Welp. City living. It is so fantastic I can't even stand it. It's not like we live in downtown Seattle or anything. We kind of do feel like the suburbs out here in North Seattle (I think that's where I am) but I will proudly claim that I live in THE Seattle because that is what my address says. Here are some things about the citay we have been enjoying so far. I will start taking pictures soon but until then ....
* Downtown Seattle / Pike Place / Space Needle is 7 miles south. Imagine my surprise yesterday when I'm driving around looking for World Market when suddenly, on the horizon, the Space Needle! And downtown sky scrapers! More surprise when our GPS (Veronica) says I've reached World Market only to see the sign for Pike Place market right before my eyes. After perusing WM, Birdie and I took a quick stroll through Pike Place before she got ornery and wiggly and we had to get our hineys home.
* The Puget Sound is one mile west. I love jogging there in the morning, looking out into the open (kind of closed off, half-saltwater, half-fresh water) sea and jogging home. It restores my soul to see that foggy body of water.
* We are technically in a neighborhood called Crown Hill but we claim Ballard because it's bigger and more well known. Ballard has its own quaint little downtown 2 miles south that has been fun to explore.
* Right around the corner from us is Crown Hill Cemetery, a great place to walk with Birdie without worrying about traffic. She insists on walking herself most of the time so we spend a lot of time wandering the streets of our neighborhood. Thankfully we don't have too much traffic in our neighborhood in general. We live just off a busy street but the one in front of our house is not a through street, so it cuts down on traffic.
* The Target here is an interesting trip. It's part of Northgate Mall. It has its own entrance that leads you up to a parking garage. The store is on two floors so, if you are a mom with kids, you use the elevator. If you are without kids you can use escalators inside the store - one for yourself and one for your cart. It is something to see those carts going up on their own conveyor belt thingy. Very futuristic.
* The houses here go in a sequence something like this: nice, nice, crap hole, abandoned, nice, dive, nice, nice, gave up, foreclosure. I LOVE IT! All different architecture, too. Just like water bodies, it does me good to see dwellings with personality and a story.
* Birdie and I have made it up to campus once so far. We rode the bus which we can catch right in front of our house and it drops us off right on campus. (Adam rides it everyday - it's very handy!) We met up with Adam for a student / family BBQ thingy last week and his new building is gorgeous (more about it
here). I can't wait to explore the campus more to see what all the gushing is about. Maybe not the bus next time, though. Birdie attracted all the crazies and I'm not so thrilled about trying to keep her contained in that setting.
* Our ward seems to have a lot of people in our same situation - in school, in transition. Sucks for the ol' standbys but great for us. I've already made a fun connection - my fellow wardie who lives across the street knows all my Seattle cousins and even dated one back in the day. Ha! Gotta love the small Mormon world.
Coming soon ... house tour and neighborhood tour ... as soon as I finish decorating (although there is never a 'finish' to my decorating - it's a sickness) and as soon as I figure out how to wrangle The Bird away from oncoming traffic AND take pictures with my big, fat, heavy camera.