Compare and Contrast, part 1

Washington

Now that we are saying goodbye to Texas, I am thinking a lot about it, about what I love here, and about how Washington will be different.  I remember feeling some culture shock when we first moved here two years ago.  It was slight, because Austin is basically Portland in the middle of Texas.  But it was definitely there.  Here are some things I've noticed that are not the same in Washington (at least the parts I've lived in) and Texas (the part I've lived in):

TREES

There are big, beautiful trees in Austin.  Mostly oak, cedar, walnut, pecan, and mesquite.  Many of them flower in spring and early summer, turning the city a dozen shades of pink.  Then many of them change colors in fall, and look barren in winter and early spring.  During migration periods, they are so full of tropical-sounding birds that you can barely see the tree behind the birds, and parking under a tree is hazardous.  They give everyone allergies, even a girl from the forest who's never had allergies in her life, and especially her poor husband.

In Washington, the trees make Texas trees look like shrubs.  Their branches stretch out toward the ground rather than twisting up to the sun, and they are tangled with underbrush that grows so thick you can't walk between them.  They are mostly evergreens and maple, and they keep the landscape green even in the middle of winter.  They make up actual forests, and cast everything in shade.

GEOGRAPHY
Texas is flat.  We live in the heart of the Texas hill country, and there are definitely hills.  Many of them are even called mountains.  Mount Bonnell, in west-central Austin, is a quaint 780 feet above sea level.  The highest peak in Austin is the flat plateau where we live and I work, at 1100 feet.  There is a real mountain in West Texas, but it looks more like something out of a John Wayne movie than a winter wonderland.  This is, after all West Texas, the actual Wild West.

Guadalupe Peak, TX

Washington, on the other hand, is like God took a lump of play dough, started to flatten it out with all the different play utensils he could find, and then got distracted and left it a big, lumpy mess.  There are gorges and two mountain ranges and huge bodies of water that twist their way around the land.  The mountains don't rival Colorado, say, but the difference is that you can go from the ocean to a snow-covered mountain in just a few hours. 

Mt. Rainier, WA