Founded in 1869 by William Meydenbauer and incorporated as a city in 1953, Bellevue spans 31 square miles between Lake Sammamish and Lake Washington. To the East are the snow-capped mountains of the Cascades. To the South, Mount Rainier dominates the horizon. To the West, 2 floating highway bridges link Bellevue to Seattle. Bellevue's climate is uncommonly temperate. Summer daytime temperatures average just under 70 degrees, while winter lows tend to be in the 40's. Average precipitation totals only around 38 inches per year. Bellevue is the largest city on the Eastside, the second larges in King County and the fourth largest city in Washington state.

Over 200 stores make up Bellevue Square mall, a premier shopping destination for residents of Seattle and Bellevue alike. Sixteen million visitors flock to the mall each year. Bellevue Square dominates the downtown and has been recently joined by Lincoln Center. The Center includes major office, hotel (Westin) and retail components as well as a 24-screen, 4500 seat multiplex luxury movie theatre. It ranks as one of the largest mixed use projects in the United States!

Companies headquartered or with major operations in Bellevue include:

180 Solutions, Inc. - "Permission based" marketing software - aka spyware.
5TH Cell - A video game developer that works on handheld, mobile and PC.
ArenaNet - PC game developer famous for Guild Wars; many ArenaNet employees used to work for Blizzard Entertainment.
Brio Realty ? A national real estate company that utilizes the internet to deliver better home buying experiences for its customers.
Centeris - Leader in the Windows to Linux migration software industry.
Coinstar, Inc. - Owner and operator of coin-exchanging kiosks found in supermarkets.
Drugstore.com - An online pharmacy and information site for health, beauty, wellness, personal care, and pharmacy products.
Eddie Bauer - Is relocating its Headquarters from Redmond, WA to a 28-story office tower at Lincoln Square, which will be completed in mid-2007. It will share this tower with Microsoft's North American Sales Headquarters.
Expedia, Inc. ? An online travel company.
The Generations Network - Headquartered in Bellevue, version 2.0 of MyFamily.com is a secure social networking service which allows anyone to create a family or group website (e.g., a class reunion site, a club site) within a matter of minutes.
InfoSpace - A growing Internet private-label search engine and online directory that survived the dot.com bust of the 1990s. It?s reemerging in the mid 2000?s with a mobile entertainment offering.
Microsoft - Recently announced that it will lease the top 15 floors of a 28 story office tower being built at Lincoln Square, across the street from Bellevue Square. They will relocate their North American Sales Group Headquarters to the building and will share it with Eddie Bauer's world Headquarters. (Microsoft Pacific Northwest District already occupies space in Bellevue at Civica Office Commons.)[11]
Orahealth Corporation ? A pharmaceutical manufacturer specializing in oral health care products
Paccar Inc ? A multinational technology company that manufactures heavy duty Class 8 trucks (Semis) sold around the world under the Kenworth, Peterbilt, DAF and Leyland nameplates.
QFC - Quality Food Centers, headquartered in Bellevue, is a Washington and Oregon chain of upscale grocery stores. (A wholly-owned subsidiary of Kroger).
ShareBuilder - An online broker allowing investors to automatically and regularly invest in stocks and ETFs, even in small amounts.
Symetra - Life insurance company.
T-Mobile ? Headquarters for their US operations are located in Factoria, a neighborhood of Bellevue. They operate an all-digital, national wireless phone network, and a Wi-Fi network with over 18,000 public locations.
Uievolution - A mobile software company (a wholly-owned subsidiary of Square-Enix).
Value Village - A second-hand clothing chain. (Also known as Savers).
Valve Corporation ? A video game developer made famous by its first product, Half-Life.
WizKids - Non-electronic game developer producing everything from collectible miniatures


Cheri's Favorites:

SeaStar Restaurant
Daniel's Restaurant
Westin Hotel
Rosalie Whyel Museum of Doll Art
Bellevue Arts Museum
Gene Juarez Salon and Spa

Golf Courses:

The Golf Club at Newcastle (fabulous!!)425-793-GOLF
Glendale Golf Course