Today is the 21st anniversary of my arrival in Seattle (okay, it was a Motel 6 in Issaquah and I didn't actually set foot in Seattle proper until the 24th) and I still love it here. 

I spent the first 23 years of my life in the Greater Los Angeles Metro Area and wanted out from the time I was 14.  I hated the heat, I hated sunbathing (unlike two of my sisters who were sun-worshippers), and I wasn't crazy about the beach.  I finally joined the Air Force after college to escape and my first base assignment was in Northern California at Travis AFB about half-way between San Francisco and Sacramento.  Naturally when I had time off I headed to San Francisco with its cool breezes rather than hot, dry Sacramento.  I spent 18 months at Travis and then moved to my second base assignment at Offutt AFB in Omaha, Nebraska.  There I experienced tornado warnings, huge hail storms and blizzards for the first time.  I prefer earthquakes.  I spent 2 years in Omaha where I did like having four seasons, but I missed mountains. 

I thought about moving to the Colorado Rockies when I got out of the Air Force, but one morning I woke up with the thought "I'm moving to Seattle."  I had never been to Seattle but I loved what I learned about its climate in a Physical Geography course I was taking at Bellevue University in Bellevue, NE (just outside the air base).  Since this was 1987 before the World Wide Web, I went to a Robert Half office in Omaha and had them fax my resume to their office in Seattle, then I had the Air Force pack up my stuff to send to Fort Lewis in Tacoma, WA until I requested it.  I got out of the Air Force on April 15, 1987 and immediately drove to the house my mother had recently purchased in Denver.  My mom and sister suggested I move in with them and get a job there, but Denver reminded me too much of LA with the dry brown hills and sprawl.  A few days later on April 22nd I got a call from the Robert Half agency office in Seattle asking if I could be in Seattle by 3pm on Friday the 24th for an interview.  The phone call came at 10am.  I had my car loaded and was out of Denver by noon.  I spent the night in Twin Falls, Idaho and got to the Motel 6 in Issaquah at 11pm on the 23rd.

I fell in love with western Washington and didn't leave for my first 5 years here.  I spent my free time exploring the Seattle area and the Olympic Peninsula.  I remember being at Sol Duc Falls and thinking "This is paradise.  Who needs the Caribbean?"  Yes, I actually LIKE rain.  It keeps everything so green.  Even the gray skies make the green of the trees look more vibrant to me.

Sometimes I think of coulda/woulda beens, but I always end up of happy that one morning I woke up thinking "I'm moving to Seattle."