transplants to Camas? (Vancouver: rent, neighborhoods, to live)

[Balco9]

There is only one public swimming pool in Camas.
City of Camas, Washington - Official Website

[Balco9]

There is also lacamassport.com, but club is not cheap.
This club has 8 swimming lanes and kids activities.
You are looking at 1k a year per family.
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[StealthRabbit]

Sorry, I forgot about the Camas seasonal pool (we seldom used it as there is too much to do during our few nice months of good weather)

Camas has a public 'seasonal' outdoor pool in Crown Park, (June - Aug) and a private one at Lacamas Sport Center (NW Camas). I came from a town of 30,000 that had 3 public indoor pools (High Schools + community center) and 2 outdoor pools. We swam laps everyday on our lunch break.

When I moved from out of state to Cascade Park area, I rented a house near a High School so I could swim...WRONG... no pools in HS in SW WA ??? very strange, so I went to Beaverton and Tualatin to swim, as East Portland is pretty short on Pools too.

If swimming is a priority and you will be going a few times / week, you need to figure on a membership to a club, daily prices are pretty exorbitant at the Y and local indoor pools.

YMCA of Columbia-Willamette Clark County (it is only about 10 minutes further than the Firstenburg pool (Near Van Mall, Hwy 500 and I-205)

[Balco9]

When I moved from out of state to Cascade Park area, I rented a house near a High School so I could swim...WRONG... no pools in HS in SW WA ??? very strange, so I went to Beaverton and Tualatin to swim, as East Portland is pretty short on Pools too.

What!!!!
No HS swimming teams or pool?
Swim is great exercise and great sport.
Something is wrong about that.
Does anyone know why SW WA choices
not to have pools????
Strange.

[Topaz]

Originally Posted by karelise

thanks Topaz - I appreciate your input. I know this is subjective, but would you say that you would recommend Camas to someone or do you have any regrets about moving there?

I've not been to Texas but always see Sugar Land on the best places to live lists. Definitely the rain and the lack of cultural diversity in Camas are the two factors that we are of concern to us - we're having a hard time making up our minds and getting a feel for the place.

Hmmmm...honestly our little (mis)adventure moving to Camas cost us a ton of money and we are much happier living in Sugar Land than we were in Camas. The silver lining is that I had a fantasy about living near Oregon and I needed to get it out of my system or I would have wondered about it forever.

I think you asked in another post about things to do with pre-school aged children when it rains day after day after day. I know that some Camas fans will defend the number of options available for children to do but I thought the options were pathetically limited. In Camas where there is a huge weather-related need for indoor play spaces, there wasn't much. There were some things to do in Vancouver but not without driving quite a distance and the hours are limited. In the local moms' club, the moms were always saying that someone could make a fortune creating the right indoor play space for preschoolers and elementary school aged children. (There are more places aimed at toddlers, probably because they don't need as much space to run!).

In Camas, we joined the supposedly great Lacamas Swim and Sport Club and it was very mediocre compared to a fitness center like our current club (Lifetime Fitness, which has amazing facilities and programming for children).

I think Camas is a much nicer place to live than many other possibilities, but there were some definite negatives as well. Then again, speaking of negatives, while I love Sugar Land, I'm currently writing this from a hotel room in Austin - we are waiting for electricity to be restored to our home after Hurricane Ike knocked out power.

[karelise]

topaz - I didnt see that you were back in Sugar land - I guess that answers that question! Thanks for your help. We are trying to decide between Camas and maybe Connecticut or upstate New York but with limited budget and a need for safe areas and good schools it's hard to figure it out. Thanks for your candor - I appreciate that.

It's funny, I currently live in a great climate and there are still a ton of indoor playspaces for kids here.

good luck with the light/electricity restoration! I'm glad to hear that you evacuated the area - it seems strange to me that not everybody who is able to does, and then winds up endangering themselves and the rescue teams. Sad.

thanks again for everyone's help.

[thirtysomething]

Originally Posted by Balco9

.

What!!!!
No HS swimming teams or pool?
Swim is great exercise and great sport.
Something is wrong about that.
Does anyone know why SW WA choices
not to have pools????
Strange.

I don't know why they don't have pools (neither did our HS in CA). However, they do have teams, and complete at various public/club pools.

[Balco9]

All the HS in California had pools in the Bay Area.
Being on the swimming team was a big thing back
then i guess.

[jodeenjb]

We just moved to the Vancouver area this spring and are just west of Camas. Camas is a beautiful community with excellent sports, schools and community activities.

The schools in the Evergreen and Camas school districts are much better than you will find in Oregon. I have a friend that teaches in Oregon and shared with me that they actually closed the school year early a couple years back because the school districts ran out of money.

I can't talk to preschooler activities as my son is in middle school. I have found, however, that everything i Vancouver is close. We came from the Seattle area and find it very easy to get from one end of town to the other here.

HTH - Jodeen

[hml1976]

I'm going to defend Camas, we've been here since January, this our 4th state in the last ten years and so far we really love it. Yes, the rain sucks, yes its dark and gray in the winter, but its also pretty mild and most days you can go outside, unlike a lot of places in the US. There's a major metropolitan area 15 miles away and yet you feel like you live in a small town. The people have been wonderful to us, we moved into our new house last week and were immediately invited to a bbq at a neighbor's home. We've become active in our church, our daughter's preschool, the Camas Mom's club and Camas Library. I am a stay at home mom and have an almost 2yr old and a 4yr old and we're busy pretty much constantly. The Camas Mom's club has an activity at least once a week as well as regular playgroups. Its a great way to meet people if you're at home with your kids during the day.

As far as the snob factor, this is the LEAST snobby place I've ever lived. We have friends here that are teachers, firefighters, Vice Presidents of corporations and managers at Wal Mart. Compared to the last town we lived in people are more frugal and less concerned with designer labels by far. I'm sure that there are pockets of snobbery but I've yet to encounter any.

As for things for the kids to do in the rain...mine play outside most of the time, the temperature isn't usually freezing and its hardly ever pouring rain, so I just bundle them up and we go out with our boots on. People complain about the rain here and I agree its annoying but so is the freezing cold and boiling heat you would get in upstate NY or Connecticut. My family is from Connecticut (near Hartford) and I grew up just across the Canadian border from Upstate NY, the people here are just so much nicer, imo.