Outdoor Furniture Seattle vs. Miami

Outdoor Furniture Seattle vs. Miami

Does Seattle have more patio furniture than Miami? May be so...
My older brother who lives in Seattle invited us for a weekend in Seattle. It's great because I will get to spend my 40th birthday with family. However we live in Miami and it's kind of scary to go up north during winter months. It's April but forecast still showed cold temperatures for the weekend. We packed our winter clothes and off we go.

After landing in Seattle we figured it wasn't that cold. It gets a little cold at nights but during the day it was really nice and warm. My brother kept saying that we are lucky because all 4 days we were there were all sunny. My brother lives with his wife and his son in Bellevue. They live in a very nice neighborhood where all the houses have patios, backyards and even balconies on their second floors.  I'm surprised to see furniture on every balcony, patio or backyard. It looks like people really like outdoors here. In Miami most balconies are empty.

I have written a previous blog about South Florida balconies. Walking around in Bellevue I saw people enjoying their balconies or patios. During our stay we went to Kirkland, Fremont, Redmond, Seattle, Bothel and it was the same story for all of them. Nice houses with patios and nice apartment buildings with balconies. And all these patio and balconies have furniture almost without exception. That's amazing. On one side you have Seattle where it rains most part of the year and temperatures are cold in winter months and on the other hand you have Miami where it rains a fraction of days than Seattle and temperatures are much warmer year round. So how would anyone explain this? Are we Miamians unsocial losers who like to sit home and watch baseball or are Seattleites showing off their affection for good weather? I think that's it. Since weather is not good most of the time they just want to be ready when it's good and sunny. They have their patio dining sets, balcony furniture and barbecues ready so that they can spend time when the nice days of spring and summer show up. On the other hand Miamians have the good weather no matter what so they tend to ignore the fact that they can spend time in their balcony and patio. I guess it's like having a pool and never using it and wanting to use a pool when you don't have it.

Seattle is a great city with lots of outdoor enthusiasts. You see people jogging, walking outdoors. Downtown Seattle and Pike Market is bustling with locals and tourists. Views of mountains, lakes and the ocean are amazing. Food is good. Their only complaint is weather. From what I saw they live a more outdoor life than South Floridians. That's for sure. Their obsession with outdoors proves itself on their patio furniture. Every balcony, every patio and every backyard is furnished with chairs, dining sets, grills, deep seating sets, rockers and what not. So, may be we should move our business to Seattle or at least we should visit more often to look around and get ideas of what people buy.

Our 4 day trip Seattle was one of the best trips I had for many years. We are on our way back to Miami and the outdoor furniture phenomenon is still bugging my mind. I should do some further research into the Seattle Miami patio comparison. May be I can call some Seattle customers?