Debating a move to Port Angeles. (Seattle, Bellingham: real estate, mortgage, homes)

[DevanXL]

OP, I can't give much advice of Port Angeles, but It sounds like you might like the Bellingham area as well. Not as "quaint" as the Olympic Peninsula but crosses all the other boxes on your list. 2 hours north of Seattle and alittle over an hour outside of Vancouver BC (when the border reopens). Great scenery, mountains for skiing/snowboarding, and hiking nearby. The benefit is it's larger than Port Angeles so more housing and better, more diverse, economy for jobs. If Bellingham is too large, there is a few nice little towns close by, even a few island towns if that's more your speed.

[elkotronics]

I agree with DevanXL, OP. Bellingham housing costs are rising, however, so be thorough in your searching. A thorough search is better than a $500 voucher to Big 5 Sporting Goods. But no, I've lived in Port Angeles before and it is in a beautiful location. The close proximity to Hurricane Ridge makes it a must-see.

Just be careful and thorough. The money-grubbers have really taken a mean chunk out of enjoying the entire western side of Washington state. Throw Wenatchee in the mix as well. It is a nice town, too, and the good thing about living in Wenatchee is the electricity is low-cost and plentiful.

[Ruth4Truth]

Originally Posted by alyOSU

I completely understand where your question is coming from! It may be unusual, but we’re pretty used to having at least an hour drive to “go into town” for anything outside of a local Walmart, and where we used to live that was also an hour away.. The farthest thing we would travel for would be my daughters gymnastics, and by google maps it’s about an hour and a half drive from PA to the gym we’ve been looking at. She’s only 6, so I have no idea if this is going to be a lifetime commitment for her yet. We’ve tried living closer to large cities, and we were completely miserable. It doesn’t do well for my mental health or my kids sanity. These kids are happiest outside exploring.

OK, that's what I thought might be the case; you're probably looking at Silverdale or Bremerton or someplace around Kitsap. That would be doable on an occasional basis.

[Meg_O]

Originally Posted by CrazyDonkey

There is a gym in Port Angeles: https://klahhanegymnastics.org/

There can be backups at the Hood Canal Bridge, especially in the tourist season.

CrazyDonkey makes an excellent point, and not only because of the tourist season; boats have the right of way, and drawspans can range from ten minutes to more than an hour. The Washington DOT is very good about bridge alerts, including scheduled drawspans - subscribe by texting 468311 with the words “wsdot hood.”

I'm not currently in Washington, but most of my friends and family are, both on the OP and elsewhere. If and when I need to get from PA or PT to Seattle proper, I always allocate myself six hours, regardless of what the reports are. Good luck to your little family. It sounds as though you're thinking this through very well.

[Hemlock140]

Originally Posted by Meg_O

CrazyDonkey makes an excellent point, and not only because of the tourist season; boats have the right of way, and drawspans can range from ten minutes to more than an hour. The Washington DOT is very good about bridge alerts, including scheduled drawspans - subscribe by texting 468311 with the words “wsdot hood.”

I'm not currently in Washington, but most of my friends and family are, both on the OP and elsewhere. If and when I need to get from PA or PT to Seattle proper, I always allocate myself six hours, regardless of what the reports are. Good luck to your little family. It sounds as though you're thinking this through very well.

Going up several times a year to visit family, we gave up on the ferry long ago, and always drive around via 16 the Tacoma Narrows Bridge/Poulsbo, and it's always under 3 hours, except if we have to go during Lavender Festival time when traffic can be backed up from the Hood Canal to Sequim. In over 20 years we have only run into the bridge up twice.

[pikabike]

Originally Posted by Meg_O

CrazyDonkey makes an excellent point, and not only because of the tourist season; boats have the right of way, and drawspans can range from ten minutes to more than an hour. The Washington DOT is very good about bridge alerts, including scheduled drawspans - subscribe by texting 468311 with the words “wsdot hood.”

I'm not currently in Washington, but most of my friends and family are, both on the OP and elsewhere. If and when I need to get from PA or PT to Seattle proper, I always allocate myself six hours, regardless of what the reports are. Good luck to your little family. It sounds as though you're thinking this through very well.

The Hood Canal Bridge is a bugaboo. A neighbor missed a doctor’s appointment because of a long spell of it being raised. Other similar stories exist. I once waited at the closed bridge for about half an hour before cars around me had U-turned so that I could do the same. I simply went home and called it a wasted attempt.

Sometimes the closure is only a few minutes, but you can never know if you might hit one of the very long delays.

The tall boats aren’t the problem. It’s the submarines passing well UNDER the bridge that correlated with the long waits.

In only about 4 yrs of living on the Olympic Peninsula, I had to wait for that bridge about as many times, and I rarely drove that way.

Strong storms also result in bridge closures, for good reason. It’s no fun driving over it when the water height is awfully close to bridge/road surface height and waves are slamming over the top.

[MechAndy]

I’ve been stuck once for about 30 minutes waiting for the subs before.
They have escort boats with them.
One of my friends tried to get home at dark 30 several years ago and just gave up and went around the canal.
That was for a maintenance thing though.

I dig the Peninsula but you really need to bring your own job/money or be content with the check to check small wages and renting lifestyle.

[elkotronics]

I dig the Peninsula but you really need to bring your own job/money or be content with the check to check small wages and renting lifestyle.

This^^^^

The Olympic Peninsula is truly a gem. I admonish any of you on city-data Washington to visit the Peninsula. Explore it a bit. At this point, 3 years until retirement, I'm glad Boeing laid me off the first time. It enabled me to find a job in Forks and experience life over there on the extreme west end. We were just 13 miles from the Pacific Ocean. The ocean is gorgeous, but its the forests and rain forest and hiking and the Elwha River and Lake Crescent and Lake Quinault that make this place shine.

There's no way to explain it. You'll just have to go over there yourself to experience it. I'll never forget looking out to the west towards Port Angles on Maggot Mountain (my fellow loggers named it Maggot Mountain!!) and seeing a large mountain peak. I thought it was Mt. Olympus but later, through research, I determined it was Mt. Carrie. The sun was shining towards us from the west and it was hitting the raindrops that were sticking to the trees. They were blinking brightly from the sunlight. And way off 50-some miles west I see this beautiful tall mountain sitting there beautifully. As I say, I will never forget it.

You've just got to experience the Olympic Peninsula!

[elkotronics]

I dig the Peninsula but you really need to bring your own job/money or be content with the check to check small wages and renting lifestyle.

This^^^^

The Olympic Peninsula is truly a gem. I admonish any of you on city-data Washington to visit the Peninsula. Explore it a bit. At this point, 3 years until retirement, I'm glad Boeing laid me off the first time. It enabled me to find a job in Forks and experience life over there on the extreme west end. We were just 13 miles from the Pacific Ocean. The ocean is gorgeous, but its the forests and rain forest and hiking and the Elwha River and Lake Crescent and Lake Quinault that make this place shine.

There's no way to explain it. You'll just have to go over there yourself to experience it. I'll never forget looking out to the west towards Port Angles on Maggot Mountain (my fellow loggers named it Maggot Mountain!!) and seeing a large mountain peak. I thought it was Mt. Olympus but later, through research, I determined it was Mt. Carrie. The sun was shining towards us from the west and it was hitting the raindrops that were sticking to the trees. They were blinking brightly from the sunlight. And way off 50-some miles west I see this beautiful tall mountain sitting there beautifully. As I say, I will never forget it.

You've just got to experience the Olympic Peninsula!

[elkotronics]

One of my tree-thinning buddies that lent me his '65 Ford Falcon in Forks for a while so I could put our car in to the shop for a repair once said this while we were driving in his truck on a logging road: You won't see this in Seattle. He was talking about these gorgeous bright white swans that we saw drifting slowly across the lake. I moved to Forks from Everett. I was born in Seattle, raised in Edmonds. To me Seattle was not where I came from, Everett was. But he was correct in telling me this. I pretty much know Seattle-Tacoma-Auburn-Olympia-Centralia-Woodinville-Bothell-Lake Stevens-Lynnwood-Everett-Arlington-Stanwood-Camano Island-Mt.Vernon-Burlington-Chuckanut Drive-Bellingham. I spent my first 43 years in western Washington.

I trained for my medical career in mid-Missouri and worked in several states in my medical career. My favorites were Dodge City, KS, Willcox, AZ, and presently here, Alamogordo, NM.

I'll get to my point: I do not recall seeing those same type of beautiful, big, white swans anywhere except there on the Oly Pen. We were over by the Quileute River. Nearby that is the place I had the best-tasting burger (local elk+hamburger) I have ever tasted. It was scrumpdeli-icious!!

I was stunned and sad after receiving my layoff notice from Boeing. But, although it took me a couple of months to find work at a print shop in Forks, I was so happy to be warmly welcomed by the local Congregation and to get to work there as a layout/paste-up printer. I loved reading the type and artwork for all these Olympic Peninsula businesses.

Before I end this post I want to tell you guys how beautiful the upper Pacific Coast is. La Push is a small Indian fishing village on the Coast. There's a small peninsula of land between the ocean beach and Lake Ozette. A person could walk across that pretty quickly.

The beach #1, beach #2 and a third beach hike that I can't remember the name of were right on the edge of the huge Pacific Ocean. We tried #1 and #2 and they're both easy peasy hikes and beautiful.

Lastly, Lake Quinault is hauntingly beautiful. Mrs. elkotronics and I stayed in a small cabin one night. The front door was locked with the blade end of a butter knife. I kid you not. Stay there - there's huge Washington evergreen trees that are on fairly steep slopes coming right down to the lake's edge. And it goes back in easterly from the western entrance enough to make it a beautiful vista from the entrance.

Experience wild life. Experience Washington's Olympic Peninsula!