I live in San Francisco with my dog Pepper and recently spent a month in Seattle on a home exchange with my dog. After trying to find the most dog-friendly things to do in both Seattle and San Francisco, I am ranking them against each other. For the judging criteria, I evaluated each city in…
Seattle
Dog-Friendly Things to Do in Seattle: Parks, Beaches, Patios, and Day Trips
The Pacific Northwest is known for being extremely dog-friendly, and I have been doing more road trips with Pepper recently. In 2025, we took a month-long road trip through the Pacific Northwest with a week in Seattle. In 2026, I did a month-long home exchange and lived in Ballard, Seattle for a month with Pepper. …
Ballard, Seattle: A Neighborhood Guide from an Architect
As an architect who values walkable cities, I really appreciated Ballard and felt it deserved its own neighborhood guide. I did a month-long home exchange in July, which gave me the luxury of exploring Ballard slowly. After four weeks of daily dog walks, trying as many breweries as possible, walking parts of the Burke-Gillman Trail,…
Seattle Architecture Guide: An Architect’s Favorite Buildings and Places
After years of quick visits to Seattle for girls trips with one of my best friends that lives there, I got to spend an entire month in Ballard this summer and had time to explore more deeply. As an architect, I am always interested in historic buildings and neighborhoods, interesting architecture, public art, and adaptive…
Is a One Month Home Exchange Worth It? What I Learned Living in Seattle
I just returned from a one-month home exchange, swapping my San Francisco condo for a house in the Ballard neighborhood of Seattle. Lately, I have been working remotely more often, and trying to build in more slow travel. As I get older I appreciate trips where I can experience a place instead of rushing through…