Moving to the PNW... Tips/Suggestions

So are you up here now then? Check out North Tacoma/Ruston too. It's a great location for centrality to seattle/portland and easy access to both mountain ranges and the coast. If you can stay within Tacoma metro area, traffic really isn't to bad. When you start working north of Tacoma you hit the shit traffic. I really like parts of Olympia as well but my work is in Redmond, so any further south for me is out of the question. Puyallup isn't bad, but traffic sucks and there isn't a ton of job potential there

 

In Tacoma myself...
Others have mentioned Bend Oregon... Have a good friend who lives there, and I bust yearly... It's a great place to visit... My buddy says it's a great place to live... I prefer Tacoma/Pierce County to Seattle metro area . FYI I am originally from high desert in SW ... YMMV

 

Yeah I'm in the Seattle area (staying at an AirBnB in Edmonds) until Saturday then headed up to Bellingham. We'll have to explore a little more, but so far it just seems like each city (Olympia, Puyallup, Kent, Edmonds, Shoreline, etc) all roll into each other. We liked Corvallis because it was a bit more isolated.

So many have mentioned Bend. It's a little more inland than we prefer but might just have to make a drive there to check it out

 

Breakside Brewery Portland.

 

Do it.

I thought it was a bit inland as well, but how often do you currently go to the beach, etc.? We're basically 45mins to Cannon Beach, but we don't run out there very often.

 

Our concern was that because it was inland, it was higher in elevation and we're so over the huge amounts of snow we get in Flag. We also didn't like the idea of traveling more than 2 hours to get to the nearest large city to access things like the airport (Flagstaff is about 2.5 hours from Phoenix Airport).

 

BHam will definitely get you the more isolated feel. The whole puget sound corridor is essentially one big city. If you make it south again, venture out to Gig harbor and beyond. A bit more isolated and away from the I5 corridor blending you mentioned. I would personally stay away from Kent. Covington is a better landing spot if that area is of interest to you and is reasonable. Once you go much further north from Covington the prices turn pretty ridiculous pretty fast. Snoqualmie/North Bend is cool too but prices there are pretty high as well. As many have stated, the further away from Seattle/Bellevue, the cheaper things get. If you can stay out of King/Pierce County, you'll also avoid some taxes on things you'll never use

 

If you aren't too worried about ghetto areas, i am in Renton Highlands, Wa. My wife and I are in our 20's as well and where we are is about 45 minutes to the mountains and in the middle between seattle and bellevue. Maybe a half hour drive to both give or take. where i am puts me well within a short drive to the berliner in downtown Renton, issaquah's breweries (2 or 3, one maybe a steak house), the tukwila brewery (odin), like i said bellevue with all the higher class places, Redmond (Black Raven). All are between 10 and 35 minutes from my front door.

I work near the Microsoft redmond campus and it takes me 25 - 30 minutes to get to work taking city streets (also past west coast armory, so sometimes i only make it half way home). Unfortunately going home is 45-50 minutes for some reason, i blame Microsoft.

 

Redmond's airport is 15 minutes from Bend.

http://www.flyrdm.com/mobile/?Airlines---Destinations

While Mt. Bachelor gets a ton of snow, the actually city doesn't get THAT much. This year was an anomaly across all of the PNW. Portland got hammered. We had a ton of snow at our place.

Not trying to force your hand. Just FYI.

 

We definitely noticed that about the entire Puget Sound area and didn't really bother to explore more of it because there was no separation between cities. We are loving Bham right now though!

These commute times are horrible!! No thanks!

Good to know. I think we might try and make it out there tomorrow!

 

Bend, Oregon has Forest Service or BLM public land in every direction from town, and more breweries than I can remember. Great if you love the outdoors. But the town is overcrowded for it's size, it's nearly impossible to find rentals, and the housing prices are once again over-inflated. I moved here back in 1989 when it was still a sleepy little town, not anymore, but it's probably still better than most places. Here is a pic of me exploring this weekend, in 20 minutes you can feel like you're in the middle of nowhere. I use to goto the coast all the time, and always drove through Corvallis, seems like a nice town, the coast is only an hour away.

 

Alright fellas... After this big week of lots of traveling to visit places (and going to 11 breweries and 30 something beers drank, list below), we have decided to move to Bellingham in July! We just fell in love with the city and the people. Thanks for everyone's suggestions on places to check out. It made everything so much easier. Can't wait to be back in the PNW again. The brewery list/adventure shall continue!

Portland/Oregon Area:
Sasquatch
Fire On The Mountain
Block 15
Pelican
Deschutes
Rogue

Seattle/Bham Area:
Triplehorn
20 Corners
Boundary Bay
Aslan
Stones Throw

 

Congrats, man! That's so exciting! Glad you guys got to get a little exploring in and you found your future home.

 

Another fun suggestion for Portland: hit up Loyal Legion. It's a beer hall that has 99 local beers and ciders on tap that rotate. It's a great way to taste and learn of local breweries and get a bunch of different flavors. They also have a growing selection of scotch and whiskeys. Their food used to be top notch, but it's gone down one or two notches... but not enough to discredit the place. It's one of my favorite go-to places, I'm there 2-3 times a month since they opened about a year and a half ago.

 

If there was more industry in BHam id absolutely move there. Its an awesome place. Congrats

 

Listen to this guy. As a transplant myself (moved here 6 and a half years ago from Florida) I've experienced things from the same point of view you will have. The only thing I snicker at as the traffic. Yes, it's bad, but Miami is awful despite having a great freeway system. 45 minutes is a dream commute.

In any case, I'm in the Eastside. Hit me up if you want to consider this area. I'm a bit out east (I like having land and not having my neighbor's house at arm's length from mine. But that basically means you have to drive everywhere. I can't speak to transit here compared to Portland, but compared to Miami it's amazing. I made it from the boonies to SeaTac airport on Christmas Eve once.

Good luck!

 

Ah, replied before finishing the thread. Enjoy Bellingham! Puts you a lot closer to Whistler.

 

Federal Way and Puyallup are nice cities. If i didn't live in Kent, i'd choose either of those to live in.

 

Please say you are into mt biking. Bellingham has some great trails and fairly quick to the wonderful sea to sky highway.