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I am forty years old and have the opportunity to relocate and retire anywhere I want and I've decided to take it. Where should I go? I love the rain and cloudy days. Snow is okay but don't want to be buried. Hate the heat. Hate the humidity more. Don't mind a drier climate but don't want to be in the desert. In other words I need at least 15 inches of rain per year, but of course more is better. I love mountains and forests. I love to fish and hike and camp. I consider myself to be religious but I tend to be rather moderate in my political leanings and get along with everyone. Most importantly I think I just want to be left alone in terms of being regulated to death by local government. I'm originally from California and left for obvious reasons. Now I'm in western Colorado. Smaller close knit communities are better but I love the big city too. I'm open to anyplace that meets my above criteria, anywhere except California. I'm even open to somewhere else here in Colorado. Any thoughts?
Hi, I am basing my answer on what you described in your post. I would say Seattle/Tacoma area in WA or Portland OR. Both of these areas have a climate somewhat similar of what you described and considering that Seattle has a bunch of outdoor activities such as hiking and fishing, it would be a nice place to retire.
If you value smaller close-knit communities and like a big city perhaps a smaller town not far outside a major metro would suit you best as neither Seattle or Portland have ever been described as "close knit" from my experience...in fact more the opposite. Check out towns like Corvallis OR or Olympia WA which are much smaller (around 60K in population) and while more intimate not difficult to assimilate as an "outsider" since they're either a college town (Oregon State U in Corvallis) and the WA state capital in Olympia...and used to seeing new faces. Both would fulfill your recreational interests well and are a good bit less expensive in terms of housing which is a major perk.
Thanks for the input. Those are all great choices in every area except size. Olympia, for example, is still too much a part of the greater Seattle metroplex for my tastes. I also don't like a long stretched out decentralized metros like the Puget Sound or the Wasatch Front in Utah, for example.
I'm interested in something more along the lines of a single central core city surrounded by smaller suburbs, like Portland. But even Portland is still just too big for me. Even Idaho's Treasure Valley, which I had been looking into, is pushing it with near 700,000 people. Boise itself is 220,000 which is about my limit for a "big" city.
I might check out Corvallis though. That's more along the lines of what I'm thinking size wise. If I had to say for sure I think I'm looking for metro with a central core city of between 50,000 and 150,000 with several smaller surrounding suburbs pushing a total of maybe 250,000-300,000 people.
Okay so turns our my mom just retired early (my dad retired a few years ago) and they are going to move to the PNW. We are thinking of looking of looking that way too in our search. But the more we think about we want the same climate so are looking at east of the Cascades. Using the same criteria as stated in the original post should we look at Boise, Spokane/CDA, Ellensburg, Wenatchee, Yakima, Bend/Redmond or LaGrande/Baker City? Tri-Cities is out because it isn't a "mountain" town.
What about a town on the Olympic Peninsula or Kitsap Peninsula. Poulsbo, Port Townsend... Very close to the Olympic mountains, smaller towns, Loads of rain.
Coeur D'Alene is gorgeous and probably very much what you're after. Yakima is very sunny, warm, and dry.
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