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You might want to seriously consider Eureka CA. Less cold and wet than north Oregon coast, no heat waves. Better place to garden too. It can actually be cheaper to live in than Oregon depending on your source and amount of income
I've always liked Astoria - from the standpoint of an occasional summer visitor. But it gets an average of almost 100" of rain a year. If you are not sure about overcast and rain, the north coast is probably not a good idea.
Yes, we will have to go in the winter - planning to spend a few weeks up and down the coast in February. I personally have never really minded overcast, as long as it's also green and cozy. Seems things need to be in the correct combination: dry and warm, cold and sunny, wet and lush seem to work. Hot and humid, cold/dreary and blah vegetation, etc don't seem to work.
Quote:
Originally Posted by DKM
You might want to seriously consider Eureka CA. Less cold and wet than north Oregon coast, no heat waves. Better place to garden too. It can actually be cheaper to live in than Oregon depending on your source and amount of income
I have thought a bit about Eureka and we will fit that into our trip down the coast before heading back to Colorado. It does seem it is similar in many respects, with the natural beauty, Victorian architecture and not overly developed/a bit gritty.
You might want to seriously consider Eureka CA. Less cold and wet than north Oregon coast, no heat waves. Better place to garden too. It can actually be cheaper to live in than Oregon depending on your source and amount of income
Eureka and Humboldt County has turned into tweaker central. The place is completely overrun with homeless meth heads and heroin junkies. The New York Times on the other side of the country recently ran a major feature on the problem:
Not saying Oregon towns are necessarily better. But I expect the problems are less in your face in a smaller more spread out community where bands of homeless tweakers are less likely to congregate than a big college town like Humboldt County area.
Wouldn't surprise me one bit. There seems to be a high correlation between areas with a tolerance/enabling of drug culture and this problem. I recall drugs and transients being problematic in parts of the Oregon coast too.
Yes, we will have to go in the winter - planning to spend a few weeks up and down the coast in February. I personally have never really minded overcast, as long as it's also green and cozy. Seems things need to be in the correct combination: dry and warm, cold and sunny, wet and lush seem to work. Hot and humid, cold/dreary and blah vegetation, etc don't seem to work.
I have thought a bit about Eureka and we will fit that into our trip down the coast before heading back to Colorado. It does seem it is similar in many respects, with the natural beauty, Victorian architecture and not overly developed/a bit gritty.
Try for early January if possible. February can be pretty mild compared to January. You won't get the full effect of the winter weather in February.
I hope people are trying to warn you of is this, or at least you are thinking about it:
When you visit the coast during the summertime it is really easy to fall in love with it all, and in your mind you create all kinds of scenarios where "It can't be that bad, I'll power through it".
You are loving the scenery, it's warm, it's not raining, the beauty is overpowering, and you feel like you are luckier than 99% of the population because finally, YOU are living on the beach, or coast, or whatever.
I am willing to say that for most folks, after a couple of years of living on the coast you start to wonder how you got yourself talked into it.
Months of wet, cool, wet, windy, rainy weather takes it toll on you.
After a year or two, all that "new coastal stuff" like wind, salt, rain, tourists, and lack of facilities gets to you.
You could care less about floats, boats, salty decor, tourists, high prices, coastal ghost towns when it's not tourist season, it all gets boring after a while.
Sure, your "culture" and city living is only 90 minutes away, but that 90 minutes is through twisty, turney coastal range highways that can be very treacherous in the winter.
You really want to drive an hour and a half, have dinner, see a show, and then drive back 90 minutes on a mountain highway in the middle of the night?
I guess you could tack on another hundred for a hotel room that night.
Think of all the stuff you would have to go through to relocate when you are elderly.
Say you moved to the coast in your 60's feeling spry and full of adventure.
Ten years later......after all that "fun", and a heart attack or a stroke, or other major elder illness.............you will really wish you lived in Salem or Portland, where you can take advantage of medical, social services etc...(plus being an hour or so from the coast if you wanted to do a day trip).
Seriously, if you are 60 years old, or approaching the age where you are no longer young and tough, do yourself a big favor and ask yourself if you have a BIG medical emergency, or for whatever reason can't help yourself, run out of money, or have family to fall back on, what are your plans?
There is no crime in following your dreams, but please be realistic.
I am saying all this because I have lived through it.
Last edited by pdxMIKEpdx; 06-12-2018 at 06:01 PM..
I hope people are trying to warn you of is this, or at least you are thinking about it:
When you visit the coast during the summertime it is really easy to fall in love with it all, and in your mind you create all kinds of scenarios where "It can't be that bad, I'll power through it".
You are loving the scenery, it's warm, it's not raining, the beauty is overpowering, and you feel like you are luckier than 99% of the population because finally, YOU are living on the beach, or coast, or whatever.
I am willing to say that for most folks, after a couple of years of living on the coast you start to wonder how you got yourself talked into it.
Months of wet, cool, wet, windy, rainy weather takes it toll on you.
After a year or two, all that "new coastal stuff" like wind, salt, rain, tourists, and lack of facilities gets to you.
You could care less about floats, boats, salty decor, tourists, high prices, coastal ghost towns when it's not tourist season, it all gets boring after a while.
Sure, your "culture" and city living is only 90 minutes away, but that 90 minutes is through twisty, turney coastal range highways that can be very treacherous in the winter.
You really want to drive an hour and a half, have dinner, see a show, and then drive back 90 minutes on a mountain highway in the middle of the night?
I guess you could tack on another hundred for a hotel room that night.
Think of all the stuff you would have to go through to relocate when you are elderly.
Say you moved to the coast in your 60's feeling spry and full of adventure.
Ten years later......after all that "fun", and a heart attack or a stroke, or other major elder illness.............you will really wish you lived in Salem or Portland, where you can take advantage of medical, social services etc...(plus being an hour or so from the coast if you wanted to do a day trip).
Seriously, if you are 60 years old, or approaching the age where you are no longer young and tough, do yourself a big favor and ask yourself if you have a BIG medical emergency, or for whatever reason can't help yourself, run out of money, or have family to fall back on, what are your plans?
There is no crime in following your dreams, but please be realistic.
I am saying all this because I have lived through it.
That is 100% correct. Also the reason why the biggest town on the Oregon coast has a population of about 10,000 whereas about 15 million people live in coastal Florida.
I hope people are trying to warn you of is this, or at least you are thinking about it:
When you visit the coast during the summertime it is really easy to fall in love with it all, and in your mind you create all kinds of scenarios where "It can't be that bad, I'll power through it".
You are loving the scenery, it's warm, it's not raining, the beauty is overpowering, and you feel like you are luckier than 99% of the population because finally, YOU are living on the beach, or coast, or whatever.
I am willing to say that for most folks, after a couple of years of living on the coast you start to wonder how you got yourself talked into it.
Months of wet, cool, wet, windy, rainy weather takes it toll on you.
After a year or two, all that "new coastal stuff" like wind, salt, rain, tourists, and lack of facilities gets to you.
You could care less about floats, boats, salty decor, tourists, high prices, coastal ghost towns when it's not tourist season, it all gets boring after a while.
Sure, your "culture" and city living is only 90 minutes away, but that 90 minutes is through twisty, turney coastal range highways that can be very treacherous in the winter.
You really want to drive an hour and a half, have dinner, see a show, and then drive back 90 minutes on a mountain highway in the middle of the night?
I guess you could tack on another hundred for a hotel room that night.
Think of all the stuff you would have to go through to relocate when you are elderly.
Say you moved to the coast in your 60's feeling spry and full of adventure.
Ten years later......after all that "fun", and a heart attack or a stroke, or other major elder illness.............you will really wish you lived in Salem or Portland, where you can take advantage of medical, social services etc...(plus being an hour or so from the coast if you wanted to do a day trip).
Seriously, if you are 60 years old, or approaching the age where you are no longer young and tough, do yourself a big favor and ask yourself if you have a BIG medical emergency, or for whatever reason can't help yourself, run out of money, or have family to fall back on, what are your plans?
There is no crime in following your dreams, but please be realistic.
I am saying all this because I have lived through it.
Amen to all of the above. I lived in the PNW for many years, and just last year moved back to my hometown area of the SF Bay Area from Crescent City, CA. Decided I'd rather have amenities and traffic and better weather.
That said, OP - Crescent City would fit the bill for the most part. If you got involved in the local art scene, you'd find more liberal minded people - even if you aren't an artist, you can volunteer and meet more liberal folk. And, you could just drive 30 minutes to Brookings, OR, for a nicer town atmosphere, and there is more entertainment there.
But, it's isolated from so much. I did really love being able to take my dog off-leash to parks and beaches. It's a beautiful area, but it's cheap for a reason - not great weather and just really isolated without many amenities. And any major healthcare problems require going to Eureka or Medford.
And just for your info, driving from Crescent City to Eureka is a nail-biter. There are often landslides on that very twisty mountain road on cliffs above the ocean, and that means delays are really common, where they have to use a pilot car to get traffic moving on one open lane, while the other side has to wait.
It's easier to travel up into Grants Pass, OR, and down into Medford, even if it is a longer drive, just because the highway is better. But, even the drive between Crescent City and Grants Pass involves really curvy mountain roads where you don't always have cell phone service, either. That's a problem up there. The only cell service worth getting is Verizon, but even then, you won't always have a signal once you get out of town.
Thank you everyone, who recently gave input, both the good and the bad. W
e currently live in an area on the Front Range of Colorado, which is becoming more and more sprawling with continual growth, traffic, cookie cutter subdivisions going up and the like. We have our second place in a town of 1200 and get to it as often as possible, but typically rent it out as a vacation rental.
Now that we both work from home, our original plan has been to relocate to the second home (cabin), but the heat all over the state is becoming very oppressive to me and I am finding myself less active in the summer. I enjoy cool and even cold weather and feel invigorated by wind, clouds etc.
As far as being distant from 'civilization', we do not really like to socialize and prefer to be alone. We spend all our free time outdoors hiking and we rarely go out to dinner or that sort of thing, and the town of 1200 where our cabin is is pretty remote.
We are 38 and 33 btw and in good health.
We do plan to visit and spend some time in Jan or Feb to try to get a feel for continuous clouds. Most likely, if we were to do this in a few years, and we aren't going to rush it, we would probably spend winters in Colorado, which are really just about perfect for me - I feel comfortable in short sleeves in 40 degree dry weather, and summers there.
So, cool, rainy, remote and private are really sounding quite good to me at this point, but then again, the grass is always greener isn't it? Thank you everyone, and we will certainly not rush things!
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