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Outside of Seattle/Portland and their immediate surroundings, what are the best cities in the Pacific Northwest states? I guess more specifically, ones that offer the compromise of being less expensive/busy/closer to nature, but still offer things to do/bars/culture etc?
I can't beleive anyone considers those places in Idaho and Montana part of the Pacific NW. I lived in Eugene for 4 years and I don't consider anything east of Bend of Yakima to be part of the Pacific NW.
I mean, Kalispell? Its 10 hours to the ocean. That's like calling Wichita, KS a "Gulf Coast" city. And speaking of Kansas, Walla Walla and Spokane look and act more like Kansas, culturally and geographically, than they do like Pacific Coast or even Willamette Valley towns.
As the Pacific NW has gotten more popular, I've noticed its stretched quite a bit east of anything that could legitimately be called Pacific anything, as far as I'm concerned. Talk about prole drift...
I can't beleive anyone considers those places in Idaho and Montana part of the Pacific NW. I lived in Eugene for 4 years and I don't consider anything east of Bend of Yakima to be part of the Pacific NW.
I mean, Kalispell? Its 10 hours to the ocean. That's like calling Wichita, KS a "Gulf Coast" city. And speaking of Kansas, Walla Walla and Spokane look and act more like Kansas, culturally and geographically, than they do like Pacific Coast or even Willamette Valley towns.
As the Pacific NW has gotten more popular, I've noticed its stretched quite a bit east of anything that could legitimately be called Pacific anything, as far as I'm concerned. Talk about prole drift...
The OP should have titled this "Smaller NW Cities". There is the pacific Northwest and the inland Northwest and just because Northwest is in both names does not mean that both regions need to look/act like each other.
I prefer to just call the Washington/Oregon/Idaho/extreme western Montana area the Northwest. Boise has a lot of western WA and OR transplants who want to still be in the Northwest but have more sun and dryer weather....hence the inland northwest. Also, the landscape and area around Coeur d'Alene looks like it would be in western Washington if you didn't know it was in Idaho.
I can't beleive anyone considers those places in Idaho and Montana part of the Pacific NW. I lived in Eugene for 4 years and I don't consider anything east of Bend of Yakima to be part of the Pacific NW.
I mean, Kalispell? Its 10 hours to the ocean. That's like calling Wichita, KS a "Gulf Coast" city. And speaking of Kansas, Walla Walla and Spokane look and act more like Kansas, culturally and geographically, than they do like Pacific Coast or even Willamette Valley towns.
As the Pacific NW has gotten more popular, I've noticed its stretched quite a bit east of anything that could legitimately be called Pacific anything, as far as I'm concerned. Talk about prole drift...
It's not referred as PNW because of the "physical closeness" to the ocean. Those areas were part of the Pacific Northwest territory and while Walla Walla and Spokane are not as liberal and have somewhat of a contentious relationship with their wet brethren... there's no question they also have that bit of PNW culture.
I can't beleive anyone considers those places in Idaho and Montana part of the Pacific NW. I lived in Eugene for 4 years and I don't consider anything east of Bend of Yakima to be part of the Pacific NW.
I mean, Kalispell? Its 10 hours to the ocean. That's like calling Wichita, KS a "Gulf Coast" city. And speaking of Kansas, Walla Walla and Spokane look and act more like Kansas, culturally and geographically, than they do like Pacific Coast or even Willamette Valley towns.
As the Pacific NW has gotten more popular, I've noticed its stretched quite a bit east of anything that could legitimately be called Pacific anything, as far as I'm concerned. Talk about prole drift...
Well fair enough, but if the Pacific Northwest ends at the eastern edge of the Cascades it's not even half of two states... Considering how other regions in the US are defined, that's a pretty small sub-region. If you wanted to get technical the stereotypical image and climate of the Pacific Northwest ends around the crest of the Cascades. People from outside the region seem to get upset about the use of "Pacific" to describe the rest of Oregon and Washington, but seriously, who cares? They're still stuck in the same state borders as the western portion of the NW states.
Also, Walla Walla is a college town and weekend trip to wine country for Seattlities these days, it's not really that much like anywhere in Kansas except for maybe Lawrence. Spokane feels like a lot of the inland West. Culturally you could say that half the small towns in the Willamette Valley feel like Kansas except for the mountains on the horizon.
It's not referred as PNW because of the "physical closeness" to the ocean. Those areas were part of the Pacific Northwest territory and while Walla Walla and Spokane are not as liberal and have somewhat of a contentious relationship with their wet brethren... there's no question they also have that bit of PNW culture.
Sometimes the Pacific Northwest gets described as the Columbia River Basin and everything else west of the Cascades down to Northern California. That's the expanded definition...
People differentiate between the NW Coast and the Greater Pacific Northwest though. Most of Oregon's population centers aren't on the coast or a body of salt water to begin with.
I can't beleive anyone considers those places in Idaho and Montana part of the Pacific NW. I lived in Eugene for 4 years and I don't consider anything east of Bend of Yakima to be part of the Pacific NW.
I mean, Kalispell? Its 10 hours to the ocean. That's like calling Wichita, KS a "Gulf Coast" city. And speaking of Kansas, Walla Walla and Spokane look and act more like Kansas, culturally and geographically, than they do like Pacific Coast or even Willamette Valley towns.
As the Pacific NW has gotten more popular, I've noticed its stretched quite a bit east of anything that could legitimately be called Pacific anything, as far as I'm concerned. Talk about prole drift...
Their may be some political difference but those cities are still "Pacific Northwest" from a historical, cultural, geological, and bio perspective. The language affiliations of the first nations (Native American Groups) living before European settlers pretty much follow the modern boundaries of what makes up the PNW today.
The PNW extends from SE Alaska through British Columbia, Washington, Oregon, Idaho Panhandle into Oregon. Some would extend that down to Northern California.
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