Forks vs Sequim??? (Seattle, Vancouver, Longview: real estate, daycare, find a job)

[grawets]

I will be moving in the next year to the Washington area. I am leaving the conifnes of my hometown, Moab, Utah. So I can venture into the big world! I am not a vampire hunter, in fact I had not even heard of the books until I looked into Forks. I love Ireland, I love the ocean, I love rain! I am from a small town so I am trying to change to another small town. I cannot decide between Sequim or Forks. I am a single mother so I would be in need of a daycare center and good schools. Also I will need to find a job before I go. Any help would be great!!!

[CleJ]

I've visited both, so I hope I can help you a little.
Sequim is definitely the 'happier' town. From what I've seen of Forks, it's kind of the calm place tucked into the forests. However, it's very close to the rainforest and the gorgeous beaches.
You say you love rain, you'll probably be better off in Forks, since Sequim lies in the rain shadow of the Olympics and has an annual precipitation of about 10 inches (correct me if I'm wrong...). But Sequim lies pretty close to Port Angeles, which has a connection with Victoria.
So, I'd say: if you really want rain you'd better stick to Forks, otherwise Sequim sounds like the better choice to me.
Further on: Forks is kind of isolated, so I think there's better chances of finding work in Sequim/Port Angeles. I don't know about schools or daycare!

[allforcats]

There's no work in Forks, beyond perhaps a remote possibility of an occasional opening for a store cashier. Forks is a lovely, TINY town and does not have jobs or services beyond the very basics.

Perhaps you're not aware that Forks is in a temperate rain forest -- Forks receives some 12 FEET of rain per year, almost every day. Months of daily rain can drive people mad as their world molds, rots and rusts around them. Rain is wonderful. Rain forest is a place to visit and leave.

You will find many more options, and much more variety of options, in Port Angeles, Sequim and Port Townsend, all of which are on the northern coast of the Olympic Peninsula (see a map). Among them, they offer quite a variety of possibilities as well as pleasant living.

Peninsula Daily News

[Dendrite]

Originally Posted by grawets

I will be moving in the next year to the Washington area. I am leaving the conifnes of my hometown, Moab, Utah.

Moab! Love it, what a beautiful place. Arches and Canyonlands are two of our favorite desert places. On that note, the Olympic Peninsula is about as different from Moab as you can possibly get- almost a different universe! I assume you've spent time here prior to pulling up roots and moving to WA?

Originally Posted by grawets

Also I will need to find a job before I go.

Not to be the dark rain cloud here (fitting analagy for the Peninsula eh? ) but jobs are tight to non-existent in the places mentioned. Suggested order: find job first (if one can be found), then move to where ever you happen to land that job.

Good luck!

[KAILANI]

Originally Posted by Dendrite

Moab! Love it, what a beautiful place. Arches and Canyonlands are two of our favorite desert places. On that note, the Olympic Peninsula is about as different from Moab as you can possibly get- almost a different universe! I assume you've spent time here prior to pulling up roots and moving to WA?



Not to be the dark rain cloud here (fitting analagy for the Peninsula eh? ) but jobs are tight to non-existent in the places mentioned. Suggested order: find job first (if one can be found), then move to where ever you happen to land that job.

Good luck!

I'll second that!

[jertheber]

If you could hack the Utah weather you might want to check out the east side of Washington, or better yet, get the best of both worlds and look around the Columbia Gorge area in southern Washington, here you are on the divide of a mountain range at sea level, go a few miles east and you have the dry hot weather, go west to the "cool side", for beach and rainy weather. As a single mom you might be wanting to go where there are at least some living wage jobs, small Wa towns are not noted for their employment oppertunities. Forks can be so challenging as to drive away those who are not connected to the area, if they can leave, most will. It's a matter of taste, and our rural areas can be rather tight in the social sense, you won't be readily accepted as a local. The entire Olympic peninsula is one beautiful majestic place but for most of us it's a place to visit, not many entertain thoughts of living up in the far north west. the southern portion of washington has the most to offer as far as work and housing go, most folks are thinking of the Seattle area or east of Seattle, but the Vancouver -Portland area is nice and you can still find small towns to commute from. Sequim, here's a town that was built for retired people, it has a long strip of fast foods and big box stores on the main highway(101), it's truly ugly. Some of the town is set back off the hwy far enough to have some peace and quiet, that said, it has been overbuilt in my opinion, traffic confined to a few main throughfares, lots of tourists in the sunny months adding to the mess. The only other towns that seem to fit your needs would be in the central west region along I-5, Centralia, Chehalis, Longview, and smaller burbs in Cowlitz and Lewis counties. We are experiencing a mass migration to the NW, it's starting to get to the locals of these small towns, I guess they can't be faulted for having a negative attitude about their area being overun by "outsiders". Real estate prices were through the roof just last year in these out out the way places, this is reflected in the rise of property taxes on those who came to these areas long ago to escape the big taxes of the urban areas. Like I said, you won't be accepted in a short time, it just isn't their way. Conversly I don't feel you would need to be afraid of those small town folks, it's just that the pie has shrunk, and the more who come to share in it the less there is for everybody. We have a very scenic spot here in the NW, we have some of the best beaches and mountains in the country, there will be room for more people but it seems as though we might be near the breaking point due to our physical geography and lack of any transit that really serves the out back, come up and look around, you will probably love it, it's easy on the eyes.