Tempus Puget – Putting Down Roots in Seattle

A lot has changed for us in the past 4 months: a new house, a new city, and even a new car. So how did we get here?

It’s been over 4 years since we set out from San Francisco on our grand adventure. Freshly vaccinated in April 2021, job notice given, a progressive purge of belongings, and into storage for the things we just couldn’t part with; we set off in August 2021 with our house still in escrow, two (old steel) touring bicycles and 6 bags for a planned two year experience. It was hard to imagine it could turn into 4 years, but it did. Turns out the world is pretty big, and other cultures very attractive (especially more familiar European ones). But time is fleeting, and as we settle into a new life, it all seems like a bit of a dream now.

Every day really was a new adventure. As we navigated ongoing Covid restrictions, testing, passes, and vaccinations, it was stressful, but we also felt the exhilaration of exploring magnificent new places with almost no tourist crowds to be found…Zermatt, Morocco, the English Lake District, and an almost empty Amalfi Coast, Venice, and Rome! Three trips through North and South Asia. And for most of our European adventure, the ultimate freedom of having just what we needed on our bicycles, with the ultimmate freedom to zig or zag at will. Time like this when everyone is in good health is precious, and we knew it.

The nomadic life was addictive and a great way to transition from a real full time job. And add in the amazing Trusted Housesitters experiences we had and the kindness of so many generous friends everywhere, and we truly felt like we had figured out a major hack of potential mid-life malaise and early retirement. We are especially grateful to those who hosted us in Europe and back in the States while we were without roots. It made it all possible. Not just having a place to stay, but having a familiar base to land, whether it be in the UK, France, San Francisco, LA, Chicago, Palm Springs, Seattle…. One of our nomadic priorities was to keep our close ties to family and friends back in the USA, and therefore we swung back through nearly twice a year, which wasn’t always easy and often the most exhausting parts of our blissful existence.

But just as we were in sync on the idea of nomadic life in 2021, we started to hit a limit in early 2025 and both began to feel a strong pull back to more permanency. We just couldn’t muster more packing and unpacking, tweaking temporary lodging to our likes, and never having a true home to come back to. There are a lot of things that you struggle with as a nomad. Daily travel adaptation takes a lot of your brain space (and expands it!) so it doesn’t always leave as much focus and energy for other aspects of living. We missed a community, our furniture and art, cooking, gardening, and having a few more clothes to choose from daily. So we came back to the West Coast in late June with the goal of finding a place to call home by the end of the year. Faster if possible.

And fast it was. We have been following real estate in North Seattle for a few years now, and had hired an agent in January, who was fully aware that we would be far away for the first half of the year, but was happy to send us listings for a future potential sale. (I think he could sense we were serious and ready to settle down)

So when a new construction house-like condo that we had been tracking was still available in late June, we jumped at a chance to settle early. The timing was perfect as we had a house sit in San Francisco for our great friends and former neighbors (and their adorable cats) in July, but could then load up once and move our life North.

So we’ve owned our new home in Seattle for three months now and I can already feel a change in how my brain is looking at its surroundings, how I see every person and place now as an opportunity for a new long term friend. Our travel brains are now recording the surroundings in permanent mapping mode reserved for “home”. And long term relationships with shops, businesses, and culture again. When you are a nomad, you make some great friends along the way (and keep many!), but you are often just skimming the surface of the world and your surroundings.

So how has life in North Seattle been so far?

First off, people are mellower here than the Bay Area. Not every one of course, but in general. This suits us as we are now mellower after four years of travel and detached from our 30+ years in the wonderfully stimulating and dynamic San Francisco Bay Area. The west coast has always been a draw for a certain type of person, and the Pacific Northwest seems to draw folks who are perhaps a bit more introspective, down to earth, and happy to enjoy a bit of rain and darkness during the winter balanced with the joy of trees, water, and four distinct seasons.

And we’ve not really experienced the famous “Seattle Freeze”, as we’ve found our neighborhood to be very friendly and we’re slowly starting the process of building a new community here. Maybe we brought the right attitude from our travels, and it seems the love of bikes and a green Subaru has made us almost indistinguishable from the long time locals. Well, at least a bit.

So why Seattle now?

1. Climate and the outdoors – Yup, we like rain, forests, evergreens; and clouds. It may be a little rough in the heart of the longer and darker winter, so we’ll let you know how we fare. A bit of winter travel is definitely in the cards, especially after the warmth of the holidays passes into January.
2. The Right Direction – Seattle has been building a ton of housing. They liberalized re-development on almost all lots in 2019 and we actually moved into one of the results: new housing in an old established neighborhood. Almost unheard of in SF. (We were waiting and trying…)
3. Economic Diversity – Seattle has a broader range of economic strata, and has built so many apartments and condos that market prices are almost the same (or less!) than dedicated affordable housing. This is a success. Single family housing prices have soared here recently and this is still a huge challenge for the continued prosperity in the region.
4. Transportation – ok, Seattle is more car based than San Francisco, and probably will always be based on its development geography, but Seattle has passed 3 bond measures to build out transit and an extensive light rail system. Sound Transit is now running two lines, with multiple expansions and openings coming. Rapid buses and great upgrades to the cycling infrastructure (mostly due to another city bond measure renewed by voters last November).
5. It’s a big city! Ok, it’s not New York, London, or Paris, but it’s also not Austin or Portland, which just don’t quite check our real city boxes (sorry), with a deep history, global connections, and a broad base of businesses and companies to pump life into the local economy. It certainly feels more like a working city than the core of the SF Bay recently.

The economic diversity matters a lot as San Francisco was in a bit of a service doom loop, as most blue collar and service workers couldn’t come near to affording to live within 50 miles of the city. Here people have many more options. Of course, they have to compete with white collar newcomers from California and elsewhere, who have been migrating to the PNW for years.

A reason we didn’t consider in the move here was taxes – It’s true, Washington State has no state income tax, but that was not really a factor for us. Life is too short to live somewhere just to save 5-10% on taxes. Besides, other taxes and user fees are pretty high, so it’s not exactly a tax haven. We do notice that a lot of infrastructure and services are more streamlined or less robust than California and San Francisco but maybe that’s ok. We’ll see. I do have long term concerns about the sustainability of the infrastructure in the state, and they are constantly chasing repairs on nearly failing bridges. But local leaders have figured ways to fund things here, such as the 15 year special sewer fee we’ll be paying for our new house connection.

So we plan to continue to blog about our continued travels and our post-nomadic life transition. (Yes, I am already planning our spring bike tour in Europe…) We plan to host lots of friends and family for a change, and be closer to most of them too. But we don’t have a specific plan for how long we will stay here, 5-10 years, maybe longer as we settle in and continue to love it. We’ll see. We have been nomadic travelers twice in our lives now, so we know how to do it.

We also plan to keep housesitting in our lives, even as we settle in our unexpected new house, we just wrapped up a memorable house sit for a lovely family near Gig Harbor, with Puget Sound waterfront views and access. It was really magical, but was a bit tough to be away from our new place after moving in for nearly two months. But we committed to the sit before we knew we would buy a place, and were determined to keep our word to do the sit regardless. We take the “trusted” part of housesting seriously and it was great to experience life on the Sound.

There is so much to explore here in the Pacific Northwest that we already have dozens of adventures on our minds; mountains, rivers, camping, wildlife, and the endless salt waters of the magical Puget Sound. And just as we explored every nook of San Francisco over 30 years, We are already enjoying getting to know Seattle and its many urban gems. And we plan to keep our precious SF Bay Area friends close, with visits to and from our former home.

So I need to wrap up, as Cheryl has so many more things to add and blog about, and we have finally slowed down a bit from our big transtion to reflect again in more future musings.

Happy Halloween and Happy Fall to All!