Seattle

Has anyone lived there?

I just received a job offer from Boeing in Everett and there's a very good chance I'll be relocating to the area.

I was wondering about neighborhoods and towns. I'm 26 and single, so I need to be somewhere I can make friends and socialize, but I'd love to be able to do some trailrunning and mountain biking right near where I live. Basically right now I'm thinking my best option for social life and commute is Wallingford/Greenlake. I have heard that Kirkland and Issaquah have some nice trails right nearby though and they're not full-on suburbia. Anyone have any suggestions based on experience?

Any thoughts on the hiking too would be cool.


Thanks

I have been there - and was only in the city briefly, but I liked it and would move there in a second if the opp came.


you'll have some amazing mountains in the area and will have no problem finding hiking opps!!!

one word: Cascades!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

your one lucky SOB!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!


http://www.albertorossini.com/image...n Mount Rainier National Park, Washington.jpg

You might want to PM LindaLu who sometimes posts on this site. She lives in Seattle and can prob give you some help.

I was there 2 weeks ago for a weeklong business event - I skipped most of the functions and spent my time driving around enjoying/checking out the area. All I can say is that if I were young and single again, I would waste no time heading out there. That is, of course, with the caveat that I would marry my wife all over again.... (She never visits this site, but she someday might.... )

Take the job!!

I was there for a few days last August. The whole city--and Washington State in general--had a really good feel about it ...and I am NOT a city girl! Lots of great coffee, beer, and seafood. You might want to check out the Capitol Hill neighborhood.

A friend and I ran trails on Cougar and Tiger Mtns. There are many miles of trails there, and it's not too far from the city.

As with any city, traffic can be a nightmare, but I've been told that Seattle has a very good public transportation system.

You will NOT run out of things to do hiking-wise: Mt. Rainier! The Cascades! The Olympic Penninsula! San Juan Islands!..........

Good luck!

The Seattle area has one of the worst traffic situations in the country. Issaquah to Everett would be a nightmare commute. Kirkland to Everett would be substantially shorter but still onerous. Wallingford/Greenlake to Everett does have the advantage of being counter-flow, but it would not be smooth sailing.

My personal advice would be to pick between outdoor access and social access. If the former, you've got lots and lots of choices to the north, northeast, and east of Everett, and housing prices will be substantially lower in many cases. If the latter, I'm worthless as a source of advice.

One last suggestion -- post a query on Cascade Climbers. Folks out there are friendly and helpful -- you're sure to get some reliable info.

Gator said:

Has anyone lived there?

I just received a job offer from Boeing in Everett and there's a very good chance I'll be relocating to the area.

I was wondering about neighborhoods and towns. I'm 26 and single, so I need to be somewhere I can make friends and socialize, but I'd love to be able to do some trailrunning and mountain biking right near where I live. Basically right now I'm thinking my best option for social life and commute is Wallingford/Greenlake. I have heard that Kirkland and Issaquah have some nice trails right nearby though and they're not full-on suburbia. Anyone have any suggestions based on experience?

Any thoughts on the hiking too would be cool.


Thanks

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Wallingford/Green Lake is a fine neighborhood for you. In general the area just N of the ship canal, including neighborhoods like Fremont as well. Local in-town running opps, well, there's green lake, quite urban, a scene, but at least on dirt, I think a couple miles and Discovery park, which has a three-mile loop in the woods which I use a lot. The Tiger Mt trail system with some vertical (about 2000') is about a half-hour away by freeway, when it is not clogged up.

Kirkland and Issaquah are definitely 'burbs. Kirkland has "bridle trails" park, maybe 500 acres of woods, honeycombed with trails, but heavy horse use, which means trail degradation, mires, dung, and general horsiness. Issaquah, at least the old core, is right at the foot of W Tiger and has superlative trail-running opps. But it's burbs, for sure. And you would have to fight your way in I-90 to 405N, and then I-5 to Everett. A bad commute.

Which brings me to the point: you are going to be working in Everett, and I-5, I-90, and I-405 at rush hour are pains to be avoided. In your situation I would at least toy with the notion of living in Everett. It doesn't have the wealth of stuff to do that Seattle has, but it's cheaper and closer to your work place.
BE AWARE, the freeways at rush hour here are congested, and anything like a single-occupant car commute from Seattle to Everett will soon pall.

The Cascades and Olympics are a grand playground and easy day trip and weekend distance. There are many obscure summits to be visited which get perhaps one party every few years., if you go for that sort of stuff. Ain't no place else in the country with quite that combination of urbanness and real wild.

Gator, I am suspecting as you stated your single status you will likely be renting. This link may help anyway. just click on a county in the map picture and you can search for various types of properties by town. King county ( Seattle ) is the highest taxed county in the state and housing is expensive. Anyway I bought some land found through this site and have not regretted it in the least. Good luck.

http://www.nwrealestate.com/nwrpub/

Gator,

I lived in Edmonds, WA for three years, about 15 minutes north of Seattle right on Puget Sound. I commuted to Everett for part-time work at Everett Parks and Recreation, sometimes there was traffic, sometimes not. You don't want to live east of Lake Washington if you're working in Everett. Also, forget about living in Greenlake, that commute will make you quit your job. One of my good friends lives in Lake Stevens, which is east of Everett, he commutes to Everett daily, this is a fine commute and Lake Stevens is very close to The Mountain Loop Highway, which is a great place for hiking, many amazing trips I've experienced off the Mountain Loop. As for mountain biking, that's going to be tough, a lot of trails do not allow mountain bikes in Washington, so you may want to research that. Everett is a nice city and you can find some neat places to live. But I would stay close to your job. Consider Lake Stevens, it's a great area.

As for hiking, I can talk forever. I've covered about 500 miles in Washington, from the North Cascades to St. Helens, Rainier, Adams, and The Olympics. You must check out...

http://www.wta.org

This is the best site for trip reports in Washington.

Also, go under "search reports," click author, and type in Josh Comen, this will bring you to my personal reports of some of my favorite adventures.

Another must have is a book called, "Don't Waste Your Time in The North Cascades." This book helped me out a lot and I think I ended up doing almost every trip in the book.

Good Luck! Contact me with any questions.

Josh

I spent a summer in Issaquah in 1984. It was a pleasant, sleepy little suburb, back then. It rained a lot, the cycling was awesome, Seattle was killer and Rainier was da bomb. We glissaded in sneakers for a couple hundred yards until my friend just vanished right before my eyes. Fell into a cravasse! He was okay, but we were a little less stupid after that.

Dude, you'll love it out there.

You might also do some Google searches on lahars (mud flows) from previous Rainier eruptions. There's been lots of research done showing the paths of previous flows, and since Rainier is one of the more active ones, it's only a matter of time. IRRC, areas that towns like Tacoma now occupied have been buried multiple times.

It's amazing what satellite photos, infrared, etc can show us in this regard.

Just a note on "Pugetopolis" traffic: various rankings say it is among the worst in the country, up there with LA. Having lived in DC and Chicago, I believe this ranking to be nonsense. It ain't nearly that bad, nor is it nearly as bad, I suspect without direct evidence, as Boston's traffic.

That being said, you do want to avoid the freeways at peak hours.

Congestion on I-5 can extend from Olympia to Everett pretty continuously. North of Everett it tails off a bit. 405, our east-side beltway-type freeway, is even worse.

Kevin Rooney said:

You might also do some Google searches on lahars (mud flows) from previous Rainier eruptions. There's been lots of research done showing the paths of previous flows, and since Rainier is one of the more active ones, it's only a matter of time. IRRC, areas that towns like Tacoma now occupied have been buried multiple times.

It's amazing what satellite photos, infrared, etc can show us in this regard.

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One of Rainier's lahars actually reached Seattle, probably a fifty mile flow. The final bit of that lahar path is the "Duwamish waterway" a low-lying industrial area between West Seattle and the rest of the city.

There's also the earthquake risk. There is an aging elevated freeway along the downtown Seattle waterfront, a similiar construction technique to the Embarcadero Freeway which pancaked during the big bay area quake some years ago. which sustained some damage in our last moderate quake, and all governmental entities agree is in dire need of replacement. Everytime I drive that thing southbound (which is the lower level) I worry that the "big one" is going to catch me there.

Tsunamis are a risk on the coast, Aberdeen, Long Beach, and the like, because the Juan de Fuca plate is being subducted offshore; but in Puget sound we are not at risk.

For tectonic safety you definitely need to stick to the east coast, or someplace in the middle of the North American plate. Chicago, Kansas City. Maybe you can get a job there instead. Isn't boeing's HQ in Chicago now?

Amidst the stress and anxiety of the decision, I forgot I posted this. Thanks everyone for your input. I really need to setup my cp to subscribe to all threads I post in.

AntlerPeak said:

Gator, I am suspecting as you stated your single status you will likely be renting.

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Yes, and because I will need to make friends and find me a lady. With house prices flattening out I don't plan to buy until I definitely know I want to stay in the area for 5 or 6 years.

Sardog1 said:

Issaquah to Everett would be a nightmare commute.

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You're right. It would be. I don't know why I said that. Bothell, Woodinville, and Kirkland were the suggestions, Issaquah definitely wasn't on the list. Someone I met with said that her commute from Kirkland to Boeing in Everett is usually 20 minutes, which indicates to me that traffic on that route isn't bad usually.

Thuja said:

In your situation I would at least toy with the notion of living in Everett.

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Joshco8 said:

Everett is a nice city and you can find some neat places to live.

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I was told: work in Everett, but definitely don't live there. I was told it's high crime and there's nothing redeeming about it. Conflicting info. Luckily I have a month of temp housing to figure this stuff out.

Joshco8 said:

Consider Lake Stevens, it's a great area.

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I would definitely consider this place if I was married where making friends was less urgent, but wouldn't it be incredibly difficult to get a social life going, if I was living there?

Thuja said:

For tectonic safety you definitely need to stick to the east coast, or someplace in the middle of the North American plate. Chicago, Kansas City. Maybe you can get a job there instead. Isn't boeing's HQ in Chicago now?

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For the long term, definitely a consideration, but I'm not going to worry about it day to day. I don't see myself staying in Seattle forever, which would obviously increase my chances of seeing some devastating results of tectonic movement. At least a tsunmi or huge volanic eruption would be entertaining as opposed to a heart attack or car accident.

As for other Boeing locations: I'll find another company to work for. Chicago and Kansas City would be great places to visit for steaks and barbecue, but I could never live somewhere so flat. Yuck. I'd much rather die in a horrific natural disaster.

thuja said:

For tectonic safety you definitely need to stick to the east coast, or someplace in the middle of the North American plate. Chicago, Kansas City.

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Not to quibble (ahem), but I was surprised to hear that one of the continent's biggest quakes ever was at New Madrid, MO, in the 19th century.* How 'bout that college geology!

Anyway, Seattle is certainly a happening place!

--M.


*Here, I looked it up:
http://www.ceri.memphis.edu/public/follies.shtml

11. Where Was the Largest Earthquake in the Continental United States?

A series of four great earthquakes occurred in the central United States on December 16, 1811, and January 23, and February 7, 1812. All had estimated magnitudes greater than 7.5 on the Richter Scale, the largest happening on February 7, 1812. They are collectively known as the New Madrid earthquakes (after a small town in Missouri) and were felt as far away as Washington D.C., and Boston, Massachusetts.

I agree with Stinkyfeet. But will add there is Brtish Columbia and Mt Fairweather in AK and the BC line It is in a national park it litrally rises 15,00 some odd ft from the ocean . and then you are also not far from Notheren CA Mt Shasta, and I am guessing a days drive to the High Seirra in Yoesimte Kings Kanyon NPs


Good luck !

Stinkyfeet said:

I was there for a few days last August. The whole city--and Washington State in general--had a really good feel about it ...and I am NOT a city girl! Lots of great coffee, beer, and seafood. You might want to check out the Capitol Hill neighborhood.

A friend and I ran trails on Cougar and Tiger Mtns. There are many miles of trails there, and it's not too far from the city.

As with any city, traffic can be a nightmare, but I've been told that Seattle has a very good public transportation system.

You will NOT run out of things to do hiking-wise: Mt. Rainier! The Cascades! The Olympic Penninsula! San Juan Islands!..........

Good luck!

Click to expand...