portland or eugene (or Seattle) from cenral IL (Springfield, Bend: renting, house)

[ndb]

My wife and I are considering a relocation from Champaign, IL to the pacific northwest area and are curious about jobs, cost of living, etc. From my research it looks like housing is more expensive [pretty much everywhere else] in relation to central, IL. I'm actively looking for work in Portland, Eugene as well as Seattle. There seems to be quite a but for what I do, so I'm not terribly worried. My wife is a Veterinarian and it seems like Oregon in particular doesn't have many vet jobs. Are we just not looking hard enough? Anyone have experiences with this career in this area? We'd prefer to live in a university town, since I'm partial to working in a university environment and we really like the diversity. We also have a lot of pets (occupational hazard for her =) and would prefer to buy a house in a nice, clean, safe area that I [we] could bicycle or at least take public transportation to/from work. Renting would be OK but must have a yard and not ask for an unreasonable amount of deposit for pets.
Both of us are from Central IL so this is a pretty big move or us and if we do it I'm going to research the heck out of it. Does anyone have any advice/suggestions? How is the climate in Eugene compared to Portland and Seattle? Historical data leads me to believe that there are substantially fewer days of sun and a lot of mist with overcast skies is this true in comparison to Central, IL?
My experience in Seattle was pretty good, I was there for 3 weeks in November of 2005 and loved it, we're returning there at the end of this month to check it out together. I'm going to cross post this in the Seattle forum as well.

Thanks for any advice!

[exwrestlingduck]

We live in a small town just out side the city of Eugene. The city is named Lowell. Connected to Hwy 58, it takes about 15 minutes to downtown Eugene and Springfield. But, there is lake veiw property and outside of the valley's fog line. Priceless area. Mountain biking is doubling each year because of all of the trails. The is 3 lakes all in a stones throw of each other. Plus, the fishing is great as well as the hunting. But, the biggest plus, is that your in the center of oregon, one hour to big city of portland or to the oregon coast or the desert area of Bend!

[ndb]

Cool. Thanks for the info. How large is the town of Lowell? I'm not totally opposed to a smaller town, but I like the diversity of a decent sized campus, which is why I work at one now. We like the outdoors for our dogs and to cycle and stay active. We're still researching at the moment, I have no job offers but have applied with the U of O. My wife would also need to be able to find work wherever we go, and would likely be the one to give the final "yay or nay" to the relocation assuming all other factors are a go.
hmmm, looks from your screen name like you wrestled, I have a little experience with that but have migrated to more submission grappling/jiu jitsu as I've gotten older. Just a shot in the dark, but do you know anything about what is available in that area? I know there are some schools that do jiu jitsu / submission grappling but have not gotten in to details yet.

Thanks again,
ndb

Originally Posted by exwrestlingduck

We live in a small town just out side the city of Eugene. The city is named Lowell. Connected to Hwy 58, it takes about 15 minutes to downtown Eugene and Springfield. But, there is lake veiw property and outside of the valley's fog line. Priceless area. Mountain biking is doubling each year because of all of the trails. The is 3 lakes all in a stones throw of each other. Plus, the fishing is great as well as the hunting. But, the biggest plus, is that your in the center of oregon, one hour to big city of portland or to the oregon coast or the desert area of Bend!