Video Fitness Forum  

Go Back   Video Fitness Forum > Video Fitness Reader Forum > General Discussion

Reply
 
Thread Tools Search this Thread Display Modes
Old 10-21-19, 07:27 PM  
bevatron
 
Join Date: Aug 2004
Long post warning, I was just going to say a few words & I ended up writing a travel brochure!

I have to plug my homestate of WA. I live on the Kitsap Peninsula due west of Seattle. Even though we are further north than Toronto, the Olympic mountains & ocean to the west & Cascades to the east keep our climate moderate (and wet!). I love the area around the town of Sequim (pronounced Squim) on the Olympic Peninsula. It's in the "rain shadow" of the Olympic Mtns & gets more sunshine than the rest of the area.

Winter temps here are usually around 40 degrees, dropping to about 30 as coldest. We've had temps go as low as teens or 20's, but it's rare. We get snow every few years, it's hilly here & it's also rare and lots of people have no clue how to drive in snow. We've have hotter summers now & it's not rare to have many 90+ days, you do need air conditioning. It usually gets cool at night, not always.

The Olympic Peninsula is a vacation & recreation area, so it's all incredibly beautiful. Hurricane Ridge in the Olympics is my most favorite place, it's in the heart of breathtaking mtns.

Sequim is considered a retirement area, I have several friends who've moved there. It has a wonderful lavender festival in July & nearby are wineries, a Victorian town (Pt Townsend), the ferry Coho to Victoria BC (at Pt Angeles), state & national parks. They are proud of their Roosevelt elk herd & have warning lights on the highway if they are detected. On a freeway thru Cascade mtns, the state built a wildlife overpass & plan on doing more which I think is great.

Hunting is allowed only on state lands & is strictly licensed & enforced. The state also enforces against illegal tree harvesting, fishing, clamming, etc - they're pretty strict. I don't think I've ever seen an animal on a vehicle, it's getting too urban in populated areas. You have to drive further to get to wilderness, but much of the Olympic peninsula is protected wilderness area.

The Olympic mtns are also not volcanic, like the Cascades to the east. Lahar risk areas surround Mt Rainier, in case it goes like Mt St. Helens did. There are also tsumani risk areas on the WA coast & earthquake risks throughout the entire Puget Sound area.

I'm retired & I plan on moving to the more rural eastern Wash, around Kettle Falls, Tonasket or Chewelah, all small towns close to Canada or Idaho. They have more severe winters & hotter summers, but also have beautiful mountains. This is also where all the states food is grown & I'd like to be real close to all that fresh fruit & produce.

I love it where I'm at, it seriously is so beautiful, but I hate to see the rural areas I grew up with become developed. I get tired of the same sights all the time & really just need to make a major change myself.
bevatron is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 10-21-19, 08:14 PM  
Gams
 
Join Date: Mar 2007
These posts are great - thanks everyone!

Bevatronn- I have a friend who lives on Orcas Island and she loves it.

I unsuspectingly drove by a bar here tonight and there was a moose dangling from a pole out front. 😢
Gams is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 10-21-19, 08:32 PM  
Jennifer R
VF Supporter
 
Jennifer R's Avatar
 
Join Date: Nov 2001
Location: Sonoma County, CA
We recently left Hawaii after 24 years to return to Sonoma County, where we lived in the 80s and 90s. It is incredibly beautiful here, but the cost of living, especially housing, is high. I just retired in January and we decided to give it a couple of years here to see if it's viable long term.

The weather is wonderful, there can be some hot days in summer (this week we're having an unseasonable heat wave that will probably result in fire danger and power shutdowns), the winters are mild and can be rainy. It's great for outdoor activities, the coast is 45 minutes away and the mountains 3-4 hours. There is some hunting here but it is also highly regulated and restricted, I never saw a carcass on a hood. The countryside is heartbreakingly gorgeous.

Downsides are cost of living, danger of natural disaster--fire, earthquake especially--and increasing population. When we moved here in 1983 there were about 90,000 people and now it's over 170,000.
__________________
Jennifer R
Dancin' in Paradise

"I used to be disgusted, now I try to be amused"--Elvis Costello
Jennifer R is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 10-21-19, 11:31 PM  
Sand
 
Join Date: May 2015
Location: Texas!
Quote:
Originally Posted by Gams View Post
I had a customer who highly recommended Carrizozo, NM, but I haven’t found much info on it yet.
My maternal grandmother and her family lived in Carrizozo in the 1940's. Everyone in her family seemed to have left Carrizozo by the late 1940's except for my great uncle who raised his family there.

I've never been to Carrizozo, but it seems that the population there has gone down from the time my grandmother lived there. Last Summer, my mom's first cousin was visiting his mom who still lives in Carrizozo and then traveled down to meet up to exchange genealogical discoveries.

I live in El Paso, TX. We're sandwiched between Southern NM and Northern Chihuahua. A lot of military families have always retired out here. Not a lot happens out here, which isn't necessarily a bad thing. El Paso has always been a big city with a small town feel. We've got very hot summers, not as hot as AZ! My sister lived in Phoenix and I visited her one summer and it just never cooled down at night out there. Out here, it cools down at night during the summer.

I think a lot of assumptions are made because of our proximity to Juarez and the border. For a city it's size, we're very safe. The city recorded 23 murders for the year of 2018. The shooting at Walmart was 22 murders, in one day! I think the one thing that most people complain about around here is that it's a bilingual community.

I think outdoorsy people would like Southern NM and West Texas. Around this area if you're into woodsy places you can travel to Ruidoso or Cloudcroft NM. If you're into more southwestern touristy places go to Mesilla, NM. Las Cruces, NM isn't too far away from El Paso but it's got a different feel to it.

There are also places not too far away like White Sands, Carlsbad Caverns or if you're into an artsy scene, Marfa. We've been getting a lot of celebs who stop off in ELP because of their trips to Marfa.

I haven't been to Juarez in ages. My family would go on occasion when we were very little. But there are people here who travel over there frequently.
Sand is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 10-22-19, 07:43 AM  
Pat58
VF Supporter
 
Pat58's Avatar
 
Join Date: May 2002
Location: Connecticut
Bevatron - you have convinced me to add Washington to my retirement consideration list. I love cloudy and overcast weather - when it's cool! I hate the sun!
Pat58 is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 10-22-19, 08:47 AM  
Demeris
 
Join Date: Dec 2006
Quote:
Originally Posted by Sand View Post
El Paso has always been a big city with a small town feel. We've got very hot summers, not as hot as AZ! My sister lived in Phoenix and I visited her one summer and it just never cooled down at night out there. Out here, it cools down at night during the summer.

.
Phx has too much concrete and asphalt to cool down at night. I live in a rural area, and we do cool down at night--between 30 & 40 degrees, more markedly in the summer.
Demeris is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 10-22-19, 09:59 AM  
KateTT
VF Supporter
 
KateTT's Avatar
 
Join Date: Dec 2003
Location: Spicer, MN
Quote:
Originally Posted by Gams View Post
I’m retired now and working toward moving someplace that’s a little more in line with the way I want to live. Northern Wisconsin is beautiful, but I’m sick of the brutal winters and I’m also an animal lover and I’m sick of seeing dead deer hanging in everyone’s yards and sticking out the back of their pick up trucks. I’m also tired of run ins with the bear dog hunters who run their dogs on my property. I’m not trying to criticize anyone here who hunts - I just want to live someplace with less hunting and a milder climate. Anyone here love where they live and don’t have to look at dead animals every day?
West Central MN here. I hear you about the brutal winters! And right now there are so many dead deer and other animals in the ditches it's gross.

But I love the change in seasons. I grew up a military brat and have lived all over the World. But for the past 36 years I've lived in Minnesota. I don't get itchy feet anymore.
It gets DANG FRIGID here, and every year I complain about shoveling, but the rest of the seasons are so nice! And I live right in the middle of Lake Country, just about 200 yards from a big lake. It's very, very rural. Spicer is only 1200 people and the nearest town Willmar is about 17,000. Everything around me is farming.
Farm fields, farm animals, quiet, peaceful and hopefully safe.

There isn't a lot of entertainment unless you want to drive a distance, but I don't mind. My little town of Spicer puts on an AMAZING four-five day 4th of July celebration and we also have a Winter Fest every winter with an ice castle and other fun (cold) stuff.
Ever played ice golf on a frozen lake?
How about a little ice fishing?

We have a fun County Fair and I'm only two hours west of the Twin Cities if I really feel the need to big city life.
We have amazing State Parks too!

Yup guess I like living in MN. Most of the time. Florida in winter is always a thought.

Come on up and visit!
__________________
Do your BEST and Forget the Rrrrest! Tony Horton

When your body screams, tell it to shut up! Body Pump

"Where I am today is where my mind put me. Where I'll be tomorrow is where my mind put me." - Billy Blanks

I'm a SHOCKING GRADUATE of STS!!!! Feb - May '09!
I did it again! I'm a SHOCKING GRADUATE of STS!!!! Feb - May 2018!
Beachbody On Demand 80 Day Obsession - Full Rotation June - September 2018
Third time's a charm! I'm a SHOCKING GRADUATE of STS!!!! July-Oct 2020!
KateTT is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 10-22-19, 10:01 AM  
bee
VF Supporter
 
Join Date: Jul 2008
Quote:
Originally Posted by Pat58 View Post
Bevatron - you have convinced me to add Washington to my retirement consideration list. I love cloudy and overcast weather - when it's cool! I hate the sun!
I would love to retire to WA or OR for the same reason, but my husband says it would depress him. The one thing that gives both of us pause about trying to retire to a cheaper area...... how would we replace our friends and community? In our lifetime, we've found community mostly through work or kids. Where we are now we have a nice established network of friends and well, community, is the best way to say it. Does anyone else think about how to replace this?
__________________
I am @summitbee on instagram.
bee is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 10-22-19, 10:08 AM  
KateTT
VF Supporter
 
KateTT's Avatar
 
Join Date: Dec 2003
Location: Spicer, MN
Quote:
Originally Posted by JackieB View Post
I can't help either. I am 45 miles north of Minneapolis.
Hey all you Minnesota neighbors!! Stay warm! Stay dry!
__________________
Do your BEST and Forget the Rrrrest! Tony Horton

When your body screams, tell it to shut up! Body Pump

"Where I am today is where my mind put me. Where I'll be tomorrow is where my mind put me." - Billy Blanks

I'm a SHOCKING GRADUATE of STS!!!! Feb - May '09!
I did it again! I'm a SHOCKING GRADUATE of STS!!!! Feb - May 2018!
Beachbody On Demand 80 Day Obsession - Full Rotation June - September 2018
Third time's a charm! I'm a SHOCKING GRADUATE of STS!!!! July-Oct 2020!
KateTT is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 10-22-19, 10:27 AM  
Gams
 
Join Date: Mar 2007
I lived in Newport, OR for awhile and I liked it there. I rented a little house on a cliff overlooking the ocean. I think my rent was $290 a month if you can believe that. I didn’t find it too cloudy or rainy- it was pretty mild year round. I think the cost of living is pretty high there now. I still have a good friend who lives there and she’d like to see me move back, but I want to research a little more.
Gams is offline   Reply With Quote
Reply

Tags
getting to know you, retirement, retirement locations, where do you live

Thread Tools Search this Thread
Search this Thread:

Advanced Search
Display Modes

Posting Rules
You may not post new threads
You may not post replies
You may not post attachments
You may not edit your posts

BB code is On
Smilies are On
[IMG] code is On
HTML code is Off

Forum Jump


All times are GMT -5. The time now is 11:45 PM.


Powered by vBulletin® Version 3.8.3
Copyright ©2000 - 2024, Jelsoft Enterprises Ltd.
© 2009 Video Fitness