattle and Tacoma.

What amazes people first is the view of Mt. Rainier when it is a clear day. Many people do not realize that it is a volcano. The second thing people notice is the Sound.

In winter, it is typically very gray. Every other year seems to bring a serious snowstorm. Serious by Seattle standards is an inch or two of snow. Unfortunately, people aren't used to driving on ice and frequently cars are abandoned on I-5.

For hotels - I would look at Convention Center in downtown Seattle. It's on Pike Street, down the street from Pike Place Market.

For Apartments - consider Belltown or South Lake Union. You'll find high end apartments scattered among older buildings. Amazon's headquarters are in South Lake Union so that area is going through a boom period, but you'll still find older apartment buildings out there.

All the years I lived in the PNW and times I've visited Seattle by air and I never knew there was a town called SeaTac.

ULTRAGOTHA said:

All the years I lived in the PNW and times I've visited Seattle by air and I never knew there was a town called SeaTac.

Click to expand...

http://www.ci.seatac.wa.us/

But if you are serious about older apartments, consider the International District.

Cranky1 said:

What amazes people first is the view of Mt. Rainier when it is a clear day.

Click to expand...

Rainier can appear and disappear too.

There's a route I travel several times a week, and had been doing that for almost a year before I happened to see Rainier.

It's not that I wasn't looking; it's that there's so much moisture in the air that you really have to pick not just the right day, but even the right time of day to see her.

A couple hours later that first time we returned along the same route.

It was still broad daylight, but Rainier was just gone.

There aren't a ton of older 7-8 story apartment buildings in low rent areas. Anything over 4 stories is probably less than 50 years old. (I was a realtor in Seattle off and on for 20 years, so I knew a lot of the neighborhoods ten years ago, but not so much since then.) Some hip and fairly cheaper neighborhoods are around Columbia City -- much gentrification is happening in the south Seattle neighborhoods that once were what would have passed for 'ghetto'. PM me if you want to know more.

January days and nights can be mild or coldish, depending on what you are comparing them to. Some years it's 40s-50s and mild, some years we'll have a day or two of snow. A few years back there was a cold snap of below freezing weather that lasted a few days (it was chronicled in one of Kat Richardson's books -- she is a local author that really makes the city a character in her books).

The shipyards are along the waterfront of Puget Sound and run from cruise ships and ferry terminals in the downtown area, to south of there where the working docks are.

There are some big old apartment buildings on Olive Way near down town. My brother lived in an old stone building. I don't remember how many stories it was, at least 4-5. It had a sort of ruined decadence to it. Lots of interesting tenants, most people kept to themselves. The halls were lined with brick and there was a big cluster of old ornate cast iron mail boxes set into a wall in the common area for the tenants to use.

For a big city, it's extremely clean. There's not a lot of trash laying around and the constant moisture and drizzling keeps the air quality pretty good compared to other large cities. There are a lot of green patches, roof top gardens and things.

I like the days where Rainier decides to float in mid air the best.

In January it's going to be dark. The sun sets at about 4:30-5pm. Winter tends to be gray and drizzly, so the daylight hours will feel dark too.

There is a lot of forest and trees close in around Seattle. Seatac is surrounded too. When you drive out of the airport it'll be dark and lots of trees. Once you get to I-5, the trees are pretty dense until you pass Boeing Field. Then there's the big airfield on the left and lots of trees on the right. When you crest the hills near Boeing Field you'll be able to see the skyline of Seattle, with the lit up sky scrapers. It's really pretty. The Space Needle is behind the skyscrapers when you're heading north, so you wouldn't see it right away.

Alex,

On the subject of first impressions, I'll second what Canotila said about forests and trees.

Even at night, you're going to get an impression of "green" compared to most other places. And because so many of the trees are pines of one sort or another, you get that wonderful "piney" smell. Locals stop noticing it pretty quickly, but it's very striking when you hit town for the first time, or after being away for a while.

C. (Seattle ex-pat)

Sat Nam! (Literally "Truth Name"--a Sikh greeting)

More firs than pines, but yes, evergreens.

Blessings,

Siri Kirpal

Argh, darn it. Yeah, I should have said "evergreens" in the first place.

Thanks for the correction.