Hi Ryan. Thanks for the info. Glad to see you are still on the Forum. I'll be planning another trip to WA and will get a chance to narrow my search to just the Grays Harbor/Shelton/Olympia areas. Looking forward to checking out the restaurants, etc. and pretending to be a local. Have to hide the rental car with the CA plates.
I was born in IL but grew up in Temple City in LA County. My husband is home grown and has lived all his life in Sacramento and the immediate area. Our dogs are a Malamute/Husky mix and weighs 130 pounds

(mostly Mal) and a German Shepherd/Husky mix. I've lived in the foothills (Loomis, Rescue, Shingle Springs) since I was twelve. I don't have any relatives in OR or WA but love the rain and cool weather, so I feel like it will be right for me.
Glad to hear crime won't be a problem. I've read and heard about the drug problems in the Shelton area but I always lock my doors and the dogs make a good alarm system. One of our friends is a deputy sheriff and he says just keep an eye out and get to know our neighbors. We are having a problem in the nicer areas here with home invasion robberies which is really scarey. Just two days ago one of my husband's coworkers was burglarized and they took everything but the furniture (even took her toothbrush and all of her clothes). That was in Sacramento though.
People are nuts here too, so it must be all over. Seems you hear every week about someone who leaves their car running in the driveway to warm it up and someone takes off in it. Sacramento is now famous for having the largest number of hit and runs in the nation. Lots of gangs around also.
Looking forward to living in a saner place soon. It finally started to rain. Yeaaaa! We've been watching all of the storms in WA and willing them to head south.