the_dude, I live in Seattle. Seattle is very good place to live in if you like outdoor activities. Yes it's true that it rains a lot in Seattle but you rarely get snow. It's not like raining every day for 9 months. You get sun break, cloudy in between. But I have been living here since few years and I do not care and unnoticeable to me as I get used to it. But you definitely won't get warm weather like Texas or other southern states. Since your concern is Rain it may not be good place for you. Yes it rains a lot here. If I am not wrong only three states( Washington, Alaska and Hawaii) have rain forests in US.
There are tons of hiking and water activitiy places in Seattle just within 1 hour. If you want ski or snowboarding it's in 1-2 hours distance up in the mountain. The city is very liberal and progressive.
The city is growing so much that traffic has become insane. And so is the housing market. It's really really expensive but not expensive like California. However some places like Bellevue, Seattle downtown are as expensive as SFO. It's because hundreds of tech companies. It has pretty good number of asian population. Microsoft, starbucks, amazon, Expedia are some of the big companies around here.

Just like texas, Washington state doesn't have state tax. Hope these info help you to decide.

PS: Don't believe those highly photoshopped facebook pictures of seattle :P