Getting Around King County

King County doesn't have a subway, yet.

Currently, it's got grassroots support for an extended subway system to support the light rail system with three lines that run within Tacoma and between it to downtown Seattle; the Central Link takes you to the Sea-Tac Airport. It's building an underground University Link that will be completed in 2016, and this would link downtown Seattle to Capitol Hill and University of Washington. This simply means that for now, if you don't have a car and don't want to cab it or walk, getting around Seattle and Eastside would be a bit of a problem.

Between Tacoma, Seattle and Lakewood, you've got the Sounder trains and Amtrak. That's convenient. There're always buses which work well. Then there're Streetcars downtown and the monorail (this really tickled me). Cabfares begin at US$2.50, and if you're just going around town for like five blocks, it'll be about US$12. You could try hailing cabs. Some stop, many don't. Call them and make a booking. It's way easier.

There's only so far one could walk in winter. Or if it's raining. It's a gorgeous walk, but it's also COLD. I'm not walking beyond an hour to anywhere. We're traipsing downtown Seattle, its Eastside, Redmond and Bellevue, so we definitely need to get into a vehicle at some point to go the distances.We won't be heading out to see those beautiful mountains or to Spokane, so there isn't much of a need to rent a car. I'd love to return in fall and head out to the mountains. That would be gorgeous. No point skiing. I don't quite want to do it since it's unlikely that I'll be in WA next without the man; his old injury doesn't permit skiing and he would be so bored cooped up.

We've got a car allocated, but not for the full duration of the trip. It's been greatly appreciated though. During other times, we've been cabbing and using Uber just fine. Didn't have to deal with issues of Uber's surge pricing like in other cities, i.e Boston, Philadelphia. No problems with internet data access- the man holds a US line. I'm not on dataroam here, and didn't bother getting a line, but I could leech off the man's data. Even if I'm out gallivanting without him, there's excellent wifi at most malls, coffeeshops and restaurants, so I'm not crippled by a lack of online access to get all the information needed.

Staring out the back of a giant GMC SUV.