Fall in Seattle

When I used to live in Pittsburgh, I became acquaintances with a coworker, a student at Carnegie Mellon, at Starbucks who was from San Diego. Whenever I would walk up Forbes Ave. at 5 a.m. through a foot of snow to open the store in the winter, I would always ask why he left sun-drenched SoCal for our ice and frigid temperatures.

Cameron’s response was that he wanted seasons. I countered by shaking my head in incredulity. Who moves from San Diego to…Pittsburgh?

Leaves on a sidewalk

Years later, I can understand his desire for change. This is why I’ve always looked forward to fall, the time of year when the heat breaks and the leaves turn. Fall meant college football, foliage and warming up with a coffee in neighborhood cafes — three of my favorite experiences.

For the most part, Seattle has amazing summers. The clouds stay tucked behind the mountains and rain is almost non-existent. Sun glasses come out and Green Lake fills up. Mt. Rainier makes a glut of appearance and shutterbugs dash off to Kerry Park. But despite those three months of perfection, I looked forward to when the skies would return to their normal slate color, and when I can see my breath in the  morning. I’m not sure why that is exactly.

Fall colors in Seattle

This is my first real fall in Seattle. The rain has returned, but the city has responded with a spectacular outburst of color. The leaves on the maple trees are sporting their best reds, yellows and oranges.  I came in thinking the Pacific NW would be full of evergreen pines, and therefore lacking the fall look I was accustomed to on the East Coast. Wrong. And while Seattle is not quite on the level of an October in Burlington, VT., it’s amazing in its own right.

For some reason, I thought of this earlier today on a walk through the Mt. Baker neighborhood for coffee and breakfast at Sweet & Savory, a nearby cafe. Lisa and I took Cooper, her Golden Retriever, with us as we walked past the Craftsman homes and up the hill. The leaves were out in full force, and it was worth it to take our cafe haul over to the view park on 31st. It was a small section of a rather mundane October Sunday, but it somehow resonated with me.

Change is good.