Home from Home in the Evergreen State

Hello gentle reader. Are you still there? You are?? Well, thank you...

I'm sorry it's been so long since I wrote, but let me introduce you to one of life’s quirks: I started this blog as a travelogue (tavelblog?), but have been so busy travelling that I haven't kept it up-to-date. So, I'll now make amends and splurge out a few entries in quick succession. After all, this whole thing is for you gentle reader, always you.

And so to the Evergreen State…
Washington, in the Pacific North West (not to be confused with Washington DC on the east coast) is a beautiful place.



That makes me pretty lucky, because it is my most frequent destination. Seattle is nick-named the ‘Emerald City’ but that has more to do with the abundant rainfall, the resultant pine forests, green fields and verdant landscapes, than the presence of the Wizard, Dorothy or Toto. Seattle is a fun city in itself, and the surrounding area supports a wide range of outdoor activities, including skiing, snowboarding, cycling and mountain biking, hiking. Some brave souls even surf in the chilly North Pacific, and I know at least one person who scuba dives in Puget Sound. There be giant octopi, apparently…

I seem to have picked up an unsettling habit of photographing sunsets and sunrises. This is early morning on the Eastside.


(Eastside refers to being East of Lake Washington. Seattle is on the – wait for it Jonnay – Wesside! W! Chamon!)

I know this place so well by now (I must have been here over twenty times in the past 8 years) that I could start rambling on. So instead, I’ll list what I really like:

1. Friendly people. If you sit next to someone in a bar, they will definitely talk to you. Guaranteed. They may be old or young, in a group or on their own, male or female, black or white or anything else, it won’t matter. They will then most likely want to hang out and drink with you. After that, you may well move on to different venues together and continue to hang out. I think it would be difficult to be lonely here.

2. Funny people. The sense of humour here is not at all what I expected initially. It generally seems quirky, odd, and quite dry, and so quite like the English sense of humour. Not at all what the British might rather unkindly class as ‘American humor [sic]’. Good work!

3. Scenery. Well you can see for yourself.

4. Youthful outlook. Nothing in this whole area is old. I am told that the city is only a hundred years old, or so. That seems reflected in the youthful culture.

I’m bound to blog more on Seattle and the Eastside in the future, but for now ‘that shallot’…