scale

Someone asked me the question a month or two back about how big Capitol Hill was compared to Shaker Heights (the town where I grew up). I thought they were about the same size. I was wrong.

Back in Shaker I'd walk to the middle school, which was 1.4 miles away. In Seattle, a walk of the same distance would bring me to to the Convention Center at the edge of downtown.

If I were to do a "long run," I'd head up to Horseshoe Lake, which is about 3 miles away from my parent's place. Here, a 3 mile run would take me to Queen Anne or the middle of UW. I guess a good long run here would be to run around Lake Union, passing by half the neighborhoods in Seattle. I should do that someday.

Some rough equivalent distances:
Downtown Seattle = Shaker Middle School
Seattle Chinatown = The Pearl of the Orient
Safeco and Qwest Fields = Legacy Village
Bellevue = Cleveland Chinatown
Microsoft = MetroHealth
Alpental Ski Area = Canton, OH
Richmond, BC = Pittsburgh, PA
Coeur d'Alene, ID = Scarborough, ON

Not to mention that within the distance it would take to walk to Mercer (1 block away in Shaker), I have pho (four, actually), restaurants, bars, my bank, a farmer's market, three grocery stores, two parks, 10 coffee shops (3 Starbucks), my dentist, and my optometrist.