DAY 70: Seattle, Washington
Miles traveled: 8,910
States visited: 22
Weather: 73, sunny
Yesterday was Seattle’s annual Fremont Fair and Solstice Parade, which celebrate the start of summer. This was the most fun parade I’ve ever attended. The entire thing was merely an excuse for people to be goofy, and everyone had a blast. There were spaghetti monsters, zombies, dancers, people on stilts, dudes in chicken suits, skaters dressed like Abe Lincoln, and other random costumes that made no sense.
I have a ton of pics so I’m posting them small-like. Click the thumbnails to see the full version.
After the parade there was an all-day fair with local bands and art cars. My favorite was the one with floppy disks all over it. That takes me back to middle school!
I got to know Seattle really well thanks to Michael my couchsurfing host, whose hospitality was unmatched. We saw all the important neighborhoods, went to some great restaurants, and experienced the nightlife. On Friday we went to an in-store performance by Carbon Leaf at Easy Street Records. It was a novelty for me. I’ve never been to an in-store, because we rarely have those in Pittsburgh. This is an example of why I’m looking to move to a bigger city!
While I enjoyed the city, I’m not sure I’d want to live here, because of the “Seattle freeze,” a term which describes the personality of the people here.
In a nutshell, the people in Seattle are all super friendly and nice on the surface, but when it comes to trying to make connections on a deeper level, they’re not interested. People stay in the cliques they are already part of, and they’re extremely unreceptive to new members, so it’s hard to establish friends here as a newcomer. Here’s a newspaper article that explains this bizarre phenomenon perfectly.
This is both baffling and deeply disturbing. I talked to some residents who confirmed that the Seattle freeze does exist. Yet they’re not really bothered by it. And that is a total deal-breaker. I see the existence of the Seattle freeze as a scathing indictment of the entire city, and it makes me seriously question whether I’d want to be here.
Oh well. It was nice at least flirting with the idea of moving here. On to Vancouver next!
9000 Miles 
Seattle freeze? Don’t believe a word of it. My friend Ross has lived there for the past 10 years, and he’s constantly making new friends. When I lived there, I had no trouble finding friends–even with people who were well established in their circles. Sorry, I’m a bit defensive 🙂
Did Carbon Leaf play “Big Strong Man”? I love their rendition of that song.
Your friends are the exceptions! It’s prominent enough that residents confirm it exists, and the local paper felt compelled to do an article about it. I’m confident I could overcome it if I moved there, but it’s still crummy that many people there think like that.
JR, they only played Life Less Ordinary and 4 songs from the new album. They were all good though!