Mountain View
Maria Shimizu Christensen
Update Your Home With Help from the Northwest Remodeling Expo
Done with your outdated bathroom? Need to replace some light fixtures? Make your house earthquake-proof? Want to give your home a facelift to put it up for sale to take advantage of the red-hot seller’s market? Or just figure out how to make your spaces more useable because you’re staying put?
Four Full Days of the Tacoma Home + Garden Show
You might want to attend the Tacoma Home + Garden Show at the Tacoma Dome on more than one day to take in all that will be offered. Let your dreams for your home run a little wild with four full days of the show featuring a large variety of offerings.
The Puyallup Home & Garden Show Is This Weekend
Dedicated gardeners know that the time to plan for lush summer gardens is in the winter. Dreaming of dahlias? Wondering what vegetables to plant this year in your raised beds? Want to know which bushes can be turned into a living fence? The Puyallup Home & Garden Show this weekend can answer those questions and many more.
There Will Be Live Fireworks at the Space Needle This New Year’s Eve
Photo by Julie Gentry, licensed under CCO Public Domain. The New Year’s Eve fireworks at the Space Needle will be a physical reality this year, unlike the virtual reality event of last year, but you won’t be able to enjoy them from the grounds of the Seattle Center.
Don’t Expect a Robust Snow Removal Response in Seattle
Roads are slowly being plowed and salted this morning, as Seattle enters its third day of snow on the ground, but don’t expect a rapid response to icy roads. And, if you live on a side road, don’t expect it to receive any kind of service.
SAD in Seattle
The winter blues are fairly common in Seattle, though truth be told we share that with a lot of northern communities. Up in this latitude – the 47th parallel north, if you’re curious and into that kind of thing – the sun is out for only 8.5 hours of the day during the darkest days of winter. But, it gets worse.
The Long War to Change the Name of Mount Rainier
Aerial view of Mount RainerStan Shebs on Wikimedia Commons. For a majestic mountain that lifts everyone's spirit when it's visible, Mount Rainier can generate a lot of controversy. That's been true since Captain George Vancouver first laid eyes on the volcano in 1792.
Don’t Be Afraid, but Spider Season is Beginning in Western Washington
Giant House Spider (Eratigena atrica) in Oslo, NorwayPhoto by Ryan Hodnett, Wikimedia Commons. At 4 inches long, the giant house spider is something of a nightmare to arachnophobes. To be fair, it’s also a little freaky to people who don’t have a phobia. They move fast on very long legs – their bodies are only about an inch long – and they can’t tell you apart from a wall, which sometimes makes it look like they’re running toward you. They’re likely looking for a place to hide, but that’s not why you’re seeing them right now.
How to Not Sound Like a Newcomer to Seattle
Entrance to the Pike Place Market in Seattle.Photo by Maria Shimizu Christensen. There are pros and cons to being a newcomer or visitor in any city, but Seattle is somewhat notorious for a phenomenon called the Seattle Freeze that makes it just a little harder to fit in. The idea is that residents are polite but it can be hard to make friends. There’s debate about whether or not the freeze actually exists, and everyone’s mileage may vary, but it doesn’t hurt to learn to speak like a native. This is also useful for visitors and tourists trying to find their way around the city.
Tool Sale at the NE Seattle Tool Library
Sure, you can check out one of thousands of tools housed in the NE Seattle Tool Library, but you might find that you’re using a tool so often you might as well own it. You might also just be looking for a good deal on used tools. Whatever your reason or need, the library has an upcoming and highly popular sale.
Sailgating Season for Husky Football Fans Starts This Weekend
Aerial view of sailgating at Husky StadiumPhoto via University of Washington. No, not tailgating, although that clearly also starts this weekend with the kickoff game between the UW Huskies and the University of Montana Grizzlies on Saturday, September 4th. For those who don’t already know, sailgating is unique to these shores – it’s tailgating on a boat.
Maria Shimizu Christensen
152+
Posts
5M+
Views
Author of a Seattle handbook for newcomers, Maria provides news, guides, and tidbits for city dwellers, visitors, and day trippers
It’s essential to note our commitment to transparency:
Our Terms of Use acknowledge that our services may not always be error-free, and our Community Standards emphasize our discretion in enforcing policies. As a platform hosting over 100,000 pieces of content published daily, we cannot pre-vet content, but we strive to foster a dynamic environment for free expression and robust discourse through safety guardrails of human and AI moderation.