Uniquely Northwest
Welcome to Seattle: A Guide For Transplants By Kelly Skahan and Britt Thorson, Seattle Refined
W
hether you're here to kick off your undergraduate education or you've joined us mid-career, our city is a little baffling—after all, there's a giant lake in the middle of it that makes transportation entirely nonsensical. ("WHAT DO YOU MEAN THIS LYNN STREET IS DIFFERENT FROM THE OTHER LYNN STREET?") Here are some introductory concepts to help get you situated.
TRANSPORTATION: Getting around in any big city is a pain until you get a handle on things. Seattle is no different. North-South transportation is pretty easy—you can get from Ballard to downtown or from SoDo to the U-District using simple (if traffic-riddled) routes, both on the bus and in a car. (East-West transportation is a nightmare—maintaining a friendship with someone who lives on the other side of Lake Washington is a fool's errand. Just give up now). In all seriousness, get a Puget Pass on your Orca Card and download the OneBusAway app. The first gives you unlimited bus and rail rides, the second takes away the need to fuss with cash or transfers, and the third helps you figure out when the next bus is coming and where it's actually going. You don't really need a car, but you may need your favorite car service app from time to time. Cabs here are not particularly useful. Uber and Lyft are. (Some people swear by Car2Go and others find the service area too limited outside the city).
best coffee shop is the least crowded coffee shop, and if that's a Starbucks across from your apartment then so be it. If you have friends in town who really want a Seattle coffee experience, take them to Stumptown (which is actually from Portland, but don't tell them that). If you just want coffee, go wherever's convenient for you. It's really okay.
UMBRELLAS: Anything anybody tells you about umbrellas is a
GROCERY STORES: It's come to our attention that grocery
lie. No, it doesn't sell you out as a tourist if you carry one. Plenty of Seattle natives love a good umbrella. Don't let anyone shame you out of preserving your hairdo. Haters gonna hate.
stores in Seattle are weirdly unique to the Pacific Northwest and tend to bewilder recent transplants. Here's a breakdown.
That said, use proper umbrella etiquette. Lots of buildings have awnings here, ostensibly to protect passersby from the rain. Your umbrella is your own personal awning. Don't take up space under a building's awning and bump the umbrella-less among us into the elements. That's not nice.
Fred Meyer has everything. It's like a grocery store combined with a Sears, a pharmacy and a hardware store. There's one in Ballard, and it's great. In the suburbs Fred Meyer stores often have gas stations. Use your loyalty card when you buy groceries to knock a few cents off gas prices at their gas stations and at some Shell stations.
COFFEE: Living here does not have to turn you into a coffee snob. People will tell you that the best coffee in Seattle is at some hidden spot that only makes aero-pressed drip with magic beans between the hours of 8 p.m. and 2 a.m. on alternating Wednesday nights. They might be right, but for all practical purposes the
QFC is usually a little more grocery-centric, but there are way more of them around and they usually have parking. Albertson's and Safeway are similar, but the parking situation is a little less dependable. These are often open all night long. Loyalty cards there get you deals on food instantly.
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GREATER SEAT TLE INFOGUIDE • 2016-17
Photo: © Karl Weatherly
Inline skating at Discovery Park
