Two decades

Today is the 20th anniversary of when i arrived in Washington.

On Sept 12 1991 drove north from Berkeley California, where i had been visiting my girlfriend. I spent that night in Salem Oregon and in the morning headed up I-5.  At 11:30 AM i crossed the river in to Washington for the first time. When i got to Olympia, my new home for the next 10 months, i was in awe at the rainforest and the mountains and water and i continue to be today. I moved to Issaquah in the Seattle suburbs in June 1992 and into Seattle for good in October 1992.

In the 20 years that Washington has been my home, i've spent a total of 17.4 years in the state; traveling has accounted for an accumulated total of two and a half years. The two decades were divided in the middle by the year long trip to Europe.

Since last year (the tipping point) i've spent more time in Washington than anywhere else, over a third of my life. It sure went quickly.

Seattle is a fascinating city, a very young city. My two decades here are about 1/6 the history of the city. It's impossible to avoid the feeling that it is a city in it's late adolescence. There was an enormous change in 1999 & 2000, the city grew up. I've really lived in two very different cities, Seattle in the 1990s and Seattle in the 2000s. I know things are changing everywhere, but i think it's remarkable how much Seattle has changed in the last two decades.

And it's not just the attitude, the feeling, the personality, (if a city can have a personality!) that has changed. I was chatting with the woman next me on the bus the other day, we agreed that there are few cities in the world where the urban landscape changes as rapidly and dramatically. I've only lived here 20 years but on any bus ride, any walk or bike ride i can point to an amazing amount of places where buildings have changed, sometimes more than once!