When we first announced that we were moving up North, from Santa Monica to Seattle, oh, how people scoffed. They told us that we’d get sick of it, that the gray and the rain would drive us mad. It wasn’t just people from SoCal who told us this, though the people from SoCal sneered the most. The first thing out of their mouths was usually, “Enjoy the weather.” *smirk*
Of course, no one ever bothered to ask us how *we* felt about the weather or if, in fact, we might actually be ok with it. We’ve from the freakin’ Northeast, which is a lot more brutal than Seattle*. I lived in Prague for 3 years, where the gray Winters & Autumns put Seattle to shame. Same with Mr Nikki’s 2 years in England. I mean, England, come on. Neither of us ever “hated” the weather. I had the occasional day in Prague of thinking, “Damn, no sun again today,” but I never obsessed about it, or wanted to flee because of it. I never wanted to leave the Northeast because of the winters, never wanted to… say, run off to SoCal. (The only reason I ran off to SoCal was because Mr Nikki moved there for work.) So we scoffed right back and called them p*ssies for being afraid of a little gray. I still find it amusing that people are so easily scared off by Seattle’s reputation, because this place is an absolute treasure. All the better, I say, because that means we get to keep it all to ourselves.
As further proof – I’ve been to the Caribbean a number of times. I loved it, I did. The clear, warm waters are absolutely magical but would I want to live there? Hell, no. I almost did. I had a whirlwind romance with someone from San Francisco who was living on St Thomas – I spent a week with him there, swimming naked under a full moon in an ocean as warm & clear as a soothing bath. During that week, I thought about the fact that I might potentially live there and it kinda freaked me out a little bit. It rained a lot, yes, but so much sun! So much heat! And all anyone had to do for entertainment was drink! Gah. Maybe that sounds like paradise to some, but not to me.
This weekend, we drove up North to a place called Ocean Shores. It’s about 3 hours northeast of Seattle, and it’s right on the coast of the Pacific. It was cool, misty, gray, the water was ice cold… but the beach was like nothing *I’ve* ever seen before. It had a sci-fi feel to it, almost apocalyptic. (Being the geek that I am, this is hugely appealing to me.) The tide was incredibly low and everyone drove right up on the beach to hang out – in their cars, on the beach building bonfires, walking, etc. There were even horses for rent (for which we’ll be going back soon, so I can go galavanting on the beach on horseback.)
It occurred to me, then, that I far preferred this chilly far north pacific beach to the Caribbean. Hands down. So no, no I really don’t think I’ll tire of Seattle’s weather anytime soon. Or any time far in the future, either.
*For the record – this summer has been nothing but sunny and warm and bright. There was enough sun that I had time to get sick of it and wish for rain. But unlike SoCal, when I wished for a rainy day, I usually got it. And, ok, SoCal is one thing – it doesn’t rain, it barely gets gray. But in the Northeast, we also had gray winters. It’s WINTER. It’s SUPPOSED to be gray. Seattle has it’s gray and rain, but Philadelphia (where we’re from) and Boston (where Mr Nikki lived for 10 years) has gray, rain, sleet, snow, ice, treacherous driving, shoveling out of cars, scraping of windshields, wind, sliding through traffic lights on black ice… I’m sorry, but Seattle weather is not so awful. I’ve always driven manual transmission, which is far superior in bad weather – you have much more control than with an automatic. I’d never gotten into an accident in the winter, though I’d often slid, gotten stuck places, and occasionally feared for my safety while driving 20 miles from work on ice covered roads, at 5 mph the entire time. I’m a damn good driver and an even better driver in bad conditions – but I don’t miss it at all. I’ll take Seattle anytime.