Seattle first impressions

1. On a nice day, there are a LOT of low-flying planes just south of Seattle – kind of disarming for a couple of NY/NJ transplants. Then you notice they’re just propeller planes, and the Boeing airfield is right there, and it makes a bit more sense. But when was the last time you saw 7, 8 planes flying around in the same small airspace?

2. Seattle really is beautiful – especially the skyline. There are trees in five shades of green, and crazy manmade structures like the Space Needle and Safeco Field with its retractable dome. There’s Puget Sound to the west, mountains everywhere -- though Mount Rainier is currently closed. Not sure how you close a mountain, but there was a sign that said so.

3. Something else to get used to: the high number of homeless in Seattle. Granted, we're coming off a year in Singapore, where I literally never saw a single homeless person. (I think they were put on boats to Indonesia -- one of those "don't ask, don't tell" policies.)

4. Conservation is a big thing in Washington, which is one of the most liberal states in the US. To preserve land space, houses are built very close to each other and there are few, if any, train lines running to the suburbs. It’s a big point of contention here – no train tracks ripping through green space, but more cars on the road.

5. Our neighborhood Belltown is supposedly “the place to be"...woohoo! As I’ve read, Belltown used to be a gritty neighborhood a couples blocks off the waterfront, but after some serious gentrification and condo-building, now boasts some of the best bars and restaurants in the city. And to quote my friend Allison, it really does feel like Brooklyn with more trees. We had New York-style pizza one night, Spanish tapas the next in a place straight out of Prospect Heights. There’s this bar called Stony’s with “Coney Island” and circus stripes painted on the window fronts. There are usually a lot of pierced, Mohawked twentysomethings in black hoodies sitting outside drinking beer and brooding. Grunge is definitely alive and well in Seattle. I have to work on my brooding.