Seattle, the beautiful

This is one post that has been long overdue. Ever since I moved to Seattle close to 3 years back, I have been wanting to blog about this beautiful city, a city which I have come to love so much. I have lived in 3 other cities (Arlington,TX, Toledo,OH and Mobile,AL) before moving here and from my experience of visiting so many other cities, I can easily say that Seattle is my most favorite and the most beautiful city of the places. So, I thought it would be a good idea to blog something about this lovely place. This city has to offer something for everybody, be it hikers, skiers, coffee-lovers, or techies. Anyways, here are the top things that I thought someone has to know about the city

• Seattle, if not for anything, is home to the most popular software company on earth - Microsoft
• Seattle is also home to the popular coffee chain - Starbucks, with the first ever Starbucks store in the US opened in downtown Seattle in 1967. That store is a must-see if you are ever visiting Seattle.
• Seattle is the 21st biggest and 23rd most populous city in the US with a population of 573,000
• Though Seattle has almost become synonymous with rain, there is something that I need to clear things about. Although on an average Seattle is cloudy 227 days a year, the rainfall that Seattle receives is way less than many cities in the US. For example, both NYC (42 inches) and Miami (60 inches) receive more annual rainfall than Seattle (39 inches). But the problem in Seattle is that the number of days it rains in a year is higher than any of these cities bcos it does not really rain here, it rather drizzles.
• Some of the popular films that were shot in and around Seattle - Sleepless in Seattle, Assassins, Disclosure and the latest Harrison Ford starrer, Firewall. This website here has the complete list of movies that were shot in all the major cities in the US. (Wouldn't it be awesome to have a similar site for Tamil/ Indian movies?)
• Some of the celebrities who are from Seattle -Bill Gates, (Microsoft founder), Fred Couples (golfer), Gail Devers (athlete), Jimmie Hendrix (guitarist), Bruce Lee, (actor - both he and his son have been buried here), Michael Chang (tennis player - he in fact is a regular to a church one of my friends attends), Dave Mathews (musician), Jason Terry (NBA player), Ed Viesturs (professional climber who became the first American to climb each one of the tallest 14 peaks in the world)
• Other popular companies that have their headquarters in and around Seattle - Amazon, Boeing, Expedia, T-Mobile, Real networks, eBay, Accenture. In fact, the Wired Magazine has ranked Seattle as one of the top 10 techie cities in the US, along with the likes of Bay Area and NYC. For the remaining cities in the list, go here.
• A big fire (called the Great Seattle Fire) burned the entire business district back in 1889. But the city was quickly built over the remains left by the fire and thus Seattle rose from a destruction of such a magnitude to be the city that it is now. And even today, there is an underground tour which takes you through the destruction left by the fire. For details about the fire and the tour, click here and here.
• Seattle is the most literate city in the US and also the 3rd most ethnically-diverse city in the US.
• Though the official nickname for Seattle is the Emerald City, it also goes by the following names: Rainy City, Jet city, Space City, Gateway to Alaska and Queen City.
• One of the best things about Seattle is that there are numerous attractions in and around the city, which can be accessed from Seattle on single day trips. Some of the attractions that are must see if you are visiting Seattle are Mt. Rainier, Olympic national park, Mt. St. Helens, Lake Chelan, Snoqualmie falls and pass, San Juan Islands, Cape Flattery (the north-western most point in Continental US). The best times to visit the city would be anytime between May and September.

So, if you any of you reading this blog haven’t been Seattle yet, please add Seattle to the list of places that you want to see and do remember that you have a ready host in here. Folks in Seattle can add more points to this list if I have left out anything important about this beautiful city.