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Back in 2006, we first had the idea of moving away from our longtime home area in Texas and little did we know how that idea would change our lives. We chose Seattle from cities across the country that we thought would fit us best and visited it that year. Our visit only persuaded us further that the Pacific Northwest was the right place for us and we worked together to realize our goal of moving here.

We started this blog to share our plans and after months of job searching, researching, and planning, we finally actually moved - driving 2,600 miles in a week. This time of moving and the following months exploring Seattle were the most exciting time of our lives so far. There was so much new for us to experience and discover.

While the process of moving to Seattle is no longer fresh on our minds, we are still benefiting from our decision to move here. There have been some sacrifices and challenges along the way, but we have settled into the lifestyles we've wanted to establish for ourselves in a city that we love.

We are formally concluding this chapter in our lives with this, the 1,000th post, and looking to challenges ahead. We are leaving this blog as a reference and inspiration to all those who share the dream we have realized.

Since we started our blog, it has been viewed almost 100,000 times, it's gotten dozens of comments from people interested in moving, and we've received several emails from people planning their move to Seattle.

It's been fun for us to write this blog, but I get the feeling that it's been really helpful for others. It's actually not that uncommon for people to want to move from one part of the country to the other, and Seattle is a popular destination. If you are thinking about or planning to move to Seattle, here are some of the posts we've written that I think are most helpful:

• Cost of Living in Seattle - It is more expensive here than many parts of the country and here's an overview of the differences for us.


• How we chose Seattle - Explains the process we went through to find Seattle - this may be helpful for people looking for their place in the world.


• How to Move to Seattle - Step-by-step guidance on how to move here based on our experience.


• Lessons Learned in Job Searching - Some things that I learned while looking for a job here.

There is also a lot of information scattered across the posts we've written. Some specific labels that may be helpful include:

• differences - Posts about the differences between Texas and Seattle, some may be more applicable to your situation than others.


• observations - Little discoveries and observations about Seattle.


• weather - Our reports and experiences of the local weather conditions and climate.


• urban - Our experiences and information about the city.


• planning to move - All the things we wrote about while trying to get a job and planning to move.


• moving - Posts narrating the actual steps and events of when we moved here.

For people who are interested in moving to Seattle and wondering which of Seattle's neighborhoods is the best fit for them, we explored some of the city's neighborhoods and posted about them:

• Capitol Hill


• First Hill


• Belltown


• Lower Queen Anne


• Fremont


• Ballard


• Wallingford


• U District

Hopefully that's enough to get you started, and feel free to use the search box at the top and links on the left sidebar to look around. If you have any questions, feel free to email Lesley and me.

After living here for three and a half years, we have a more nuanced understanding of the city than we did when we first moved here. Here are the main things we like, and don't like about living in Seattle.

1. 
   Walking and busing - Seattle is the 6th most walkable city in the country and it's possible to get around a lot of places by walking. Public transportation can be a pretty convenient way to get around, as well, so you don't have to drive your own car to get around the city.


• In contrast: Roads and drivers - We don't drive a whole lot here and haven't found traffic as bad as its reputation. However, when we do drive, the local roads are often in poor condition. There are many inner city roads with potholes or other ruts or bumps that make driving a little bouncy and uncomfortable. And, the drivers that drive below the speed limit in all lanes of the freeway do get in the way of an efficient driver like myself.


2. 
   Natural beauty - This is one of the most beautiful parts of the country and an idealized landscape with snow-capped mountain ranges, majestic pine trees, and shimmering bodies of water basically everywhere. Other places may be nice, too, but the Pacific Northwest has more than its fair share of natural beauty.


3. Outdoor activities - I learned to love to walk and spend time in parks from my dad, and there are lots of great parks in the city, as well as great hiking trails outside the city, and other outdoor activities all over the area.


4. Moderate weather - The weather on the West Coast is more moderate than most parts of the country, which spares us from the hot summer weather that affects most of the country, as well as the snowy winter weather that affects much of the country. It's usually not too uncomfortable to go outside in any season.


• In contrast: Clouds - This is the biggest complaint for a lot of people who say that winter here lasts for 9 months. That's certainly not true, but Seattle does have more cloudy days than most parts of the country, which make the summertime that much more special.


5. 
   Character - Seattle preserves its history better than many cities and has many old buildings with character occupied by unique restaurants and cafes, along with some interesting characters.


• In contrast: Cost of Living - While it's great to have hundreds of unique, organic, fresh, natural, boutique local restaurants, sometimes it's nice to be able to get a relatively cheap sandwich to go (not Subway). We do pay more here, but sometimes you do get what you pay for.


6. Neighborhoods - There are many unique neighborhoods here, each a little different, with their own things to see and do. Each neighborhood is like a town within the city, filling Seattle with lots of areas to experience and explore.


7. Culture - People here tend to be conscientious and non-judgmental. It's also a pretty casual place and people seem to be authentic, if a little distant.
   
   
   
   • In contrast: Cultural Elitism - A feeling of cultural superiority and a lack of political diversity are two things that could be off-putting in parts of Texas, and those same two characteristics are not uncommon here, though the culture and the beliefs are very different between the two places. The culture on this part of the "Left Coast" can be a little too homogeneous.


8. 
   Sounders FC - We've become pretty big soccer fans since moving here because we've been drawn into the sport by the Sounders and their fans. Going to a soccer game with 35,000 fans is an experience that is unique in America and one that has made us appreciate and enjoy the game so much more than we did before moving here. The Sounders were an expansion team in Major League Soccer shortly after we moved here and we have enjoyed going to games and watching them on TV since their inaugural MLS season.


• In contrast: Sports culture and losers - While the Sounders sell out their games and the Seahawks are known for having a loud crowd, I'm not sure where those people come from, because the vast majority of people I know here care little for sports. Worse, the Seahawks and Mariners have been pretty bad since we moved here. Unfortunately, because the Seahawks are in the Pacific Time Zone and in the same conference as my team the Dallas Cowboys, I often can't watch Cowboys games because the Seahawks game is on instead.

Another thing to add, and probably the worst part of living here is the distance from the rest of our family and many of our friends. This isn't the city's fault, except that the weather and cost of living discourages family from moving here.

There are plenty of other good and bad things about Seattle but the good outweighs the bad for us.

Three and a half years ago, we relocated our lives to Seattle from our longtime home in Texas. When we left, we saw moving to Seattle as an opportunity to live in a city whose culture and values were more in line with ours, and while that has proven to be true, there is much more that we have learned.

Moving here was about more than just where we lived. Looking back on it now, it was our way to express our individuality and to make a change in our life to prove to ourselves that we could do this. I hope that the challenge of moving here inspires us to dream bigger in the future.

In moving here we benefited from the discovery and exploration of moving here as much as the things we like about the city itself. We're different, and I believe better, people than we would've been if we had not moved here. We have become wiser and more independent by moving here and figuring out more things on our own as our understanding of the world has been expanded. Seattle also seems to have nurtured our desire to live a healthy and sustainable lifestyle, something that can be done anywhere, but that may be more challenging in other parts of the country.

However, I've learned that Seattle (or any city) isn't for everybody. I've met many people here who love the city and are happy to have moved here. I've also listened to people who don't live here and are happy with where they do live, some of whom used to live here and didn't like it. Seattle is great if it fits you, and is a good place for us.

Your city is as good as you make it, in a way; it's not a key to happiness, but it is an environment that shapes you and that you can shape. For us, Seattle has been wonderful, and there's nowhere in the country I'd rather live.

This year, like the previous two, the Sounders advanced to the final of the US Open Cup (a historic US soccer tournament separate from MLS). We decided to go to the game this past Tuesday night along with a crowd of over 35,000.

It was a great game, with plenty of good chances by the Sounders, and a couple by the other team, the Chicago Fire. There was no score after the first half, and the longer the game went on without a score, the more anxious I got that the Sounders would have a hard time winning. Still, the crowd was very into it with chants and cheers.

Then, in the 77th minute (of a total of 90), the Sounders' star striker, Fredy Montero, scored a goal off a rebound from the goalkeeper. The crowd went wild with cheering and high fives. After that, the crowd was even more energetic for the rest of the game. The Fire had some more chances, but then at the very end of the game, the Sounders scored a remarkable goal, as the star midfielder, Osvaldo Alonso, ran around the defenders and the goalkeeper to score an awesome goal to end the game.

With that, the crowd was even more excited and after the game ended, the Sounders team celebrated in the middle of the field before being awarded their third straight US Open Cup.

It was awesome to be able to see them win and was probably the best experience I've had at a Sounders game yet, of the five or so we've been to so far.