Welcome to the Emerald City!

I think I love Seattle because I believe if the city were a girl, she would be much like me. Outwardly pretty and stylish but undeniably quirky and brainy, at times too smart for her own good... attracted to brick architecture, a fan of old school punk, always dressed in skinny jeans and positively allergic to anything remotely resembling a trend.

I can identify with Seattle.

Seattle illustrates perfectly what I find most fascinating about the United States. I grew up in Central-Eastern Canada, and spend my childhood visiting the Dakotas, Wisconsin, Minnesota and Florida. Each of those states is utterly distinct... Florida is a deep south as can be; all gators and grits, while Minnesota is a subtle, sprawling land of unassuming wealth and unexpected sophistication. But the dichotomy between East and West is even more polarised, almost as much as the gulf between South and North.

I will grant that each Canadian province is distinct from all of the others, but our country simply has not been around long enough to develop the kind of history with which the United States is imbued. We have never fought a civil war. Our politicians strive to unite us by choosing the least widely offensive course of action in any given situation (hence Mr. Harper's recent decision not to include safe and legal abortion in his G8 maternal health plan, claiming that the abortion issue- in spite of having been a non-issue since it became legal in the 1970s- is too divisive.) Provincial cuisine is limited to carnival food like poutine and beavertails. But I digress...

The American West Coast is not the laid-back hippie paradise that it has been painted by stereotypes. Seattle likely has twice as many burger joints as health food stores. But year round fresh air and mild temperatures do allow for an sense of pervasive healthy activity. People walk. They bike. They climb. Public transit is a well-used resource rather than a sadly neglected neccessity. Relatively isolated from much of the country and culturally distant from neighbouring Idaho, Washington- and Seattle in particular- vibrates with the kind of creativity bred from a sense difference. The city is a veritable hot bed of independent music, a haven for writers and the birthplace of Amazon.com. It counts Jimi Hendrix and Gypsy Rose Lee among its native children.

What makes Seattle truly unique is that it is a small city that feels big. Although the metropolitan area is home to less than 600,000 people- few enough that the concept of a public market is not only feasible but successful- that has never held back its progress or expansion. Seattle has everything that bigger cities have- world class cuisine, breathtaking landscapes, buildings in various fascinating states of decay... - but its size allows for an intimacy that New York and Los Angeles have long since lost. It will at once captivate and embrace you.

Getting ready for a wild ride... Seattle is like nowhere you've ever been.