Oregon Road Trip (Portland, Eugene, Salem: hotels, homes, buying)

[illinoisboy]

Originally Posted by Car_Junkie

You sound much too picky to live in Oregon. Perhaps try California, they are very picky and sensitive. Oregon is more laid back. We don't need anymore slow, old, picky people driving around town with nothing better to do than slow down traffic and call the zoning department on my show. Thanks for asking though...

Well, gosh, I don't blame her for being picky! She's just trying to figure out where she'd be most happy spending her retirement!

Take your time, planning4someday! You'll find you're place!

[planning4someday]

Trust me, I won't be slowing down traffic. If anything, some posts I've seen about super strict traffic enforcement have me and my leadfoot concerned.

And I'm really trying hard not to end up in California.

Originally Posted by Car_Junkie

You sound much too picky to live in Oregon. Perhaps try California, they are very picky and sensitive. Oregon is more laid back. We don't need anymore slow, old, picky people driving around town with nothing better to do than slow down traffic and call the zoning department on my show. Thanks for asking though...

[vnodak]

I lived in Oregon for years and the advice people have given you, I agree with totally. The areas mentioned are great and it just depends on what you want. Also, do not forget to check the stats on city-data. That can be very helpfull. I now live in the Seattle area. Do not move to Washington or consider the Seattle area. I do not know where you live at present and maybe you live here.

[Terryj]

If you looking for an area in Western Oregon void of gloomy days, good luck. On the average Western Oregon receives 30 inches of rain a year, and a piece of that rain is received every month of the year. No matter which side of the Cascades you choose it has its pros and cons. One just has to adjust. I live in Southwestern Oregon, plenty of rain, plenty of sun and plenty of fog. The rain keeps the yards green and it a welcome sight in the summer.
Good luck on finding your spot in the sun.

[furyu]

Originally Posted by planning4someday

My husband and I will be visiting Oregon in July to scope out communities to consider for retirement a few years down the road.

We'd like to end up in a sunnier area, and avoid really extreme temperatures. We long for a water view, either lake or ocean, after a lifetime in the desert.

My husband & I retired to Brookings four years ago (my husband is actually semi-retired and travels for business quite a bit still); we too are on the 'young' side for retirees. I'm in my mid-50s now and he is in his early 60s.

As far as coastal areas go, Brookings has more sunny, warm days than any other coastal town. It has its own micro-climate created by its geographical situation to the Pacific ocean as well as certain geological attributes. You can read about that on any Brookings-related website. I won't bother going into here.

This is predominately a retirement community but there are a lot of younger retirees like myself and a lot of very active 'seniors.'

Originally Posted by planning4someday

Reasonably close golf and skiing would be nice.

There are several nearby golf courses, and Bandon's famous 'links' courses are an hour and a half away. Skiing can be had in Ashland, which is about a 2-1/2 or 3 hour drive.

Originally Posted by planning4someday

Small town is fine, though a decent restaurant or two would be good. Culture, schmulture - We can rent DVDs, etc.

With the exceptions of Portland, Eugene and the Medford metro area, all towns in Oregon are 'small.' The restaurants here in Brookings leave a LOT to be desired, but we do have a fairly decent Italian restaurant and a couple of Mexican restaurants that aren't too bad. But after living in the SF Bay Area and other major metro areas, we avoid most of the restaurants here and cook at home.

We have a local theatre group and numerous art galleries, a couple of book stores, and of course, some gift shops. Yes, you can rent DVDs here too.

Originally Posted by planning4someday

We're not very political - I hold some pretty strong beliefs, but tend not to spout off on them too often - so that's not a big factor one way or the other. I think we want what every other retiree wants - someplace reasonably safe. No chronic health issues at this point, knock wood, so close medical care isn't a huge priority.

This town is split politically with about one third of the residents being democrats/liberals and two thirds being republicans/conservatives. If you don't want to be involved politically, that won't be a problem, just ignored the stuff you read about in the local paper!

Brookings has a very low crime rate and we do have an alert and responsive police force, both city police and county sheriffs.

The health care system, however, is very poor. It is difficult to keep doctors and health care workers here in this area due to the increase in real estate over the last decade. Wages are low but real estate has increased, although the national mortgage crisis and fall in real estate values may eventually affect the prices here too. Time will tell. But the lack of health care is a serious problem for this area. You may be healthy now, and you may always remain healthy, but you never know and not having good, competent doctors and emergency care facilities that don't require air transport out of here, is something that can be a problem for any one of us at some point in time.

Originally Posted by planning4someday

We're starting in Seattle, tentatively planning to visit Bend, Klamath Falls, Grants Pass, Brookings.... We're covering quite a bit of ground in 5 days, but if the weather doesn't suit us in July, I figure it won't be good any other time.

Seattle is extremely wet. I have friends there and they are always fighting mold problems. You won't find that here in Brookings so much, at least I haven't had a problem and I live right along the coast. Of course, Bend is a desert area basically; don't know anything about Klamath Falls. Grants Pass is a beautiful inland area, rolling hills, very countrified on one hand while having a large commercial town area on the other hand. But it gets really hot there in the summer (90s-100s) and cold in the winter.

Brookings, however, stays fairly moderate. We have had temps dip down in to the low 30s here along the coast and a little further inland, down in the mid to high 20s is not uncommon for brief periods during the winter (those are night time lows). This year has been a bit 'odder' temperature-wise and only now is it starting to warm up, whereas during those first years we were here, by March or at least April, spring temperatures (lows in the mid-high 40s and highs in the 50-60s) were common.

Originally Posted by planning4someday

Where else should we consider? Or what can you tell me about the \towns wwe're considering.

Few of the coastal towns offer much in the way of shopping. If you're not big on shopping malls, then you'll be fine living along the coast. However, if you want to have access to more 'things' then you'll find the inland areas better in that regard, however, the temperatures are far more extreme.

Air transportation out of here is also quite tedious, requiring at least one connection in San Francisco to go anywhere else.

You should be aware, too, of the lumber mills here in Brookings and throughout the state. I never lived near one previously and was not aware--nor was I made aware by my realtor--that lumbers mills often run 24/7 and do much of their loudest production processes during the night time hours. This was a huge problem for us when we first moved here. The night time noise was very bad. But, we have figured out ways to muffle the sound and over time, like with most things, we've become used to it.

Hope you have a great trip.

[planning4someday]

Thank YOU, Furyu! Really appreciate the detailed info.

Seattle isn't one of the places we're considering, it's just a starting point since we have to fly in there for another reason. I already know the climate there doesn't suit me.
I'm a little familiar with micro-climates in the Pacific NW, as I've visited Sequim, WA a couple of times, and found it substantially drier than anything else in the region. (To be honest, I would settle in Sequim in a minute, but my husband has the cooler head and wants to continue looking around.)

Shopping just isn't high on my list of priorities. It's not like I expect to be dressing up for work or anything - I don't even do that now, as my job is ultra-casual. Decent food shopping is relatively important, as I think we'll have time to indulge in more real home cooking.

The lumber mill information is especially useful.

[furyu]

You are most welcome, planning4someday.

I remember hearing about a place in Washington that had a similar micro-climate to Brookings, and I bet it was Sequim. I'd like to visit there someday, because the person who was speaking about that area in Washington said it was really beautiful, and yes, much drier than other areas. My husband and I love the Pacific Northwest, western Washington, Vancouver, British Columbia, etc., and if it weren't for the problems caused by all that rain, we'd consider moving there.

I forgot to mention our super-duper market, Fred Meyer. It is a part of the Krueger chain, the conglomerate that owns most of the super markets in this nation. You can certainly get everythng you need in the way of food, clothing, electronics, hardware, etc., at this store and the grocery selection is excellent. And we do have two health food stores in town that don't stock very much and are very expensive, but you can order health foods, vitamins, and organic produce from one of them (the co-op, if you become a member).

Although I never thought of myself as a diehard shopper, after moving here I really did miss the convenience of having malls and large chain stores (Costco, Circuit City, Target, Staples) within reasonable reach. There are things that you eventually want that this town just doesn't have. Most of us get by with driving to Eureka, CA (a two hour BEAUTIFUL drive), or Medford, or even Eugene once or twice a year to stock up or do 'speciality' shopping. A Home Depot recently opened in Crescent City which is nice to have relatively nearby (20-30 minute drive), but I just read that Home Depot was going to be downsizing and I fear that store may fall victim to that.

You are very smart to be doing this research years prior to actually retiring. I came here alone and bought our home on a fluke; we hadn't planned on retiring or moving or anything like that at that time. But I was here and I found this beautiful ocean view home, and I saw how prices were going up-up-up and I told my husband, I think it's now or never. We had been interested in Brookings for many years but weren't aware of a lot of things prior to moving here. Fortunately it has worked out very well for us, and we truly love living here. The beautiful surroundings of ocean, rivers and redwoods forests, the weather, the relaxed pace, the lack of traffic, and more often than not, the peace & quiet, all these things make for a wonderful life style and happy life. No place is perfect, of course. But we choose to focus on what is wonderful rather than fret over what isn't.

[planning4someday]

Furyu - Your love for your new home shines through in your description of Brookings. That's the feeling I want to have about our future retirement home, wherever it may be.

No place is perfect. Ultimately, it's all about trade-offs, both about the communities we're considering, and between my husband and I, where our priorities don't align 100%. Who knows, it may take us 5 years to work out our own differences :-)

[planning4someday]

I'm beginning to think I want to visit and stay the night somewhere about mid-way between Brookings and Seattle.

So, a question for anyone familiar with the coast - What would be a decent, clean place to stay?

[furyu]

Florence is midway along the coast of Brookings and is a really nice, spacious town with many motels. I think someone here wrote about it; it was listed as one of the best places to retire by a retirement magazine. After my husband & I moved here, and discovered the problems with the lumber company, we looked at relocating to Florence. It didn't suit us, but it obviously suits a lot of retirees.

Or else, you might want to stay in Eugene and check out that town, then drive down Route 126 to Florence, or take Route 38 which is a little further south on the I-5. That's a beautiful drive along the Umpqua River, and will take you to Reedsport, a town just south of Florence.

It takes about four hours to drive from Eugene to Brookings; from Florence/Reedsport, it's roughly a three hour drive to Brookings along Highway One, barring road work delays or a lot of slow-going RVs.

Many decades ago, my mom & I travelled up and down the Washington/Oregon coastline, staying at motels as we found them along the way. All were clean and nice. The only trouble we had was occasionally not finding a vacancy! But I doubt that's going to be a problem for you since tourism will most likely be down this year (salmon fishing has been banned along the Oregon coast this year, plus high gas prices will likely keep many from road travel). But you might want to check availability via the internet prior to leaving, just in case there is a convention or something in some place you'd want to stay. That happened to us when, late one night, we discovered all the motels occupied in Astoria due to a convention. We had to drive down the coast quite a ways to find a place to stay.

My husband and I are fortunately aligned on what we like regarding climate and environment. However, he was not anxious at first to pull up the stakes we'd planted in SoCal to move here so suddenly (and who can blame him?) and it took my insistence that I'd found the perfect retirement home, and I really-really didn't want to let it go, for him to agree. He had, after all, moved me from Northern California decades earlier... so he owed me one!

Now, I think he loves living here even more than I do, if that's possible. He got into fly fishing soon after moving here (catch & release), and this area has numerous rivers for him to enjoy, especially during the spring, summer and fall months, when trout abound. Ironically, his consulting business has improved since moving here too.

I'm sure you two will work it out where both of you agree on your 'perfect' place to retire. Especially if both of you are devoted to each other's happiness as much as you are your own. I think that's key to a happy marriage.