Best place in NW Washington? (Seattle, Vancouver: rental, find a job, school districts)

[OKSunny]

I have one year left of graduate school (Library & Information Studies) and my friend and I are wanting out of Oklahoma (too hot, too flat, too conservative). We wanted somewhere cool (temp-wise) and a little more liberal, hillier, and just different.
We looked at Oregon, Rhode Island, and Washington. From what I can tell from photos--WA is breathtaking. We decided that it is as good as place as any, and we both think being close to the coast and Canada are added benefits (within an hours drive or so).
Now that we picked a state, we need to find a city. We are both dog lovers, avid readers, outdoorsey, not girly at all, and mothers of young children.
Can anyone give us any information on safe, not too crowded, liberal, laid back, and affordable cities in the northwest part of WA?
Thanks so much!

[allforcats]

What a great adventure you are all contemplating! Fabulous!

Western and northwestern Washington ARE breathtaking. So is western Oregon.
Western WA is also pretty liberal but people here rarely discuss politics, religion, etc. etc. People are pretty much live and let live.
It's also darkly cloudy and drizzly for nine months of the year.
"The coast", i.e. the Pacific, is at least three hours from downtown Seattle, on the western side of the Olympic Peninsula. Elliott Bay, Puget Sound and the Strait of Juan de Fuca are much closer, as are the many, many lakes and rivers.
Canada, i.e. downtown Vancouver, is about three and a half hours from downtown Seattle.
The air is clean here about 360 days a year.

All the adjectives you indicate are pretty much everywhere here -- except affordable. The farther from Seattle you go, theoretically the more affordable housing becomes, although not always. But that also means fewer jobs and less variety of employment, and less choice of housing, either rental or owned.

Commuting within a 15-mile or so radius of downtown Seattle and downtown Bellevue can often/usually be very crowded, slow and take a long time out of each workday. So it's critical to find a job, and then choose a location to live in that's near the job.

Narrowing down statistics, locations, resources: City-Data's info pages can help a lot. Here's the WA page, from which you can select dozens of possible cities and towns:
http://www.city-data.com/city/Washington.html

Have fun!

P.S. You didn't ask about school districts, but you might want to know that Bellingham and Shoreline (just north of Seattle) are considered to have excellent schools.

[marlisk]

I am casting my vote for Bellingham. I live in the San Juan Islands, but my family and I lived in Bellingham for three years and we absolutely loved it. It really has a little of everything. You can easily access Seattle, Canada, the San Juan Islands, mountains, ocean, lakes, rivers, farmland, etc. Good library system and amazing parks/trail system. You might check out Bellingham, WA : Travel, Recreation, And Dining to find out more about Whatcom County in general.

[Sobefobik]

Portland Oregon sounds more like what you're looking for. You should take a trip out here and go to Portland and Western Washington to see what you like more.

[Taffeta]

In Washington I would suggest Kent, Renton, Auburn in the north end. ALl of them are fairly suburban yet within 20 minutes to Seattle. Unlike the Eastern Coast water, our ocean is cold. Very cold! If you are gay Seattle is much more aceptable. The smaller towns are still not adapted yet.

[RockfordNativenowSeattle]

Originally Posted by OKSunny

I have one year left of graduate school (Library & Information Studies) and my friend and I are wanting out of Oklahoma (too hot, too flat, too conservative). We wanted somewhere cool (temp-wise) and a little more liberal, hillier, and just different.
We looked at Oregon, Rhode Island, and Washington. From what I can tell from photos--WA is breathtaking. We decided that it is as good as place as any, and we both think being close to the coast and Canada are added benefits (within an hours drive or so).
Now that we picked a state, we need to find a city. We are both dog lovers, avid readers, outdoorsey, not girly at all, and mothers of young children.
Can anyone give us any information on safe, not too crowded, liberal, laid back, and affordable cities in the northwest part of WA?
Thanks so much!

Come on down you will fit right in, the Illegals are here and I dont mean just mexicans, you got Russians, Africans, Middle Eastern, Canadians here Illegal also and liberal people who all complain to me when were alone about how they hate this country b/c of my skin color they figure I hate the country myself.

They just dont know I served the country so did my father and my grandfather. Seattle is now the Mecca for Illegals for the Country Hand's down and Ive been all over the Country. Prepare yourself for Burkkas all over the place and the Gay Mafia who run the city. Im moving back to the midwest after this housing mess clears up abit and I sell this 4plex I live in.

Ohh and they openly teach about gay's here in the school system so I would reccomend you visit first before you move to any where near Seattle.