This was briefly touched upon on another thread and I didn't want to derail it any longer. I know there are people who have grown up here (or in the PNW) and some of us are from other places.
Are you from here or elsewhere? If elsewhere, why did you move here and where are you from? Do you miss it? If from here, did you always live in the same neighborhood? For everyone, what up here is a "you must go here" place for a newer person? Restaurants, pubs, outdoors things...wherever. I find it really fascinating and it's a way to expand my horizons.
I'm from California...that evil empire of Southern Calif. I grew up there but on a vacation to Oregon, I realized just how green it was in the PNW. I took another vacation to Seattle and learned that even the "ugly" parts look better with trees. I quit my job, went to work in the aviation industry, and eventually transferred here. I'm lucky in that I can go "home" to visit whenever I want but I think that was detrimental in the beginning.
I miss the beach. Beaches are prettier up here but they are also colder. I miss wide open (and warm) cycling roads though I did despise the summers. I miss not getting lost and I miss not "knowing" where I want to go because I have ties to a certain restaurant or location. I like the public transit here, it is FAR superior to SoCal. I also like the smaller communities and lack of wide open expanse of tract housing. The houses here have personality. I like that it's not brown, there is less risk of fires, and there is a supreme quantity of pubs vs. meat market bars though I know downtown has their share of those.
I think it's great that there is such a mix of people here. And a huge thank you to the "native" Ballard/Greenwood/North Seattle people that put up with us foreigners invading your territory :)
