Before I moved to Washington almost six years ago, I spent eight years living in Colorado. I loved Colorado with its freezingly crisp white winters, efficient snow ploughs, and gravelled traction. It’s quite arid up there, but a beauty nevertheless, and where we were located, we were able to spent time at Rocky Mtn National Park, and even take a few trips to the Grand Tetons and Yellowstone, which I persisted in calling Jellystone long after the husband threatened me with a good dunking in Old Faithful. I appreciated the brief green of spring, the yellows of summer and fall, and the bleak white of winter. But I chose to move to Washington, and I was lucky that our work careers enabled the move. Every year I give thanks for the reasons I moved to this state and add to my growing list of reasons to stay.

1. Water Everywhere I look, there it is. I have a coastline again, which I haven’t had since I left Australia. There are rivers, and ponds, and lakes, and gosh, I have a “Sound” — I never had one of those before. And beyond that, the wild sea. Up north, innumerable little islands gather like acne on the face of the ocean. And oh my gosh — humidity! We don’t have that in Colorado!
2. No seriously — Water Probably a reaction to having lived in a state where it’s sunny 300 days of the year, I looked forward to having a really real, proper rainfall. We moved in the spring of 2000 just after the winter of “60 days of rain and counting” — people thought we were nuts, but here we are, and I still get a kick out of water! Falling out of the sky! Look! There’s green stuff growing all over!

   Last winter, when it was really really mild here, and they said there might be a drought, I could scarcely believe it, although of course they didn’t mean *I* was going to have a drought; they meant the poor farmers out east were going to have a drought. Still, I don’t think the forest fires were too terribly bad this year.

3. Fresh fish It took moving to a landlocked state for me to truly appreciate fish. When I was young, I avoided sushi like it was plague and as a punishment, when I finally felt that I would like to eat sushi, I wasn’t really in the position to do so. I’ve gotten spoiled here with wonderful fish and sushi restaurants and I will never be able to live inland again.
4. O, Canada Just as Jeffery over on Vancouver Metblogs is a big fan of ours, so shall I become a big fan of our new baby sisterblog. A big part of coming to live in Washington was its proximity to Canada and Vancouver, the nearest city — it was a bit like getting two countries for the price of one. Although the three-hour drive is a killer, with the right timing and a good mix of tunes, we’ve been able to make the occasional Canadian vacation a cheap reality. What is there not to love about Canada?
5. Those nice ATC people You might not realise this but there are little airports everywhere. And the air traffic controllers? So nice!! I’ve heard nightmare stories of brusque controllers in other states, but let me tell you about how patient and kindly ours are. Admittedly, my home base, KPAE, is quite out of the way of SeaTac’s boundaries, but the few times I’ve gone south, they’ve been nothing but professional in keeping me and my baby plane out of the way of the big boys and being my guardian angel. From up north at Bellingham’s airport, to out west at Hoquiam’s, south as far as Longview-Kelso’s, and east into Wenatchee, I salute the airports I’ve landed at, and those lovely ATCs who helped keep me safe.
6. Thai foooooood We moved from a town with one (1) thai restaurant to a town where there’s a thai restaurant down the street from every Starbucks. Have I mentioned there’s a Starbucks on every street? Admittedly, that wasn’t the big consideration when we moved here, but I’ve certainly grown to appreciate it.
7. Name recognition Everyone knows Seattle. We were in Costa Rica, and a local asked where we were from (I guess we didn’t look Costa Rican). Upon hearing the answer, he nodded sagely. “Good apples; good wine,” he turned to go, but stopped and turned back, “Good music.” I wonder what he would have said to Denver? Good mountains? Lots of snow?