Quest for the near-perfect smallish town on the water in Washington (Seattle: house, restaurants)

[Rob-con]

I only recently discovered that Washington state has towns on the water with more sunshine than rain. Now I'm on a quest to find just the right place for my wife and I to settle within an hour or so from Seattle or Tacoma. Wife needs health care facilities not too far away for work, and I work from home.
Here's the wish list. Does this town exist?
1. More days of sunshine than rain.
2. Most of the downtown traditional architecture has been kept, and kept up. A nice aesthetic and charm.
3. Lots of trees in town and forests to hike in and explore close to town.
4. Culturally active, and at least 8-10 restaurants representing some diverse cuisine (not necessarily expensive cuisine.) Love Greek, Indian, Italian, Seafood, Mediterranean. I realize this would probably have to be a fairly large town to include all those types of food, but I can hope.
5. Should have said this first: population under 30,000 and probably over 10,000 to support some of the items on wish list.
6. Good health care and a hospital within 20 miles or so.
7. Marina and active water sports and boating.
8. A natural food store or two within 30 minutes or so.
9. Balanced mix of the traditional and the new, architecturally, culturally and attitudinally.
10. Can get a nice 3 bedroom house within a mile or two from water for under $460K.

I know, a pretty Brigadoonish or Shangrilaish wish list. How close can I get? Thanks.

[Andy]

Originally Posted by Rob-con

I only recently discovered that Washington state has towns on the water with more sunshine than rain. Now I'm on a quest to find just the right place for my wife and I to settle within an hour or so from Seattle or Tacoma.

Impossible.

You will need to go east of the Cascade Range to get more sun than rain. To get sun, trees, water, array of restaurants, I'd look at Sandpoint, ID. Since it is a resort town, it has a wider array of amenities than the typical town of that size.


If you can handle the rain: Gig Harbor, Bainbridge Island, Poulsbo, Steilacoom. Anything else would be further than an hour away from Seattle-Tacoma.

[509]

Chelan.

But you are four hours from Seattle and they all come visit you on the weekend!!

Of course, you get high speed public fiber if you need that for your job.

[Rob-con]

Thanks. I got the idea of more sun than rain by reading a little piece on, I think, Port Angeles. That seemed to be not too far from Seattle. Maybe I am mistaken the town I read about.

[Andy]

Originally Posted by Rob-con

Thanks. I got the idea of more sun than rain by reading a little piece on, I think, Port Angeles. That seemed to be not too far from Seattle. Maybe I am mistaken the town I read about.

Probably Sequim which is just east of PA. It receives less rain and more sun than Seattle due to the rain shadow. Seattle gets less rain and more sun than Olympia since it too is partially protected by the Olympics.

[Dendrite]

Originally Posted by Rob-con

Thanks. I got the idea of more sun than rain by reading a little piece on, I think, Port Angeles. That seemed to be not too far from Seattle. Maybe I am mistaken the town I read about.

Drive time between Port Angeles and Seattle is roughly 3 hours for us depending upon several factors. If we take the Bainbridge WSF and hit it just perfectly with minimal time spent waiting and spinning our gears in the ferry staging/loading area, then the trip between PA and Seattle is more like 2 1/2 hours.

Remember the weather caveat for western Washington: less rain does not necessarily mean more annual sunshine. It simply means less annual rainfall relative to surrounding areas. The less annual rainfall areas may be just as gray and overcast as a rainier region on a given day- but not raining or simply just not raining as hard there on that particular day. Sure, rain shadow territory can be sunnier at times than non-rain shadow territory but it's not always the case.

[WendyK]

Eastern Washington - Liberty Lake, Newman Lake, Lake Spokane - more sun than Western WA and close to excellent health care. More reasonable home prices, close enough to cultural events in Spokane, restaurants, etc.

[Hemlock140]

Sequim gets as little as 9" of rainfall, 1/4 that in Seattle, and claims to have a lot more sun. Reality is that the sun does appear almost every day but may only be for an hour in the afternoon. Tri-cities (Richland, Pasco Kennewick) are on the Columbia River and would suit your requirements better but in 20 years here in WA I have never seen place that meets all of them. Places with only 10-30,000 people are not likely to be able to support the number of restaurants, have major hospitals, or have architectural diversity. Look also at Moses Lake. When you talk about water, it will be limited to river or lake to have sun, all of the ocean coast and Puget Sound is more rain than sun.

If such a place existed it would soon be over-run with people and become the biggest city in the state.

[253253253]

Originally Posted by Rob-con

I only recently discovered that Washington state has towns on the water with more sunshine than rain. Now I'm on a quest to find just the right place for my wife and I to settle within an hour or so from Seattle or Tacoma. Wife needs health care facilities not too far away for work, and I work from home.
Here's the wish list. Does this town exist?
1. More days of sunshine than rain.
2. Most of the downtown traditional architecture has been kept, and kept up. A nice aesthetic and charm.
3. Lots of trees in town and forests to hike in and explore close to town.
4. Culturally active, and at least 8-10 restaurants representing some diverse cuisine (not necessarily expensive cuisine.) Love Greek, Indian, Italian, Seafood, Mediterranean. I realize this would probably have to be a fairly large town to include all those types of food, but I can hope.
5. Should have said this first: population under 30,000 and probably over 10,000 to support some of the items on wish list.
6. Good health care and a hospital within 20 miles or so.
7. Marina and active water sports and boating.
8. A natural food store or two within 30 minutes or so.
9. Balanced mix of the traditional and the new, architecturally, culturally and attitudinally.
10. Can get a nice 3 bedroom house within a mile or two from water for under $460K.

I know, a pretty Brigadoonish or Shangrilaish wish list. How close can I get? Thanks.

You just described Gig Harbor to a "T." Check it out.

[PS90]

If "on the water" means the ocean, I would agree that Sequim is your best bet - although the "more sun than rain" can be a little deceiving there sometimes, and there isn't mush of a historical downtown.

If "on the water" means a decent lake, I would agree that Chelan is you best bet - although the diverse restaurants and downtown architecture would be lacking.

Maybe also consider Wenatchee - nice historical downtown, right on the Columbia River, some decent ethnic restaurants (but probably not all on your list), certainly much more sun than rain, not far from excellent hiking, and has a couple of natural food stores; but the population is slightly higher than you're looking for. I'm not sure what you mean by "traditional and new - attitudinally", but Wenatchee is mostly conservative with some liberalism being infused due to the Coastie retirees moving over there.