We have had several gorgeous, sizzling hot days recently, here in Seattle. It reminded me of the summer of 1995 when I moved here from Denver, Colorado. I have lived in Denver for a couple of years. I loved three things about my time there. I got remarried there, I skied almost every day and I played Squash with the legendary Hashim Khan, seen here with his son and nephew, and yours truly, three to four times each week.
In late 1994 I started to consider moving from Denver. I have been fortunate enough to travel extensively and am very familiar with several beautiful cities in the world. I narrowed down the list to Kuala Lumpur, San Francisco, and Seattle. In December 1994 I visited Seattle, intending to find a place to live and then move from Denver.
We arrived here in the midst of a nasty rainstorm. I remember being thrashed around by the high winds while on the 520 Bridge, heading to Kirkland for dinner at a friend’s home. We stayed here for a few days and left very disheartened having decided against moving to a place that had such foul weather.
The following spring, I started my search again. I went to San Francisco and Boston amongst other cities. I liked those wonderful cities, however, none of them ‘called to me’. Then in July, I stopped here for a few days while on my way to Vancouver, BC to attend a business meeting. We hit a July heatwave that was almost exactly like the one we have just had. I got a taste of how amazingly beautiful the Greater Seattle Area can be on a nice, hot summer day. The lake, the Eastside, the Sound, various beaches, Pike Market – there are so many amazing aspects to the gorgeous Pacific North West.
Instead of staying for three days in Vancouver, BC I turned it into a day trip and returned to Seattle the same day. For those who might be saying, Vancouver is a beautiful city as well, yes, of course, it is. You see, I lived there before moving to Denver. I wanted to be as close to it as possible while still living in the US.
We stayed in Seattle for several days after that. We drove around all over Puget Sound. We looked at homes in Seattle, Kirkland, Bothell, Redmond, Sammamish, and Bellevue. Each day was more beautiful than the previous one. I finally understood the diversity in the beauty of this place. I bought a house in Bellevue before returning to Denver. I arrived back here with all my belongings on a truck in September of 1995 and have called it ‘home’ ever since.
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