Seattle

I have lived in Seattle and the surrounding area my whole life and I love it. There are plenty of other cities that I've spent time in that I also love, but I honestly wouldn't want to live anywhere but right here.

The thing I love most about it is how green it is.

The view from the parking lot

What I see out the window at work every day

These are pictures of the view from the office park where I work. Down the hill from us there are a bunch of other office parks, of course, but what you see when you look out the window is, primarily, a see of green. Even in the winter, though these pictures were taken in the spring.

Of course, there is greener country in the world than the Emerald City. Ireland for example, though Ireland is more uniformly green, all one shade. Seattle, on the other hand, has every shade grade you can imagine. It's beautiful. Everywhere you look it's green...except where there are mountains or water instead (which are also, kind of everywhere).

The thing about it though is that you have to be here to really experience it.

You can see the beauty of Seattle in photographs (and establishing shots on Grey's Anatomy), but that's not the full experience. You have to smell it too. There are days when you can smell the ocean from miles away. I've been to a lot of other coastal cities and Seattle is the only one were I've been able to smell sea water when I couldn't see it. Right now I live in the suburbs which are far enough away that you can't smell the ocean anymore, but here you can smell the dirt, and the grass, and the trees. Cotton wood trees, for example, smell almost minty sometimes. If you have a sentimental attachment to the smell of Christmas trees you don't need to celebrate Christmas to enjoy that. We have them growing here all year round. You'd be surprised how great dirt can smell unless you live here. I suppose I have to talk about the rain. In truth it doesn't rain a lot here it just rains often. That light nearly constant drizzle in the spring and fall only enhances all of the amazing smells. My favorite smell is the chamomile. It grows wild all over the place and, though I rarely seem to see it, I can always smell it especially after it rains.

I guess that the only thing I have left to talk about is the attitude. Seattle embodies the west coast attitude, I think, better than any other city. There's a sense that people on the east coast are wound just a bit tighter than those of us on the west coast, things move faster, appearances matter more, things are higher energy in the east. On the west coast, and especially in Seattle, we are a laid back people. Go to the opera here and you'll see as many people in jeans as formal dress. The things that recommend Seattle to me specifically are numerous. The rain. The thriving theater and music communities. The Mariners. The mountains, and trees, and water. The smells. But it's the soul of the place that really makes it great.