Seattle

I love Seattle. I am crazy in love with Seattle. Everything is here. The weather is perfect--not too hot and not too cold, just right. I'm 9 miles from downtown Seattle. It's like I live in a small town but it is a major city of the world with all the elements of culture and the arts.

I'm grateful for the amazing bus system. My bus, bus 41, is always a double bus and it fills up. It runs 4 times an hour during the day. It's an express bus and goes on the freeway so it is only 15 minutes to reach downtown Seattle. Since I am 65 now, I only have to pay 75 cents a ride. I can also ride the train, which is amazing and I can actually get from my apartment to SeaTac Airport for only 75 cents with this amazing transit system. It works and it works well.

I'm grateful to be able to attend the Seattle Symphony Orchestra once in awhile to hear perfection. It's glorious. It's very close to heaven. Seattle is as close to heaven as you can get. Everything is here. The Woodland Park Zoo is here with amazing, wondrous creatures from all over the world. The Aquarium is here where you can see the wonders of the deep. The endless, fascinating shops at Pike Place Market always delights. It would be great to find a great apartment downtown and buy halibut and salmon at least once a week from there. You can get a gorgeous bouquet of flowers at Pike Place Market for only $10 every time you go. Such a deal! The Pacific Science Center is a mecca for science, events of the world, and attractions. Everything happens there. I get to this great place by bus 16, which meanders in neighborhoods in and out through Green Lake, Wallingford, to the Space Needle and downtown. A great inviting ride to get to some great places like Green Lake and walk around the gorgeous 3.2 mile paved path around the lake, which is so popular.

The Seattle Art Museum recharges me, uplifts me, and inspires me when I see all the glorious art. I also love the Dale Chihuly Museum of Glass next to the Space Needle.

The International District is another great place. I can get there by staying on bus 41 a little longer and getting off right across the street from the best Asian grocery. I keep missing out on seeing the dragon dance, which I want to see. The famous Underground Tour is another amazing attraction which takes you under Seattle with amazing guides which tells you about early Seattle. I think they should write scripts and hire actors to dress in period costumes to tell the story and you move crowds through the rubble.

I honestly can't get over how great it is in Seattle. I found the best knitting group at the Shoreline Senior Center with so many expert knitters on Monday afternoons. This time period also competes with mah jongg at the Lake Forest Shopping Center. I've been hearing about this great quilting group that meets at the Shoreline Senior Center that meets on Tuesdays with retreats and fun.

Great book stores and great restaurants in Seattle.

I live in a great apartment close to everything. I live right across from the Northgate Mall. How great is that! I can walk right out my parking lot of the apartment and get on the bus to the Snoqualmie Casino for a day of fun. I need to sign up for another day soon. Great shopping in Seattle. You can buy anything here. Great ethnic grocery stores.

I live one block from a great gym--24 Hour Fitness Northgate. All the fun is here with Zumba classes every day. I've had the most fun taking Zumba classes. My husband didn't dance but I can dance my heart out with Zumba. Pure fun!

I think the best part is that Seattle is an international city where people from around the world gather and work and learn and get along to live together in peace. Everything is here that anyone could want. I want to go to the opera. There is this great opera by Wagner that is a four part series for only $25 a ticket. I want to see more Broadway plays because that is pure joy and fun. The library is the greatest anywhere with any book you could want to read.

I registered yesterday afternoon to take classes at the North Seattle Community College. Since I am 65, I can take two classes a term for only $5 but they must be classes that aren't full and I need the instructors approval. The same opportunity lies at the University of Washington, which is really grand because of more wonderful opportunities and options like classes in philosophy and anthropology and all the ologies. I hear that there is a large group of seniors who regularly wait in line for hours and sign up. I need to register and get acclimated there next. It all sounds like glorious fun.

I haven't visited the troll under the Fremont Bridge yet since I moved here. I need to make regular visits since I wrote a children's book about him and need to work on it. Fremont is the end of the universe. I need to find out which bus to take to get there. Parking is never easy in Seattle but the bus will take you all over. I inch out a little at a time. I don't have anyone to share all this fun with but that's ok because I am having glorious fun all by myself. I'm grateful every day to live here.

I'm grateful to live in Seattle where all the fun that anyone could possibly want is here.