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Old 10-13-2015, 05:34 PM
 
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I love the area around the Sound... most of my time has been in and around Olympia.

Sure it might snow... and in a few hours the snow is almost always gone...

I think the Sound tempers the extremes... plus it is simply a beautiful place to be... unless you happen to be a sun worshiper and you will hate it.

Last edited by Ultrarunner; 10-13-2015 at 08:15 PM..
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Old 10-13-2015, 06:21 PM
 
Location: Out in the Badlands
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Cost of housing..marginal infrastructure such as roads and especially schools in the eastern suburbs.
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Old 10-13-2015, 07:07 PM
 
Location: Humble, TX
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Ultrarunner View Post
I love the area around the Sound... most of my time has been in and around Olympia.

Sure it might snow... and in a few hours the snow is almost always gone...

I think the Sound tempers the extremes... plus it is simply beautiful place to be... unless you happen to be a sun worshiper and you will hate it.
A run up and around Capitol Peak fixes many ailments.
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Old 10-13-2015, 10:12 PM
 
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Originally Posted by Ultrarunner View Post
Several of my Washington friends take a trip every January to someplace warm and sunny...

Hawaii, Mexico, Florida and always popular...

Sea Tac is a very busy airport in January...
^^This is probably the best answer for SAD...just don't have the flexibility of schedule for that just yet.

Last winter I borrowed a "happy light" from an acquaintance. It just hurt my eyes & a neighbor asked me what that "weird light" was in my house.

I don't know if vitamin D supplements help...time will tell.

But do I regret moving here? Nope.
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Old 10-14-2015, 10:58 AM
 
Location: Pacific NW
38 posts, read 120,341 times
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Post Why I left, the LONG version!

I CAME to Western WA over 20 years ago, from Lexington, KY, (after living many places on the east coast, raised mostly in SC, having lived in mostly rural areas with lakes and access to the salt water, though it often mean a few hours' drive). To me, Lexington was the nightmare... the Seattle freeze has nothing on them! Beautiful countryside, beautiful horses, but...

We came west for an exploratory extended vacation, the Southern girl with the wandering feet, and the guy raised in Philadephia/New York. We loved the green, the more relaxed atmosphere, and planned and moved within a year. Helps to be self employed. He loved it, and the weather never seemed to bother him much, but he died early, in Port Townsend; cancer gets you anywhere. I remarried, to another wanderer, this one's origins were Norwegian. Guess that explains why he loves the gray gloom. We did leave Western WA, went to the more southern part of Oregon, on the coast, because... the ocean, not the Sound. We are not together now.

Here is why "I" left, and my take on the SAD phenomena, and some other considerations for you, being that you are talking about being deep in the trees, water, and rural areas:

1. SAD is very real, and yes, weeks with no sun are hard. The lights do help, but what one of my doctors explained, the grey cloud cover is truly lower in elevation, so it psychologically feels as though it is pressing down on your head. The best lights are the stronger, visor type, about $200, to have efficacy, again, according to experts.

2. ALLERGIES to those beautiful big green trees, for those who didn't grow up with them. I had serious allergies to the ragweed and other pollens in the Ohio Valley in Lexington, but even though I had grown up in rural Southeastern Asheville, Greenville, Knoxville, etc... with lots of trees, and no allergy issues, I found I am allergic to a lot of the things here, including the mold and mildew that grows abundantly in the land of the damp.

3. I also dislike the heat, and believe me, 99 degrees at nearly that humidity in the South, is miserable, and I don't like a/c much! I do like the cooler weather, but cool weather with higher humidity, especially near the water, is a deal breaker for me. I have fibromyalgia, cool and damp means pain medication, because it feels sometimes like it gets into my bones. I know I am not alone!

4. You may not have considered this, taking it for granted where you are, but... swimming in Western WA or Western Oregon, is not done much, except in heated pools. Hypothermia rules the open water of the Pacific, the Sound, and most lakes I can think of. The surfers wear full wetsuits.

I don't know your ages, but please consider medical care when you start heading into the woods on the Olympic Peninsula. Kitsap isn't very rural, and if it's rural and deep woods is what you are after, you won't stay there long. As you age, though, for major medical services, you'll want access to the Puget Sound medical facilities.

YOU will find the tax situation "interesting" or maybe alarming, as the levy of taxes on your business can be brutal. Research not just the state, but also your prospective counties and cities, in the overall scheme.

Outdoor activities can be done nearly all year, but wool will be your friend to help keep you warm while you hike, cycle, etc. Raincoats and umbrellas will mark you as an outsider. Most choose windbreakers and waterproof "hoodies", warm socks on feet.

I am moving back to Washington, but I want east, not west. I never felt a lot of the social "freeze", but I am on the introverted side, and tend to mind my own beeswax. I'll be in Spokane at the end of the month. I've never lived there before, but I have hopes of being able to do more, and more comfortably, than the West Side. Including swimming, which I have truly missed. If I WERE ever to return to live west of the Cascades, I would choose very, very carefully. I am hopeful about Spokane, though I am prepared to make adjustments, and I am fairly flexible. I am trading some cultural diversity, and some other minor preferences, by moving to Spokane, but I have hopes that I will discover some bonuses I haven't even thought of yet! And I can always drive west for a visit if I need one.

The answers to this thread have been really interesting. Thanks for starting it.
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Old 10-14-2015, 11:57 AM
 
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Loving hearing all these responses! Thank you!!!!
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Old 10-14-2015, 01:24 PM
 
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Anyone from San Diego will recognize the terms "May Gray" and "June Gloom", because those two consecutive months always live up to that! Personally, I enjoy those months....because I know and dread what-is-to-come. HOT!!! I can't say as I get depressed during those months....I rather like it! Maybe it's been my training wheels for WA and I didn't even know it!
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Old 10-14-2015, 02:59 PM
 
17,302 posts, read 12,245,675 times
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Originally Posted by carolochs View Post
As global warming continues to increase and be as real a phenom as S.A.D., I suspect you're going to see more and more migration to the PNW, and those who are escaping the heat have had enough and it affects their day-to-life so much that the "sacrifice" of less sun really isn't so much a hardship at all....
Yeah, we definitely came here seeking gray gloom and more temperate weather. I despise days over 75 degrees. Rainy days are the best days. But if these multi-year droughts and heat waves are the new norm here due to global warming may have to try out Alaska...
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Old 10-14-2015, 03:47 PM
 
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Quote:
Originally Posted by carolochs View Post
Anyone from San Diego will recognize the terms "May Gray" and "June Gloom", because those two consecutive months always live up to that! Personally, I enjoy those months....because I know and dread what-is-to-come. HOT!!! I can't say as I get depressed during those months....I rather like it! Maybe it's been my training wheels for WA and I didn't even know it!


Believe me, SD's "June Gloom" is not the same as PNW's winter cloud cover. Totally different. Also you should be aware that the drought is up here, too. You probably will not notice it right away, coming from dry & brown SoCal, but it's been getting warmer & drier here...the Olympic Mountains had no snow pack this past season, not a good thing. And check the Portland & Seattle forums...they had a scorching summer. Also, there were huge, damaging fires this summer in Washington that burned many homes & sent smoke clear into other states.

Just so you know...
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Old 10-15-2015, 11:54 AM
 
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Yes.....we've been following the climate changes and fire issues. (San Diego knows all about the horrors fire issues! We were also in Lake Tahoe when that huge fire started.)

I may be wrong, and we plan to go up to get a taste of it ourselves (re: the PNW cloud cover), but personally, (and I know not everyone can relate to this in the same way), but we feel truly ready to deal with *it* over So. CA heat, etc. I guess it's just a decision you reach over time cuz you're finally at the end of your rope, or are fully willing to gamble....it's a collection of motivators. We didn't arrive at this decision overnight or without a LOT of forethought.
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