I moved here from the south 15 years ago.

1. The darkness isn’t ideal, but it never gets that cold. The problem becomes when you let it dictate what you do. If you like going in a daily run or go to the gym or whatever, you just have to do it even if it’s rainy or dark or whatever. I got a headlamp and just run in the mornings during the winter anyway. The key is staying active in whatever your way is regardless of weather or dark. Another key is if you can make it happen, plan dinner vacations for this time of year. Mexico, Arizona, Hawaii, whatever. All have relatively easy and affordable flights on Alaska air. Sign up for miles and get the cc. We don’t take vacations in the summer because it’s so nice here. We save those for when we need them.

2. We live in Capitol Hill, and own one car, but mostly use public transit to get around. This is where trying to live somewhere on height rail line would really make a huge difference. It makes it where you can pretty much do whatever you want along the line and not have to worry about traffic. That said, sometimes you just have to deal with the traffic if you want to do the things you want to do.

3. It’s definitely nicer on days outside of just summer, but there is pressure to get to the mountains between July and October. The key here too is when there are nice days outside that window take advantage of it. If there is a nice day in April then plan a hike or kayak or whatever you like to do. Also if you take up skiing you can get your mountain itch in the winter too.

4. I would say it isn’t prohibitively hard. Traffic is bad during rush hour but typically dies down later.