Seattle?

The Bass Shop in West Seattle. Bring a thick wallet.

 

I'll second this.

 

Paging @TBird1958 .

 

There are a whole lot of places around the Trading Musician - it's in the University District, so there's all kinds of different food and all kinds of different places to drink. Students and faculty drink. Who knew!

Thai food is generally good in Seattle. I live a neighborhood west of the University District, and there are a number of good, not hugely expensive places to eat along North 45th Street. Dicks Drive In is the best place to get a fast, cheap, and exactly what you expected 1954 style hamburger. That's not very far west of I-5. There's Kabul, an Afghan restaurant, a bit farther along that my wife and I like a lot. Pam's Kitchen is just west of Wallingford Avenue, an intersection you can't miss because it's about the only offset intersection along 45th. It is Trinidadian Caribbean. If you like a bit of spice, it's great. It won't light you on fire if you are used to spicy food, but if you aren't, consider yourself forewarned. Just a bit farther along, there's May, a Thai place that's got a crazy steel pagoda temple facade. It is fairly unique, and I think it's about the best Thai place in Seattle. That's saying a lot.

There are a few venues that have music along 45th as well. The Blue Moon Tavern is the prototypical dive. Wobblies plotted the overthrow of the oppressor and the world order there back in the 1930s, and it's still the kind of place with bookshelves and a floor your shoes stick to. You can debate philosophy with a street alcoholic and university professor there on a good night. On another good night, you can catch random bar bands that may or may not be great. That's right by I-5. Farther west, the Sea Monster Lounge generally has jazz or funk, depending on the night.

The Fremont Neighborhood has a variety of night spots you can catch local and sometime touring shows.

Emerald City Guitars is always good for at least an hour of gawking at everything from really weird guitars to $300,000 Les Pauls. They have a small number of bass guitars tucked away. I go there for an alternate reality check when work is nuts. Emerald City Guitars is in the Pioneer Square area which is a good place to wander around and just hang out.

There are plenty of other places around town that are worth visiting, just because. The Ballard Locks are worth spending time at, partly to watch the locks work and the guys working the locks letting amateur boaters know what to do and how to do it in sea salted ways. There's a fish ladder that has glass sides you can watch if the salmon are running. That's just an example that's a little less obvious. The Paul Allen museum is now called the Museum of Pop Culture, or MoPop. It's still there, and has expanded the kinds of things it exhibits. I don't know what's there now.

Seattle does have a problem with junkies and vagrants and panhandlers. The population exploded a little over five years ago, and may or may not have peaked. The city is physically constrained, so it's not like we can hide much, let alone a large, visible population of people we can all have various opinions about. We have plenty of opinions, but no apparent solution, so there they are and they are all over the place. They aren't generally an immediate problem for people in the city. It is what it is, no more, no less, and it's the current situation. I'm sure that will change again.

I love living here, warts and all.

 

One other thing - I haven't actually noticed the Seattle Freeze all that much, either. Playing a Thunderbird (as a number of us here do) makes you so magnetic that even the dreaded Seattle Freeze melts. So, there's some advice for what to spend money on when you visit the Bass Shop, Trading Musician, or Emerald City.

 

I don't know if it's more or less expensive here. My wife and I moved here more than 30 years ago from New York City, which was absurdly expensive then and probably still is. We may or may not have caught up in the absurd pricing race. There's a bit of variation across Seattle, just like everywhere, but even Tacoma is beginning to suffer from price pressure. It is a consideration when you start thinking about salary negotiations.

Traffic is a PITA, housing prices just keep going up, and I still don't want to live anywhere else.

 

The Boeing tour is cool if you're in shape and have about a half a day. And don't forget Jimi Hendrix is from there, so there is alot of Guitar stuff around.

 

My office is in the building just to the right of the tire billboard in the picture. It's a triangular, red brick building. I can see Seattle Lighting from the street, but the office is on the other side of the building.

 

So how did it go?

I’ve been in DC for 8 years now (live in NoVa, transplant from NYC)
I’ve been to Seattle 3 years ago, but only for a couple of days. Spent most of the time driving around for hiking spots. My impression is the traffic isn’t as bad as DC, but the Homelessness issue is wwwaaaayyyyy worse.
I have an acquaintance that left NYC for West Palm Beach, FL 13 years ago, and just moved to Seattle 2 years ago. That is quite a journey, but supposedly she loves it...