I live in Bellevue, Washington. Bellevue is 5 miles east of Seattle. Lake Washington separates the two cities. There are snow capped mountains to the East and to the West. Mt Rainier, located 60 miles to the SE, towers over the rest of the Cascades mountains at 14,000+ feet.
From the air, Western Washington looks green all year long thanks to being in and surrounded by a conifer forest. In the summer, there are a thousand shades of green from the grasses, flowering plants, gardens, weeds and leaves. That is the sort of beauty you can find throughout Western Washington.
What makes where I live so great for me is the convenient access to the amenities I use and need. I am two blocks from a major freeway exit. It is a mile to the bank, drug store and grocery store all located in a two-block stretch.
As a person in recovery attending 12-step meetings, it is hard to imagine a place with more meetings within a mile that have free parking anywhere in the world. There are over 100 meetings each week from six AM to eleven PM weekdays with midnight meetings on Friday, Saturday and Sunday.
I am not much of a shopper, but the three local malls are great places to meet, walk and talk with friends. Bellevue Place is upscale with 150ish stores, a 15-screen movie theater, Westin and Hyatt hotels, a plethora of restaurants with all kinds of food, and an art museum. Factoria Mall is a bit like a score of stores that got glued together between a grocery store and a department store with a large indoor hallway serving as the glue. Crossroads Mall has a wonderful food court with a dozen restaurants that make good food fast at budget prices.
What also makes my location so great is the parking spot right outside my door. It is flat, level and close. That is a big deal when it comes to bringing in the groceries when you use a wheelchair to get around.
There are two hospitals a mile away to the north, Overlake and Group Health. Overlake has greatly expanded to become a big giant hospital campus. Unfortunately, the last two times I went to Overlake for medical problems, I ended up leaving in worse shape than when I got there. Both times I got a pseudomonas infection requiring IV antibiotics delivered through a PICC line leading to my heart to cure.
Fortunately for me, the number two-rated rehab hospital in the US is the UW Medical Center in Seattle across Lake Washington from Bellevue. Literally, the UWMC is on Lake Washington. One of the most important factors in where I live is good health care. Seattle has so many hospitals in one neighborhood, it is called 'Pill Hill'.
Seattle winters usually have four to ten days of snow on the ground in the lowlands. Worse than that is 'Seattle mist' which is like a wet clear fog. It does not put much rain on the ground, but it does make everything wet and the clouds can block out the sun for weeks at a time. This year was supposed to be a terrible year for bad weather thanks to a La Nina weather condition. It was a terrible year for bad weather—in the Midwest and East Coast. Seattle weather was great. The worst thing so far was a scary start with several days of snow in late November.
I am grateful for all the goodness where I live.
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