There's a darkness on the edge of town

Almost forgot to mention: Days seem very short in Seattle, and the mornings very dark, even taking into account the overcast skies. It turns out this is real, not perceived. Sunrise today in Seattle is at 7:56am, a full 41 minutes later relative to the clock than in Champaign. The sun there sets at 4:38pm, eight minutes before here, too. That's 49 minutes less daytime, which is pretty significant.

By the way, just so everyone's clear, the length of the day is determined by your latitude and the date. Seattle is at 47.6 N, Champaign at 40.1 N, or about 15% of the way toward the equator from them. Have no fear, though, these things always even out. In this case, they'll get longer days in the summer by the same margin as they come up short in winter. The big difference between sunrise times in the morning and smaller margin in sunsets just reflects where the cities are in relation to the time zone boundaries. We're in the eastern part of the time zone, which tends to make timed events occur earlier, whereas they're more centrally located.