Moving to Washington (Seattle, Vancouver, Redmond: apartments, rentals, hotels)

[cdpettijohn]

Hello. My name is Crystal. My mom lives in central Oregon and my dad lives in Centralia, WA. I am moving from Catalina Island in California.

I have a degree in hotel management and want to live in a place that has resorts and/or hotels. I want to move to a place where opportunities for working within the hospitality industry flourish. I do not need to be near Centralia, but I would like to go there one weekend per month. I mention that my mom lives in OR because I think that it would be neat to live on the border.

My boyfriend wants to move with me, but he thinks that both OR and WA do not have any opportunity for work. He is graduating this month with a degree in electronics as well as a degree in network administration.

Is there any place within the 2 states that sounds right for us? Any advice is welcome! Thank you so much!

Any help or advice will be great!

[brightcopperkettles]

The obvious place to look, I think, would be Portland.

[allforcats]

Originally Posted by cdpettijohn

I have a degree in hotel management and want to live in a place that has resorts and/or hotels. I want to move to a place where opportunities for working within the hospitality industry flourish.

YAY!! Crystal, we have eighty-eight zillion hotels and resorts in western Washington, most of them north of Olympia, including the magical Olympic Peninsula. ZILLIONS!!!

Here are some resources:

First, if you Google for hotels in WA (not "Washington" because Google will give you both WA and D.C.), you will get a boatload of names, which you can then narrow down by location using Mapquest, if you want.

Second, the fastest resource for you about both salaries and apartments or houses to rent, in a wide radius all around Seattle, is called NWSource, a combined Classifieds from the two leading newspapers in the area. Here are the links:
Seattle area jobs, employment advice and information | NWjobs
and
http://rentals.nwsource.com/rentals/
That should give you a start on information.

You might also want to research on Craigslist.

If you want to research somewhere outside of the very large Seattle area, I'd suggest you Google that location with the word newspaper, to get their Classifieds.

If you locate in western Washington the farthest you'll be from Centralia is about 2-1/2 to 3 hours, and Portland about 3 to 3-1/2 hours' drive.

Originally Posted by cdpettijohn

I mention that my mom lives in OR because I think that it would be neat to live on the border.

Yes it could be, and there are some hospitality possibilities around Vancouver, but much, much less choice than farther north. But an interesting thing to file in your brain is that there is NO INCOME TAX for residents of WA. Oregon does have income tax.

Originally Posted by cdpettijohn

My boyfriend wants to move with me, but he thinks that both OR and WA do not have any opportunity for work. He is graduating this month with a degree in electronics as well as a degree in network administration.

Ummmmm, has your boyfriend not heard of Microsoft, which is located in Redmond, WA? They're always hiring. Nintendo, also in Redmond, WA? Hundreds of other electronics-based firms in western Washington?
He sounds fabulously qualified for ANY company since ALL companies now depend heavily on their electronics hardware and programs, and constantly need network administrators. I think your boyfriend hasn't done any research yet. Washington state has a thriving economy. That means lots of electronics and lots of networks.

Have fun doing research!!