Seattle Impressions
Housing
Overall, the Seattle area seems to be a nice place to live. The suburbs I visited (Queen Anne, Fremont, Capitol Hill, Green Lake) are quite relaxed, with fairly large houses, coffee shops, and people who greet each other in the street. Apartments tend to be clumped together in the slightly seedier parts of each neighborhood, but they can be quite spacious and nice further away from downtown (eg Green Lake area).
Studios and 1 bedroom apartments can range as low as $700-800, depending on the neighborhood (eg. I found a couple of studio apartments in lower Queen Anne for ~$700). The best place to look for apartments is on craigslist. Although there are free apartment-specific classifieds available, I have heard that those listings are largely cross-posted , and craigslist is the main source overall for housing openings. Another option available is to look for the roommate inquiry pages on craigslist. I have heard that these pages are taken more or less seriously, and a friend of mine was able to find housing with roommates through that means. Finding a two or three bedroom place is much more economical, probably will average about $500 per person if you find a couple of roommates and live further out from downtown.
A potential option to consider when initially looking for housing is to stay at a hostel for the first week in Seattle while you go out and look for apartments. There are three main ones: City Hostel, Green Tortoise, and one operated by the International Youth Hostel Association. I only stayed in the first two, but both offer free breakfasts and are quite clean and secure (card swipe entrance into the rooms). Green Tortoise is located right across from Pike Market, has slightly larger rooms, and offers free dinners three days a week. City Hostel is slightly cleaner, has better kitchens and computing facilities, and has interesting murals on its walls. Both hostels have friendly staff and offer social activities for the guests (City Hostel tends to offer stuff like game nights and movie nights, whereas Green Tortoise offers discounted hangouts at local bars). Both places offer only week-long bookings, but they offer good temporary lodgings for a few days of apartment hunting.
Transportation
Seattle's transportation system is geared substantially toward public transportation. There is a well developed bus system that gives access from most of the neighborhoods of Seattle to either downtown or the University of Washington campus. There is also a light rail system that goes from the Seattle/Tacoma airport to downtown and makes several stops en route. The buses run regularly and on time for the most part, and there's also a convenient ORCA card tap payment system which makes getting around on the public transportation fairly convenient. East-West travel is much less convenient than North-South transport, as there are several busses that take advantage of the 5 Freeway and can go from downtown to the northern suburbs of Seattle in about 20 minutes. On the other hand, getting from west Queen Anne to Capitol Hill in the east takes much more effort (bus transfers) and time, and travel from Bellevue to downtown takes about an hour without a car.
Seattle is also surprisingly amenable to biking. The city is quite hilly, with some pretty steep slopes at times, but there are lots of bike paths, and the traffic generally looks out for any bikes on the road. The buses can also generally carry 3 bikes in front, so biking from a bus stop to the final destination is a very viable option.
Driving is also a viable option, but less so in downtown, as it's quite difficult to find parking, and there are lots of one-way streets. Many of the offices charge for parking, and other parking lots generally charge ~$10 per day for parking depending on location, so driving within town can get a bit hairy. There are lots of zipcar locations in the downtown area, for an alternative to owning your own car.
Food
Food in Seattle is more expensive than in the Midwest or LA. Seattle is not as food-oriented as Chicago, but it still has some nice food oriented areas. Pike Market is always a good place for fresh produce (there's a large selection of fruits and veggies, especially in the summers), seafood (giant salmon, crab legs as long as your arm, and palm-sized shrimp), and spices. There are also lots of little pastry/bread shops and food stands that make for good lunch fodder. The market is bigger than it looks, extending ~5 floors down from the surface level, so there are lots of nooks to explore.
Capitol Hill also has quite a bit of food on its main street, Broadway, which has lots of Asian and other ethnic/pseudo ethnic restaurants.
Additionally, I hear that the University District and the International District are good places to look for food, though I have been cautioned not to hang around in those areas late at night due to slight seediness.
Beyond these markets/restaurants, I hear that Seattle also has four different Trader Joe's locations, which is a good place to grab groceries for people buying food just for themselves.
I also hear that Seattle has a farm sharing program, where you can rent out a patch of land on a farm, and for ~$20/week receive a box full of fresh produce containing whatever is in season. The selection is apparently quite good in the summer, though the winter vegetables are mainly of the radishes and turnip sort.
There are also quite a few berry picking locations near Seattle, where you can pick fresh strawberries, blueberries, apples, and peaches.
Miscellaneous
The Seattle Center is a really fun place to hang out in the summers. In addition to having the Space Needle, the Pacific Science Center, and the Experience Music Project/Science Fiction museum, it's also a great park with a fantastic fountain that has water shows in time with the music. Lots of kids go there in the afternoons and play in the spray when its hot, and it's a nice place to relax overall (with free WiFi).
Seattle has several other nice parks, including Volunteer Park and the Arboretum, both of which are free.
The Experience Music Project/Science Fiction museum is also quite fun for fans of rock and roll. They've got rolling exhibits but are currently featuring set material from Battlestar Galactica and the film Avatar, as well as lots of stuff from Jimmy Hendrix and Nirvana. The core exhibits feature a prop-guided history of the guitar informed by the quest for loud sound, a "sound lab" where you can play with different instruments like the guitar, keyboard, drums, and mixers in concert with rock and roll music. There's also a room that showcases lots of interviews from science fiction and modern music greats (one of the more memorable ones featured the actress playing Uhura talking about how the first interracial kiss was filmed).
Seattle is the home of several famous brands: Starbucks, Costco, and REI. The main REI store is quite an attraction in and of itself, with the storefront transformed into a miniature forest so that people can try out new bikes or hiking gear.
On the inside, there are three floors full of all sorts of outdoorsy equipment and a rock wall.
Seattle is surrounded by quite a few islands that are also nice to visit. I went to Bainbridge, which is half an hour by ferry ($7 round trip for foot-passengers). Bainbridge is a tiny, very wooded island with a quaint downtown area lined with artsy shops and cafes. There's an old fashioned diner with excellent burgers, and a surprising number of Japanese restaurants for a place so remote. There's a waterfront trail (which is not very clearly marked) that takes you around the shoreline and into the suburbs to give you a flavor of the island. There are densely wooded forests in the backyard of many houses, and on the woods break straight into beaches, where often, the only sound you can hear is the wind carrying the waft of seaweed.
