© Josh Pramis
Against its salty old wishes, Seattle is morphing into a true metropolis. Luxury hotels, high-end restaurants, and art galleries are proliferating; and the city’s music scene never really went away (even though grunge did). But under all the new gloss, Seattle is still a place where old-school hippies rail on about “the man,” outdoor enthusiasts construct whole wardrobes of fleece and Gore-Tex, and the whir and grind of espresso machines is a near-constant backdrop to conversation. See the slideshow.