One thing I noticed living in Seattle is that the people here are much more representative of what goes on in the rest of the country than in the Bay Area. The Bay Area is an extremely liberal place with a strong emphasis on big business and big ideas. Seattle area is more laid back with an appreciation for college sports, nature, and doing things the right way. There's more emphasis on quality than quantity.
The dentist offices I've seen are representative of this thought.

For example, I've met a dentist who only works 4-5 hrs per day. He tells me that he would rather do a really good job on the 3 to 4 fillings rather than do a crappy to mediocre job on 10 to 12 fillings. Of course the Bay Area is filled with dentists who do the 10 to 12. I never met any dentist in the Bay Area who chose to work so few hours. Many of the offices here have the hygienist only see 7 patients per day as opposed to the 8 or 9 in the Bay Area.

Because of the increased emphasis on quality, and the laid back atmosphere (there's nothing laid back about the SF Bay Area), people can connect with each other more. I was shopping at supermarket the other day and there was a guy by the door who said "good bye, have a nice day" and looked me straight in the eye. Nobody in the Bay Area ever looked me straight in the eye and greeted me goodbye like that. I still feel awkward when people do that around here which happens frequently. I just look downward because I don't know how to react. It's really sad.

I ate some bread and butter tonite for dinner. I used Tillamook butter to put on the bread. Tillamook is a small local dairy that makes butter and cheese. I don't EVER remember seeing small local dairy brand names anywhere in the SF Bay Area. It was always the same old "Challenge Butter" and whatever you find at Safeway. Even the smaller mom and pop grocery stores all carried the same stuff. I much prefer to try out and support the local vendors cause they have something the big dogs don't have, usually better taste, character, price, or whatever.

Hiking

I've learned in the 1 year I have lived in Seattle area now that this area is the king of hiking. I joined Meetup.com and enlisted with a few hiking groups. I keep getting all these incredible hiking ideas in my emails but have only been able to attend one of them so far which went well and was very enriching for me. The other hikes I've done on my own. I still have not visited Mt Ranier which is supposed to be the pinnacle of all hikes in this area, nor have I done the hikes in Mt Olympia which is supposed to be really beautiful as well.

Within 1 hour drive there are so many hikes in North Bend. There are also some great hikes near town of Monroe as well like Serene Lake which I just did. There are so many forests and trees here. The weather has alot to do with the incredible hiking opps here. Because it rains so much ppl don't want to live here so it keeps population in check. With fewer ppl there are fewer trees removed and more hiking opps.

It snowed not far from here near Mt Ranier a couple days ago. The weather as a result was super cold today as well as the last few days. It's 44F now and 54F in SF to give an example. It reminds me of last year when I arrived on May 8. I drove past Snoqualmie and it had just snowed the day before. I noticed piles of snow on the side of the road and inquired about it. So I guess the next week or so we will still get snow before it finally starts to warm up.

It's weird because only 1 more month before the longest day of the year but it doesn't feel like it. It's been so cloudy the last month that we really haven't seen the sun too much. Only the last few weeks. Today I got to see the sun until 7:30pm. It was very nice. I know when the summer comes in a few weeks that there will be less rain and incredible amount of daylight. The twilights here are much longer than Bay Area. I'm still trying to figure out why.

As of today we could still get pretty good twilight around 8:30p and beyond. I know the Bay Area at it's best will get twilight till just past 9pm or so before it gets totally dark. Here during the longest day of the year we get twilight past 10p and then morning arrives like around 4:30a. It's ridiculous. When you add in the warm moderate weather, with gentle wind, it makes you want to spend all day and all night outside hiking or just lounging around. The summers here are really to die for.