Seattle, Day 5...And I Feel Such a Connection to This City
I love the Seattle library so much we had to go walk around in it. Here's a view of downtown looking out from some of the library's diamond-shaped windows...
Ah, Seattle. It's really unfair for me to show up here on a brilliantly sunny day in June, stay on Alki Beach, not have to work, and feel like this is a typical day in the city, but there it is.
I have such a love for Seattle, and a long history here:
- My father grew up here, and his family's been here for multiple generations. When I was little, every summer I would come visit my grandparents, who lived outside the city, but I always flew into Sea Tac and spent time in the city. What I remember most is the soft humidness of the air, the smell of saltwater, the screetch of the seagulls...
- I lived here a summer in college, with my grandparents in the Queen Anne neighborhood
- Right after college I moved here, lived here for a year and a half, worked my first job here, made some amazing friends, had the first serious love of my life...just generally had an absolute blast being young, feeling like absolutely everything was ahead of me (which it was)
- Fast-forward a number of years...my husband was working in Alaska when I met him, but returned to Seattle shortly thereafter. We did long-distance between Seattle and Santa Barbara, and it was in this city we fell in love
- And then I moved here to be with him...that's how I left California...but that move was short-lived as I was heartbroken over my brother dying and having to leave the house where my brother and I had lived together in California...and I came from sunny Southern California in January and it was too much of a shock to go from there to the dark and gray when I was already so incredibly sad. Six months later, we moved to Colorado to be closer to my family and that was absolutely the right decision, although lately both my husband and I have been really missing Seattle...
It feels so good to be here...for my husband too. Yesterday was such a great day of sitting on the sand on the beach, taking the water taxi from West Seattle to downtown, wandering around downtown taking pictures and girly shopping (Anthropologie, Lush, Fireworks, Twist...there's no shopping where I live...got to get my fix while I'm traveling). And then we went over to Queen Anne where we used to live together and had dinner at Pesos, which is one of my favorite restaurants in the world...their carne asada is to die for. Yesterday was the solstice, too, and it's cool to be here for the solstice...it got light about 4 AM in the morning and there was still light in the sky at 10 PM.
Loving being in Seattle...
XO
Missing Seattle: The Seattle Public Library
Rained yesterday, and is supposed to again all week, which is making me miss Seattle, so I think this week's posts are going to be about that city. I spent lots of time there with my grandparents, my dad's parents, as a child, and lived there twice--once right after college, and once for six months after leaving Southern California and before moving back to Colorado. And there's a good chance we'll live there again someday. The cool, dreary weather does get to me after a while, but that's probably something trips somewhere sunny could take care of. I've always felt a huge affinity for the city.
One of the things I miss is the public library, which is right downtown and across the street from the fabulous hotel where my husband worked, the Hotel Vintage Park. I don't know too much about architecture, but I love, love, love cool modern buildings like this--I first saw an exhibit about it at the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art while it was being built, couldn't wait to see it live. And it works so perfectly in Seattle, letting in every scrap of available light. Many afternoons I spent on the top floor in front of the windows, waiting for my husband to be done with work so we could go do something together.
And, they have the greatest online check-out system ever. You just put the books you want to read on a list, and then they are all sitting together under your name in the pick-up area. That system spoiled me...I've had trouble easing into using the library here because it doesn't have it. On the other hand, it also seems to be where I started to have a hugely short attention span when it comes to reading--reading the first few pages or chapter of a book, failing to get engaged, and then putting it aside to start on another. I've been finding it really hard to get into books the past few years, especially novels. So much of what I'm reading just doesn't seem interesting/relevant.
Anyway, in my dream Seattle life, part of my weekly routine involves a trip to the public library.
Image Credit: fschroiff.