10 Things I Love About Seattle

Whenever I get impatient driving to work (which is often), or when the weather is gray (like today), I try to fight the spiral any negativity developing towards this city and think of things that I really love. It's my tactic for fighting the winter blues...

After yesterday’s post, I felt a little bad, like I was being nitpicky or making fun of someone who I am just getting to know. So here are my ten favorite things I came up with this morning. This list changes every day or so, depending on my moods and activities, but here it is for today.

10 Things I love about living in Seattle:

1) The scenery—mountains and mountains and Mt. Rainier oh my!
2) Fabulous salmon—I eat it for breakfast now. Seriously.
3) Great microbrews on tap (Mannys is my go-to beer)
4) You can get a great cup of joe anywhere, anytime
5) The fresh markets (not just Pike Place, but University, Ballard or Cap Hill)
6) They have many large, beautiful parks (and dog parks, too!). Green Lake is becoming a fave
7) The summer months (both of them!)
8) We have theater here. Three major regional theaters (the Rep, ACT, Intiman), two of which have one a Regional Tony Award. And a plentiful amount of small theaters, all doing various types of shows to meet anyone’s taste.
9) Some of the best golf courses around
10) Great live music, especially if you like alt-country, which I do. (I spend a lot of time at Conor Bryne…its so cozy and no-frills…)

As you notice, the top five have to do with food…I can’t help it. I like good food and most people who talk about what they love about Seattle talk about the restaurants and fresh seafood. And reasonably priced (we’re not talking Canlis here peeps). One of my fondest memories was last September sitting on the porch at Ray’s Boathouse as the sun was going down, enjoying a Salmon burger and a microbrew…ah, I miss the sunshine…

But there’s plenty of stuff to do here. We have more arts than just theater, too (like SAM, the sculpture garden, etc). And we’ve got nice bars, not just Conor Bryne, but others as well. Like across the street is Portalis, a lovely wine bar. And there’s the Hopvine in Cap Hill, the College Inn, the…oh, you get the idea.

And when I think of things, I feel good and my impatience fades away.

Until I have to drive home. Then I have to think of ten more things…