hey hey everyone

[cobolt]

Originally Posted by Barkingowl

I spent two weeks in Florence & Bend with a side drive up to Mt. St. Helens. Everywhere we went people were very unhappy with Californians driving up the price of real estate.

Yeah...WA people are a bit snarky about the infestation of Californians, driving up the prices of everything...I dont know...I met a lady from CA last weekend walking her dog. She was very nice, certainly nicer than alot of the WA locals I"ve had the "pleasure" of meeting. But, I digress.

W WA isn't laid back. It's really a nervous place under the surface. It's just that people dress like they took their clothes out of the hamper. so it appears that they are laid back and dont care

[Floyd_Davidson]

Originally Posted by cobolt

W WA isn't laid back. It's really a nervous place under the surface. It's just that people dress like they took their clothes out of the hamper. so it appears that they are laid back and dont care

I was born in Bremerton. I can remember when Gig Harbor was a quaint little place with fishing boats, one cop, and an active Grange.

Of course, I was 5 years old in 1950... and my neighbors had pigs and cows and chickens, just like we did. But it hasn't been like that for decades. They don't wear clothes out of the hamper, they do go to a lot of effort to make clothes look like it's out of the hamper!

On the other hand, the average up tight person around here does wear clothes out of the hamper. Us laid back types though, make do with a pile in the corner and don't own a hamper...

[Floyd_Davidson]

Originally Posted by Floyd_Davidson

I was born in Bremerton.

Of course, I was 5 years old in 1950...

BTW, people in Washington didn't like Californians then either, and near as I could tell even at that age, it wasn't something that had started the year before!

Of course, I sorta like the story one Oregon historian (perhaps aged about 70) told on the TV doucmentary they made about the Oregon Trail... He explained that at the fork in the trail, where going to the left lead to California, there were several piles of Fool's Gold within sight of the fork. And on the Oregon side of the trail was just a sign, that read "Oregon".

He said, with a wry smirk, that obviously those who could read went to Oregon, while others chose California.

[warptman]

A lot of people don't know that just south of Bremerton, there is a little town called Bethel. I have pictures somewhere of my trip through there. It was cool seeing a different town with the same name, lucky them, they can drive out whenever they please.

[Barkingowl]

There's a Bethel Maine too warpt. Its still a nice little New England town.

[cobolt]

I didn't mean that they dress from their hamper....I said they look like they took their clothes from the hamper and put them on....and yeah....I think they try to look like that...like "oh I so don't care." The peninsula side is nicer if you ask me. People say it's "hick" but I like it b/c (well, excluding Gig Harbor) people aren't really trying to keep up with the Jones with this whole self-absorbed, "I have more toys than you and can drive like an a$$hole to boot" stuff. I like areas of WA...just not the most of the Puget Sound (Seattle and surrounding suburbs). I avoid the city at all costs!

[Xa'at]

Originally Posted by cobolt

I didn't mean that they dress from their hamper....I said they look like they took their clothes from the hamper and put them on....and yeah....I think they try to look like that...like "oh I so don't care." The peninsula side is nicer if you ask me. People say it's "hick" but I like it b/c (well, excluding Gig Harbor) people aren't really trying to keep up with the Jones with this whole self-absorbed, "I have more toys than you and can drive like an a$$hole to boot" stuff. I like areas of WA...just not the most of the Puget Sound (Seattle and surrounding suburbs). I avoid the city at all costs!

I like southern western washington. Have you seen the area around Gray's Harbour? The tourists haven't really descended upon the area like the scourge of locusts that they are... yet.

[warptman]

I love the area from Aberdeen and down to Southbend, Ilwaco, and Long Beach.

[cobolt]

Originally Posted by Xa'at

I like southern western washington. Have you seen the area around Gray's Harbour? The tourists haven't really descended upon the area like the scourge of locusts that they are... yet.

"Yet" is the key, Xa'at. Grays Harbour is pushing their tourism to the public, believe me with all the commericals etc. Fortunately it has yet to experience the influx of people and hotels littering the coast that Ocean Shores has. There is a bird migratory event held in Grays Harbour annually...it isn't yet real touristy like the Lavender Festival has become in Sequiem. I think perhaps because it attracts a different crowd..more interested in viewing birds and nature than buying Lavendar flavored ice cream. Who knows?

Warpt...Aberdeen has suffered and struggled with the disappearance of the mills. I drove through there 2 years ago on my way to Grays Harbor, and it was such a strange place, like falling into the Twilight Zone. I stopped at the Golden Arches to get a cup of joe, and I was asking directions, and all the locals kept saying "Oh, you mean the OTHER Aberdeen".....like there are two cities or something. Well I saw what they mean by OTHER. When you first drive into Aberdeen from the inland east, it's basically comprised of strip malls and Wal*Mart central. Once you cross the bridge, that's when you hit downtown, which is basically deserted, along with all the old houses and neighborhoods, either abandoned altogether or in such bad repair they seem inhabitable, and yet people live in them. It was really a very sad thing to me.