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Impressions of Seattle

In Seattle, we got stuck on the freeway twice. Leaving Seattle to go to Vancouver and coming back to Seattle from Victoria. It took about an hour to get to Everett from the airport - about 1 hour to go 7 miles. Friday traffic, I suppose. On the way back from Canada, it was even worse. We hit construction at 10 pm and it took us one hour to drive 2 miles. Not a good start to driving in Seattle. Thankfully, everything got better from there on out.

It was a business trip, so how could we go without seeing the Changs. East coast, west coast - it doesn't matter where. On Wednesday evening, the Yus, Changs, and Thongs got their money's worth at a 12-inning Mariners-Angels game, a meeting of the division leaders. There was action the whole night. One foul ball zoomed right over our heads. Ichiro was sensational, getting on base almost every at-bat. For some reason, he played center field. It was too bad because we intentionally sat right by right field. Taisei absolutely loved the high-energy atmosphere, cheering and clapping along with the crowd. At 11 pm (midnight, Utah time), he was still ready for more.


I was a little surprised that Seattle's actually not that big of a city - at least from my initial impression. Besides friendly downtown, suburbia is spread out all over the place w/o the dense concrete jungles or massive and cramped housing complexes - at least none that I saw. You can see spectacular lake/bay views or natural forest views from all over. And compared to the Bay Area, which is perhaps my unreasonable gold standard because that will always be 'home' for me, it's affordable. I think housing is still almost double what it would cost to live in Salt Lake City, but it's better than triple or quadruple. We had the privilege of staying at the Chang's meticulous palace with close-up of views of hills and forests (because there's one on their property). Taisei had tons of space to roam and wrestle with Evan.



Taisei was screaming his head off (a high-pitched squeal) in a fancy Japanese restaurant. He thought it was pretty funny, but no one else did. Even Evan was not liking it. It was pretty sad. We had to resort to putting on a DVD so the rest of us could eat. Passerbies on the outside of the restaurant got a kick out of it.


On the other side of the spectrum (in terms of city vs. rural), we visited the Heckathorn's pad, which is smaller for the money, but is definitely convenient and avoids bad traffic altogether. It's like two blocks from the bay! I already have a high appreciation for not having to drive. I always wonder if we are more city dwellers or suburbanites. (How did we miss getting a picture of Lisa and Taisei?? He loved playing with you, Lisa!)

Seattle's got a great downtown. It's cozy and not overwhelming with honking cars and crazy traffic. The buses were free and pretty convenient. Perfect so that Wami could see everything and I could still take the car to work with me. Here are pictures of the famous Pike's Place Market, the Space Needle and other famous Seattle downtown attractions.


I got to see my friends Jarvis, Irene and Ryken from the Cal days who happened to have just all moved to Seattle. Their place backs right up to a little wilderness preserve too. I LOVE that the about Seattle. It's so green. I digress. The last time we saw these guys, Ryken was about 3 months old - much younger than Taisei is now. They had a great time dancing and playing together. It's my favorite thing to get together with old friends and see how things have and haven't changed over the years. It's so fulfilling to catch up and learn new things from the old friends that you respect so much.

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