Thoughts from long time residents? (Seattle, Tacoma: for sale, new home, movie theater)

[Caver Girl]

My family moved to Maple Valley about six months ago, all the way from the 'burbs of Chicago. I am in absolute love with Washington, and especially the area we chose to make our new home. Once and awhile a thought crosses my mind ... what do long time residents think of us usurpers?

I love to explore. Just yesterday I took my kids on a vehicular exploration trip through Ravensdale. On my phone I googled homes for sale and then put the directions in. The last place we went was along a tiny road called Courtney Rd. After I very slowly and carefully wove my way past two dogs lazily resting in the middle of the road, we followed the GPS for a long few miles with nothing but beautiful foothill views until we came to a cluster of homes where the listing was. Not much past that, the road continued, but was gated off and no longer paved.

I'm always nervous when driving down tiny back roads ... I'm afraid of making someone angry! After all, didn't the folks who live in those way-out-there homes choose the locale for a reason? Privacy? If there is a no trespassing sign or a private road sign I steer away, but otherwise I just can't help myself. If I had the money and resources, I'd LOVE a log cabin home in a secluded area! I figure if there is an MLS listing it's probably OK for me to drive by, right??

Thoughts? Do YOU live in one of those secluded paradises? Tell me about it! I want to know!

PS. I forgot, we moved into a new construction home and sometimes I wonder how people think about that, too. I care because I know they care, especially about keeping our hometown beautiful and not just another suburban sprawl hell. I hate feeling like maybe we contributed to that "hell". We came here because of the ruralness the town still has. I hope and believe the town is building smart, and that they will stop building when it's time. I'm certain some folks out there probably believe that time has past!

[Caver Girl]

Guess I'm going to go with either there are no residents of small, out of the way places on this board or those folks don't think much of weirdos like me driving through!

[Hemlock140]

I'm in Sammamish and probably 80% of my neighbors have been here less time than us, we moved from CA 20 years ago. I do have friends and relatives that live in those out-of-the-way places, and yes, they like the solitude but are not militant about keeping strangers away. Once you get too far out though, and see things like junk cars and boats, moss covered trailers and dogs chained up, watch out.

We have done a lot of exploring all over the state but in all this time still haven't seen all that WA has to offer. Hopefully you can get in some road trips to places like Port Townsend, Leavenworth, Winthrop, Cle Elum, and the various mountain passes.

[Votre_Chef]

Welcome to Washington. I don't live in the boonies (in fact, I live in Tacoma, born and spent early years in West Seattle/Burien/White Center where my parents are from, grew up in Federal Way) so I can't say that driving down my road bothers me. I did live in Brinnon, a tiny hamlet (population, about 800) up on the Olympic Peninsula for a time, and visitors checking the area out never bothered me. I love the Olympic Peninsula and I'm always willing to talk about its merits to people unfamiliar with it.

Like a lot of native Washingtonians who can remember 30 years ago or so (born in 74 and have reasonably good memories of what the mid-late 70s was like here) I've seen a lot of changes. When we moved to Federal Way in 77 (my Dad's job moved from the port of Seattle to the Kent valley), it was really the middle of nowhere compared to the Seattle area we were coming from. Today, Federal Way has over 90,000 people, back then I would estimate it had less than 25,000. If we were to look at a Google Earth image of the city, I could show you vast areas that were nothing but trees when I was young. I watched urban sprawl happen and while I'm not fond of it, I blame it on poor planning and not on the influx of new residents that saw the region's population more than double in my lifetime, I made a lot of friends in school that were new kids who had come from other states.

But those of us from the "olden days" may still take a great deal of pride in remembering things like the ramps that went to nowhere in Seattle, Ivar's commercials, Rainier Beer commercials, Almost Live, Peoples Department Store, Frederick & Nelson's, Chubby and Tubby's, Pay n Save, The hat and boots gas station, Yardbirds, the Spanish Castle, the Midway Drive-In, Dag's, Big Daddy's, etc. If we sometimes see something new replacing something old, we might get misty-eyed and sigh. Give us a break, we're dying a little on the inside.

[ShellNic]

Originally Posted by Votre_Chef

Welcome to Washington. I don't live in the boonies (in fact, I live in Tacoma, born and spent early years in West Seattle/Burien/White Center where my parents are from, grew up in Federal Way) so I can't say that driving down my road bothers me. I did live in Brinnon, a tiny hamlet (population, about 800) up on the Olympic Peninsula for a time, and visitors checking the area out never bothered me. I love the Olympic Peninsula and I'm always willing to talk about its merits to people unfamiliar with it.

Like a lot of native Washingtonians who can remember 30 years ago or so (born in 74 and have reasonably good memories of what the mid-late 70s was like here) I've seen a lot of changes. When we moved to Federal Way in 77 (my Dad's job moved from the port of Seattle to the Kent valley), it was really the middle of nowhere compared to the Seattle area we were coming from. Today, Federal Way has over 90,000 people, back then I would estimate it had less than 25,000. If we were to look at a Google Earth image of the city, I could show you vast areas that were nothing but trees when I was young. I watched urban sprawl happen and while I'm not fond of it, I blame it on poor planning and not on the influx of new residents that saw the region's population more than double in my lifetime, I made a lot of friends in school that were new kids who had come from other states.

But those of us from the "olden days" may still take a great deal of pride in remembering things like the ramps that went to nowhere in Seattle, Ivar's commercials, Rainier Beer commercials, Almost Live, Peoples Department Store, Frederick & Nelson's, Chubby and Tubby's, Pay n Save, The hat and boots gas station, Yardbirds, the Spanish Castle, the Midway Drive-In, Dag's, Big Daddy's, etc. If we sometimes see something new replacing something old, we might get misty-eyed and sigh. Give us a break, we're dying a little on the inside.

Which Spanish Castle are you referring to? I believe you might be talking about the one with the turrets with the huge front yard which now has a pool in it? If so, I lived in that house with my family in 1970-71 or so...there is/was a pond in the very front next to the front gate that the little children used to say had sharks in it. Well, one day, coming home from preschool (I was 4), I fell in. Freaking out and screaming, the gardener saved me and brought me to the front door to my mother. I absolutely LOVED that house...despite being almost devoured by sharks in that front pond!!

[Caver Girl]

Originally Posted by Hemlock140

We have done a lot of exploring all over the state but in all this time still haven't seen all that WA has to offer. Hopefully you can get in some road trips to places like Port Townsend, Leavenworth, Winthrop, Cle Elum, and the various mountain passes.

For sure! We drove all the way around the 101 (when the Parks were closed of course), so we have seen some of the Peninsula, but I can't wait to see more of it. We've also been out to Leavenworth once. We drove a loop from 90 to Leavenworth and then came home along 2.

[Caver Girl]

Votre_Chef, don't die! Suburban sprawl is creeping across the entire country it would seem ... where I grew up in northern Illinois it used to be a summer cottage town for folks in Chicago. Now it's completely all built up. I remember when there was no movie theater, no Walmart, etc. I do remember a new housing development going up next to ours made for awesome fun climbing on tall dirt hills! Ha! Also, they completely re-routed a major road through the town and it tripped me out driving along it the first couple times. I kept trying to picture how it used to look. Ah, the good old days.

[CarlB328]

I blame it on poor planning and not on the influx of new residents that saw the region's population more than double in my lifetime

Yes, the population doubled, but that had nothing to do with it? Talk about denial.

I hate all the growth since I was a kid here in the 70's and I think it has ruined Washington. If there was a way to outlaw migrating to the state I would vote for it. The cost of living, traffic and job competition have soared to insane levels in the last 30 because of growth.

[Caver Girl]

You can at least rest assured that I have taken no jobs from any existing WA residents - I brought my job with me! I work remotely for the same company I worked for in Illinois. Ha. I guess that means I'm also not adding to rush hour congestion!

[Chilkoot]

Originally Posted by Votre_Chef

But those of us from the "olden days" may still take a great deal of pride in remembering things like the ramps that went to nowhere in Seattle, Ivar's commercials, Rainier Beer commercials, Almost Live, Peoples Department Store, Frederick & Nelson's, Chubby and Tubby's, Pay n Save, The hat and boots gas station, Yardbirds, the Spanish Castle, the Midway Drive-In, Dag's, Big Daddy's, etc. If we sometimes see something new replacing something old, we might get misty-eyed and sigh. Give us a break, we're dying a little on the inside.

You bring back lots of old memories. Any time we'd visit downtown Seattle in the late 60's we would head to Frederick & Nelson's just to ride the escalators. Moving stairs, how cool was that!