<p>I’ve lived in both, my DD wants to get the heck out of Dodge and will apply west, including the the UW (the one in Seattle, not Madison). Got me thinking about the similarities (there are many) and the differences. The latter include:</p>
<li>The accent.</li>
<li>In NE you would never actually have a conversation with the checkout person at the grocery store.</li>
<li>In NE we know what rotaries are for.</li>
<li>IN NW you know what crosswalks are for.</li>
<li>Why do you call a small coffee “tall”?</li>
<li>In NW its no big deal to be a Microsoft millionaire.</li>
<li>In NE its no big deal to be Harvard faculty.</li>
<li>Most people in NE do not own Gore-tex (or even know what it is).</li>
</ol>
<p>Big leaf maples vs. silver maples
Goretex vs. wool
REI vs. LL Bean
Sea kayaking vs. rowing dories
Trawlers vs. lobster boats
ULDBs vs. catboats
Subarus vs. Volvos
Self-consciously liberal NPR listeners vs. Self-consciously liberal NPR listeners
Rain vs. snow
Sushi vs. lobster
Sunsets vs. sunrises
San Juan Islands vs. (hmm) other islands
New money vs. old money</p>
<p>I think those “other islands” you’re looking for are Nantucket, Martha’s Vineyard, and the like.
And we in the NE have sushi, too!
BTW, I’m a kid, but the parents’ forum is very entertaining! Thank goodness my mom has not discovered CC yet. Then I’ll really be in trouble! :)</p>
<p>mountains vs. the berkshires.
The columbia river vs. the connecticut river
pacific storms vs. northeasters.
soda vs. tonic
I-90 for free or I-90 with a toll.
Top public universities vs. top private universities.</p>
<p>We’ve lived in both, too. Must be universal, the kids always want to get the heck out of Dodge, so mine are gravitating back to the east. </p>
<p>real snow vs. man made
panic at first snow flake vs. just another winter day
It only seems like you can’t get there from here in New England; compared to the NW, everything is really really close.
WA may be known for apples but the best I ever had was an old variety right off the tree at a NE orchard.</p>
<p>The OP asks: “5. Why do you call a small coffee “tall”?”</p>
<p>It’s a little known ‘secret’ but Starbucks also has a size called “short” that is smaller than a tall. I often get a short hot chocolate near the end of the day. My daughter likes a short chai latte.</p>
<ol>
<li><p>I do have conversations with checkout persons, why not?</p></li>
<li><p>I do not know what rotaries are. (do you mean rosaries?)</p></li>
<li><p>I do Know about crosswalks. </p></li>
<li><p>I do own Gore-tex.</p></li>
</ol>
<p>I think #2 means a “roundabout”
ya know the circular diverter in a ( usually) side street intersection
It is a joke that people in seattle don’t know what to do if approached by another car- because we just take a sharp left, instead of going all the way around it.
( and we have a helluva lotta Volvos- you can’t kill em is why)</p>
<p>Just a style note: we are having fun here with stereotypes. Real world contradictory evidence is frowned on. Unless it’s funny. Never cut funny.</p>
<p>NE: highway on ramps require large amounts of acceleration</p>
<p>Snow is more of a problem for drivers in the NW.</p>
<p>Salmon (for the most part) are not endangered/extinct in the NW.</p>
<p>NE beats the NW handsdown for college towns.</p>
<p>The ocean is in the wrong place in neither/both.</p>
<p>Having been raised and educated in one and lived much of my adult life on the other and have a D going the other way, I have found I actually love both, enjoying the differences.</p>
<p>I lived in Manhattan for 10 years and some of my best entertainment was talking to the checkout girls at Key Foods on Broadway. Ya know–the wisecracking girls who kept a tall deodorant can at the side of the register so that they could spray deodorant over their fragrant homeless customers? </p>
<p>This was pre-Guiliani though. Maybe New Yorkers have stopped talking to check out clerks. ;)</p>
<p>They’re putting in roundabouts here- rotary must be a NE thing. You can see both sunrises and sunsets over the water, in the same day, here. We have home grown apples and maple syrup, and potatoes and cranberries. The checkout person might be your child’s classmate and/or friend- do you dare have a conversation? Seaports and commercial fishing here, too. Someone forgot to mention free coffee (and hot chocolate) on those free highways in the NW. Wineries are nicer than breweries… I loved visiting western Washington, but I prefer trees on the tops of mountains.</p>
<p>Lobster rolls beat maguro.
Fried clams beat Geoducks.
Copper River beats salmon-like food product.
Revolutionary War beats San Juan Island pig war.
NE has mountains; they are just “mature”.
However, NE hiking trails are nasty.
Cape Cod/Cape Ann beaches beat Olympic peninsula beaches, unless you are camping and its not raining, which is never.
BC football beats Huskies? How can this be?
NW does not have Beanpot, or any college hockey.
The only academic engineering projects in the NE are a) biomaterial nanotechnology microfluidic drug delivery devices or b) laser death rays.
Your highways fall down under you; ours fall down on top of us.
Drivers in NE understand the concept of a “passing lane”.
Drivers in NW understand the concept of a 4-way stop. Also that red lights are not supposed to be just a suggestion.</p>
<p>Goretex is made by the Gore company located in DELAWARE. Northeast encompasses more then cities. Upstate NY has some of the most beautiful wineries I’ve ever seen. We don’t have rotaries that I know about in PA. People are friendly anywhere if you start off with a smile!</p>