Our plan after Portland, was to stay in the Northwest, and head up to Seattle. Another City neither Nancy nor I had ever visited, let alone lived. We found a furnished short-term rental apartment on Craigslist, that was in the eastern suburbs about a 45min. bus ride into downtown. No problem for us, and it was a 2BR with balcony, complex swimming pool and party room. After some difficult negotiations, we reached agreement with the Owner for a 2mo. Rental. But, as has happened before to us during our travels, 2 days before we were leaving the Owner emailed to say he found another Renter (undoubtedly for a longer term), and reneged on our agreement. How sad how too many people have so little honor. But that’s life. As our Lease was up in Portland and we had no other viable alternatives at the moment, we elected to head up to Seattle anyway and purchased tickets on Amtrak for the 2.5hr ride. In addition to frantically renewing our search for an alternate apartment rental, we looked for more immediate temporary accommodations in a Hotel or B&B. Unfortunately, we discovered that this being the height of the tourist season in Seattle, not only were many places fully booked, but the rates were outrageous. Finally, settled on a small B&B in the Queen Anne neighborhood (a short bus ride or long walk into downtown), for an acceptable rate, albeit still well above our usual budget (for apartment rental). It did have free WIFI Internet, which allowed us to continue an intensive search for another apartment rental. But, as one might surmise, besides the fact that this again was the high season, short-term furnished apartment rentals are generally not voluminous. Over the next week, we just missed out several times on rentals that sounded good (even better than our original lost apartment). Frustration was mounting.
In the meantime, when not spending many hours of our day doing the Internet searches, we did have time to do some touring of the City. Saw many of the usual tourist attractions: the Space Needle; Pike Place Market; Pioneer Square; a Water Taxi cruise over to Alki Beach; the Olympic Sculpture Park; the architecturally stunning Seattle Library; and even the unusual Klondike Gold Rush National Historic "Park" (which is actually just a small building in downtown). Unfortunately, we did not have the opportunity to get out of the City and explore the beautiful surrounding areas, Puget Sound, the mountains, etc., which we understand is what really makes living in Seattle special.
Sadly, and to our utter dismay, after 9 days of staying in a B&B while leaving no stone unturned in our search, we were unable to find an available short-term furnished apartment rental. We even expanded our search to San Francisco, San Diego, Boulder CO, Vancouver BC, returning to Portland, and even our former home city of Chicago (came very close again more than once to renting something there, even one just a block away from my sister in Evanston), but alas it was not to be. Maybe just our bad timing in addition to budget constraints. Surely, if given another week or so, we probably could have found something. But, we our frustration of being ‘stuck’ in the B&B and striking out so many times, had reached our limits. Once again, we looked beyond the borders. Found an amazing one-way airfare from nearby Vancouver BC to Barcelona (and non-stop to boot) along with a very reasonable 2BR apartment rental from a Prof. At my alma mater, Univ. of Mich., through Sabbaticalhomes.com. So we hopped a short Amtrak ride from Seattle to Vancouver, and jetted on off overseas once more. FYI – We also lost out on an opportunity 'settle down' for awhile, because before we were ‘forced’ to leave, I intended to pursue full-time job with the City as a Parking Enforcement Officer – the pay and benefits was ‘decent” starting at $45K + benefits, then $53K for promotion to Field Training Officer; and, ultimately to a quite respectable $90K position as a “Manager’ – which I thought I would be uniquely qualified for – plus benefits. I have always had a keen interest in Law Enforcement, as evidenced by my recent stint as a sworn part-time Police Officer in Chicago’s northern suburbs. In any event, due to civil service constraints for the City position, the hiring process was an arduous 4mos. long; and due to our inability to find housing, we couldn't stick around to see the process through despite my sincere interest. Maybe next year.
NEXT UP: BARCELONA SPAIN
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