I will be honest, it's been a hard transition for our little family. The hardest moved we've made over the last few years, but the doors that were opened and how the whole situation worked out that brought our family to Washington, I have no doubt this is where we need to be right now in our lives. It is completely different than Georgia, and in someways I really miss living in the South. But there are some unique things about living here in Seattle!
1. Rain Rain Rain. I've been told a few things.... Seattle's rain festival is from January 1-December 31st. with 9months of rain and 3 months of showers. Winter is supposedly the wet and rainy season and summer doesn't start until July here. Quiet a bit different weather than Georgia and it's going to take a while to get use to it. I honestly went months without seeing the sun. When we moved here we read that Seattle and Atlanta's average rainfall per year with roughly the same. However, in Atlanta it downpours fast and here it's a constant slow drizzle over about 9 months.
Splashing in puddles has become a favorite of the kids. If you ask Andrew it's his favorite thing to do at recess and he LOVES the rain!
2. Sun Setting- In November/December it was extremely dark all the time. It was crazy! The sun would set right about when Andrew would get off the bus at 4 pm and It wouldn't rise the next morning until he left for school after 8 am. It made for long days and will take a few years to get use to that....but on the flip side, we have some long wonderful summer days. Even now in just the beginning of May. It's getting light at about 5:45 am and it doesn't set until after 8:30 pm. So really the summer months are going be super hard to get the kids to bed when it doesn't set until 10 pm. The sunsets on the waterfront are gorgeous though! It's so fun to live close to the water.
3. Umbrellas...For living in a place where it rains non-stop...you rarely see an umbrella. Most people around here don't use umbrellas and they say you can spot a tourist when you see one. My kids(and I) have pretty much lived in raincoats and rain boots this winter. We just bundle up and head out. The rain doesn't stop us from much....because it here every day!
4. You can see Mt. Rainier from just about anywhere...even from the city. It's 14,000 foot volcano and it feels like it's literally right out my front door. So beautiful!
5. The wildlife....It's been fun to see frogs in our yard this spring, but the moles I could do without. We have loved watching the bald eagles fly around everywhere up here and have two that live in some trees behind our house and we see them quite often. We also love that a 30 minute drive to the beach we can find crabs, hermit crabs, and other sea life. Last month we saw some sea lions swimming along the shore and on my bucket list here in Washington is to see some orca whales in the wild. Apparently there are a few pods that live in the Puget Sound so the chances are good.
Tide-pooling and finding crabs
6. The waterways affect traffic. The Seattle area is surrounded by water: The Sound, Lake Washington, Lake Union, and many smaller passageways. We seem to cross bridges all the time and my kids love to find the different bridges we have to cross. We've learned to love the beauty the water brings to the landscape, but curse it at the same time as the traffic is horrible (as with all big cities). It sometime makes it difficult to get across town quickly.
7. Seafood is a way of life. Every where we go, I try to embrace where we are living at. The culture, the scenery, the food, the people and just soak it all in. When a friend of ours found out I don't really like seafood, he made it his goal to help me like it....haha! So one night we went on a date and to a nice seafood place in Seattle and he ordered quite the spread... And I was so brave I tried raw oyster, crab legs and crab claws, shrimp, scallops and mussels. I almost can't believe it.. I wouldn't say I loved it, but most of it wasn't terrible. The crab....I would say that was good...especially the claws.
9. The city shuts down at the sight of snow. We were told that Seattle only gets about 1 snowstorm a year (about the same as Atlanta) I lost track this year as to how many snowstorms we got...maybe about 7 or 8. Plus on top of that we had a bunch of late starts with school because of rain turning to ice during the night. Needless to say it's been a freezing cold winter and we are huge wimps! Everyone here say what an awful and unusual winter it's been. We've wondered why we left the south and the awesome southern winters a number of times this last little while.
A Storm in February we got over a foot of snow in one night. They canceled school for 2 days and it took almost a week to melt away. We haven't seen snow like this since we lived in Utah almost 6 years ago!
The kids had a blast playing in it for a few days.
They say that this winter has been very unusual and not a typical Seattle winter. We broke record and got almost 4 feet of rain from October -April....now that's as deep as a small swimming pool. Along the Olympic coast they've received over 10 feet of rain... craziness!
I would have never thought I would have lived in so many major cities around the country. I have grown so much with every move and have loved seeing and getting to know the different places. But it's truly the people and friends that make it what it is and we've made some pretty great friends here already. It's been a fun adventure.
