Washington-ian

Well I've lived in Washington for 3 months now, and besides having to wait another week to get a new drivers license, I feel like a real Washington resident. Of course that means that I'm aware of all the differences between Washington and New Mexico:

Its GREEN (and I'm not talking about chile)-

New Mexico is a pretty state but it has nothing on Washington when it comes to greenery. Of course this is due to the constant rain which I am becoming quite accustomed to (never thought rain boots would be part of my daily footwear) so no matter where I drive its always green- and that's a pleasant sight to see.

There's coffee EVERYWHERE-

Its a very common thing to see little coffee "stands" set up in just about every parking lot. Its really cool that Starbucks isn't my only option for coffee anymore when I need a quick fix. I enjoy being able to stop by (they all have drive through) and get yummy coffee for cheap (much cheaper then Starbucks). Its something I'll miss when I leave Washington for sure.

There's no Dions,TGIFridays, or hot air balloons-

This is one area that Albuquerque has Seattle beat. Although there's lots of good food places that NM doesn't have- I miss Dions and TGIF (mostly the happy hour- didn't really eat the food much). I really miss seeing hot air balloons in the early  mornings too, and its sad to know I won't be able to make the Balloon Fiesta this year :(

The beer/liquor selection is pretty different-

I guess this wasn't really a surprise since I'm 1500 miles from home. New Mexico had some good breweries that I miss seeing at local bars and restaurants, but I am lucky to get to try all the new local beers on tap (Pyramid Hefeweizen is my favorite so far).  The coolest thing is to see Aha Toro Tequila at almost every place I go to- its much more popular here.

The traffic SUCKS-

No matter what time of day or week. There's HOV lanes which help- just not me since I'm always driving alone. Luckily the people here know how to merge, and drive in traffic. I've noticed there's very few accidents (unlike ABQ where a 3 car pile up on Coors was your average morning). Although there's a lot more traffic, people aren't as horrible of drivers- controlled chaos in a way. Oh and the "metered ramps" are something I'm still not used to (only used during busy times of the day to help like 6 lanes merge into one before merging onto the highway). Its a weird system that takes some getting used to.