Seattle is an incredible place to visit and live for it's status of being situated between two of the most beautiful mountain ranges on Earth. The Cascade Mountains are on the East side of the city and stretch all the way up into Canada and down Through Oregon and into Northern California. The Olympic mountains are on the west side of the city on the other side of Puget Sound and boast some of the most scenic forrested areas on Earth. From the city and surrounding areas, you can also access the world's largest ferry fleet "Washington State Ferries" which can take you all over Puget Sound from Seattle, Tacoma all the way up Puget Sound to the San Juan Islands. Seattle is the northern most large city in the United States but has one of the best climates on the planet. It rarely snows in Seattle because of the enormous amounts of water and mild climates keeping temperatures well above freezing most of the winter, but you only have to drive a few hours away to find some of the earth's record sitting snowfalls.
Mount Rainier's Paradise visitors center area sit a record and held it for decades with over 1,000 inches or 4 stories worth of snow in one season, now Mount Baker north of Seattle holds the newest World Record snow fall with around 1,100 inches!)
THE CITY OF SEATTLE is located in Washington State on the shores of Puget Sound. Seattle is surrounded by water, with massive Lake Washington along the east side of the city and Puget Sound, one of the world's great inland waterways on the west side of the city that comes into western Washington from the Pacific Ocean. The huge ship canel separates the city from north and south with Lake Union in the heart of Seattle. With a population of around 600,000 in city and 4 million people in the Seattle Metro Area, Seattle is one of the larger urban centers in the United States of America.
MOUNT RAINIER 14,411 FEET tall is the flag ship mountain for the U.S. mainland and is truly magnificent as it has one of the most impressive verticle rises of over 8,500 feet causing this giant mountain to loom over western Washington State. Because Mount Rainier is so tall and massive, it shows up on radar, satellite images and creates it's own weather. Mount Rainer sits in the middle of the cascade range approximately 80 miles southeast of Seattle and has been listed as the most beautiful place on Earth from Life magazine. Native Americans in the Northwest call the giant mountain Mount Tahoma and was named Rainier after a ship's captain from the first visitors to the region long before Washington State was created.