I grew up in New England and lived for many years in the Boston area before moving to Seattle in the 90s. I lived in the greater Puget Sound area (including Se

I grew up in New England and lived for many years in the Boston area before moving to Seattle in the 90s. I lived in the greater Puget Sound area (including Seattle and as far out as North Bend) for 13 years. Sun-breaks, yeah. Hard to believe that those are a thing, but Seattle people get really excited about them. No mosquitoes was a huge win over New England. Aside from the tech, the mountains and the water are what brought me there. I got there just when the first wave of anti-Californian sentiment was getting going and R.E. prices were on the uptick. Among the things that led me to leave were the absolutely horrific traffic situation in the city and eastside. It got so when I left the house to drive somewhere, it didn't matter what day or what time of day/night it was, I faced very high odds of encountering a stop & go backup along the way. I became convinced that part of this was due to the region apparently having the most timid drivers I'd seen anywhere. The slightest roadside anomaly, the most minor unexpected sight would result in brakes being slammed on and a mile-long stop&go forming. On 128/90/495 in MA we drove bumper-to-bumper at 70mph and got where we were going. Speaking of the highways, the sight that completely blew my mind in Seattle (again, as a New Englander) was that of people abandoning their cars on the interstate highways when a few inches of snow fell. Not just stopping, but getting out and walking away. Regarding the weather, the summers are glorious but very short. The weather is probably starting to clear up about now, but winter will be back in October. The gray is what got to me, and in the winter the gray combined with cold (30s-40sF) drizzle made it all feel much more miserable to me than 20F, blue skies and sun on blinding white snow, which, by the way, is just what we get here in Spokane. Speaking of that, Spokane weather is remarkably like New England - four seasons, fall foliage, cold+snowy winters and hot (but not humid -- very dry) summers. Alas, there's no significant software tech scene and the cultural scene is awful. Washington has a half dozen or so dramatically different climates, it's an amazing place to live.