Grid of the city

Flying out of Seattle on Wednesday night we were flying an uncommon pattern from SEA. Normally takeoffs and landings are going south into the prevailing north wind.This time we were flying a north pattern. Instead of flying south over Tacoma we flew north over our fair city.The flight took off right around midnight so it was dark.I was reminded of the Liz Phair song about her flying into her home town of Chicago. The grid go the city. The backbones of the roads and neighborhoods.We flew over Elliot Bay and made a great loping right turn as we came even with Lake Union. Seeing the city — seeing our house —put things into perspective. At once it felt big and small.https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JxTKh91cMpcThe city that we drive through and around all the time seems big. Seattle is a big city. It grew by subsuming the then outlying neighborhoods. It grew to be big enough that on I5, even with clear roads, it easily takes 20 minutes to drive from the northernmost to southernmost location.It took far less than that in the plane.Looking at the bright lights of Aurora it just seemed to knit the city together somehow. It’s the oldest highway in the city that originally linked California with Canada. It saw the World’s Fair come through. It saw the blight. It saw the rebirth.The downtown was run down back in the days. It had a fourth birth in the late 80's (second was after the fire, third was the Fair). Another wave came in the late 90's. The next is coming now.Looking down I saw a city that's alive.Looking down I saw home.