Northern Cal, Oregon, or Washington--oh my

[RogueRiverRat]

I've lived in all three of the PNW's big towns.

Portland is by far and away the best with Seattle coming in a distant second. Spokane? Let's just say Spokane is an odd place that I hope I never lay eyes on again.

I took a pay cut to move to Southern Oregon, and I feel as though I've made a wonderful choice. We have mountain ranges so close we almost can touch them from our decks, the Rogue River and we get a whopping 19 inches of rain a year.

I'll stay here another 20 years and then retire in the desert.

[nullgeo]

Originally Posted by janb

... For WA, there is a nice climate around Sequim. ...
If you can handle an 'island' commute, look at San Juan (Friday Harbor) the Island school district is considered pretty good.

Don't do it! Don't be sucked in by the Sequim fairytale ... check the recent Forum for a thread on this subject ... don't be fooled by anecdotal stories of Washingtonians, for whom any little rays of occasional sunshine qualify as triggers for celebratory outbursts. You are from sunny places. Washington's wonders do not include sun. Ignore the "inches of rain" statistics ... look at the City-Data Sunshine Hours charts. And all the same goes for the San Juans (I live in the islands and have been a NW resident for 38 years)

Washington and Oregon are great ... IF you can handle the elephant-butt gray that persists for 2/3 - 3/4 of every year ... and it comes with a fine rain and mist ... which may not leave lots of inches of precip. in the statistical columns ... but you WILL be wet most of the year, my friends.

Stick with northern California for sure.

As for Spokane: unh-uh ... no no no ... you will not relate atall ... and the winters will drive you nuts, given where you are coming from — to say nothing of the cowboy mentality (and I don't mean quaint: sitting around the campfire with a guitar Roy Rogers cowboys).

[MichaelinWA]

Although it's not in Pierce or King County, Olympia feels much more urban than the McKinleyville area, to me. But the northern California coast (Eureka, Arcata, etc.) can be pretty gray, too.

The so-called Redwood Empire and the Gold Country are probably my two favorite parts of California.

Originally Posted by Mispolly

We were considering Humboldt area/Mckinleyville but I'm not sure that will be as rural as we would we like. We took a quiz on Find Your Spot and it matched us with several places in Washington. Olympia sounds like a perfect match for us but everyone says it is so grey and we are used to lots of sunshine.