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Sequim perhaps.

Exactly the opposite for me. I grew up on a small ranch in California. Thousand Oaks and Newbury Park were tiny when I was a kid. As I have written here before, my bus stop was on Hwy 101.

The closest I have come to living in a city was owning a house in Coronado in the 80's.

Sold it. Yeah, I know:cool:

Then, 26 years here on the farm.

Try, don't buy.

Far up north, but that would take me away from my family and I don't want that.

Eric hit a good one. Sequim. Also, there are spots on San Juan and Lopez in the rain shadow.

Other's on my list (which is similar to yours) I have told Mrs. LWJ that we need a "Sun Solution" for years.

Boise - cheap. Not much culture. Growing like a weed.

Flagstaff - never been. VERY curious

Bend - growing like a weed. SUPER expensive. Killer recreation.

Hood River - expensive. Killer recreation.

Ashland - Smokey. Wine / Food / Theater. Not cheap.

Italy / S. France or Portugal - A book could be written on each.

Missoula / Bozeman - LOVE Missoula. I hear is is gray in the winter.

My thoughts are to have a small city home in Portland and a larger rural place somewhere else that is lesser cost. Best of both worlds.

That's my general thinking. I'd ideally keep my current Portland house as a "vacation place" for trips for friends, culture, food, etc. We'll see what's feasible.

If I was moving to the NW, I would look to living on one of the Islands in the sound.
Whidbey would be my first choice.

You guys should check out flagstaff. It’s not a small town, has most of your “city”‘comforts, a big university, a neat arts/culture scene, and it’s only 2 hours from the 5th largest city in the nation.


You can literally ride the city bus to the ski hill in the winter. 🤣 tons of other outdoor stuff to do.

2nd Sequim.

They really need to remove that "e". ;)

_

The problem with having a second home is you feel obligated to use it. It sort of gnaws at you friends tell me.

Little Switzerland area for me.

You might as well do both as the are polar opposites.

SB has a very nice year round temp as does La Jolla. Similar demographics. Newport Beach CA has great weather too, but it's Jerk City USA.

You wanna play movie star? Malibu, baby. Up the coast from there is nice too, all the way to SB.

IDK a thing about NYC. Don't want to.

One area I might consider would be around the San Luis Obispo, either north or south of there. I love the rolling, golden hills, wineries, coastal area. My sister lives in Atascadero (means hog wallow in spanish). That whole area is very nice.

Yup.

Amazing area.

7000 feet of elevation.
June is nice, July and August are monsoon months with thunderstorms almost every day, Sept it starts to get cold and hits freezing before October.
average annual snowfall is 97 inches.

But June is nice. :D

It stays pretty mild all winter for a mountain town. That snow melts off fast! If they get a good snow in January, you’ve got about a week to get up there or it’s gone. We go up a few times a winter.

Very hot summers. Otherwise....

Might be good to bring your job with you if you need income.

My favo-rite area:

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We tested St. James NC, near Southport and Oak Island this summer. Very nice gated retirement community, perfect for golfers, have their own marina. But my wife did not like it as much, so we’ll have to keep exploring other places, maybe SC. Would like to be near the ocean, in a mild climate, with not too high taxes, basically,

Prescott AZ