Ode to Seattle

I miss Seattle.

How could this be? I hated it. HATED IT. For 6 months straight all I wanted to do was leave and go home to Eugene. In June I started to like Seattle, I still would have preferred to live in Oregon but I was on good terms with the city. In September, when our return to Eugene was a certainty, I had finally reached the point where I could have continued to live in Seattle.

Don't get me wrong, I am so happy to be back here. I love Eugene. I love being so close to family and having a full social calendar. I love being in the fertile valley/Land of Zion.

So what's the problem?

I miss the food. Seattle has inumerable eating venues that we adored and the grocery stores were well stocked with organic/local produce. For us foodies, that's a big deal

I miss the salt, in the water that is. We lived minutes from Puget Sound where there was always a chance of seeing a harbor seal, sea lion, porpoise, or even a whale. I could go tidepooling whenever I wanted. I collected sea shells all of the time. I miss seeing boats everywhere and reading the names on the sides of them. Eugene has lots of fresh water but there is never that excitement that comes with the possibility of seeing a whale. A whale!

I miss the huge parks. Seattle is way more urban than Eugene, but surprisingly it has bigger and better parks. The parks are more diverse and more wild, with more wildlife in them.

I miss the local shopping. I'm not just talking about the availability of Nordy's, West Elm, and Anthro (which was great), I miss all the cute little local boutiques where I could get the best cards and gifts. There are never any good cards at Target.

I miss the opportunities. More jobs, more volunteer possibilities, more things to do. There were more reasons to leave the house.

I miss our landlords. I know that sounds funny, but we lived in our landlords' house. We saw them and interacted with them everyday. What started as an awkward "hey, we live in your basement," situation ended with tears and "we love you"s when we moved away.


We know that Eugene is the right place for us to be right now. We can afford to live here comfortably while Ricky is just starting out his career, we can be near to family and friends when we have our first baby, and we can be here to support our younger siblings.

We are Oregonians and we always will be, but some day in the future, when we have more money and more years under our belt, we may be Oregonians that live in Seattle.

Thanks Seattle, for becoming my friend.