I lived in Seattle for 5 years. I sometimes hated the pretentiousness of the people and the serious attitude problem of the Seattle natives, but overall, I loved living there. I especially loved the coffee. There was coffee everywhere. There was a Starbucks attached to the hospital. Only a few blocks from my apartment, there was a Starbucks across the street from another Starbucks. Most people complained about that kind of thing, but it was comforting to know you could get a chai latte anytime, anywhere.
I was playing with Google Earth and looking longingly at my old neighborhood in Seattle. I noticed the "coffee houses" toggle button and clicked it, and saw this:
Keep in mind that this is just the coffee places in the very concentrated downtown area of Seattle. I mean, this is all within easy walking distance of where I lived. My office is in this picture somewhere, and my apartment was on the right side, between Uncle Elizabeths, Tully's and Starbucks. Let's contrast that with the image of the entire city where I now live, Proctor, MN.
Note that that is the entire town of Proctor. Not one single coffee shop. Actually, back before I moved to Seattle, there was one coffee place. It was part of a video rental/coffee shop/tanning salon/bait shop, which is now just a video rental/tanning salon. So there is not a single latte in this town. "Sure," you might say, "Proctor is a tiny town of 3000 people, and you can't expect coffee in a town with no businesses other than convenience stores and bars." You'd be right. Let's pretend I had a car and could get into nearby Duluth. Even there, it is bleak.
That's a huge area of Duluth, covering most of the main downtown area. And it would take me an hour on a bus to get to any of those coffee places. I'm suffering from serious withdrawl. I miss Seattle. I miss chai and raspberry scones for breakfast while walking to work. I think I've mentioned before that I hate living in northern Minnesota.
