[LakeCleElum]

Hugh - Wished I had more notice you were coming. I grew up in that area. My mother and some of my family still live in Sequim. Weather looks nice this weekend, you'll fall in love with the area - BUT:

On your drive over, pay attention to how slow traffic moves once you're over the Hood Canal Bridge. It's like this all year long, any day of the week. It's just slow old folks, campers, boats, motorhomes, etc poking along. On the rare chance you can pass, you just pull up behind another slowpoke.

All the traffic to the Oly Nat. Park and the "West End" has to pass thru Sequim. When I was a kid, no stoplights and it was a 2 minute deal. Now, It's taken me 45 minutes to get thru B4 the by-pass came in.

My mother used to look out at horses, pasture and mountains. Now she looks at the back of the new Wal-Mart. Many other big-box stores have also came in.

In the late '90's I went to look to buy retirement property on a rainy weekday in Feb. I got ticked and cut my day short after waiting 5 minutes to pull on Hwy 101 west of Town.

Like everywhere, property prices are down - it's a good time to buy.

If serious about retiring there, do yourself a favor and spent 3 or 4 days in Dec when you may only see the sun about 8 days in the month......

Climate - being close to the water, it's warmer in the winter and cooler in the summer than other areas of western WA. Being in the shadow of the Olympics, very little rain, like 16 inches/yr...........Have fun.......