West Coasters, pimp your area

jelique7

San Diego is great! Im moving there next month and right now Im 3.5 hours north of San Diego. Average temp is about 65 during the day on the coast. Its not humid at all (to me) and its sunny with not too much rain.

J&K10910

That's really interesting about the strip clubs, Reddy.  Got a suggestion of one to check out while we're there? I think we're spending a night in Portland.  I don't even remember anymore.

sherrbearr22

In Response to <a href="http://forums.theknot.com/Sites/theknot/Pages/Main.aspx/wedding-boards_snarky-brides_west-coasters-pimp-area?plckFindPostKey=Cat:Wedding%20BoardsForum:17Discussion:cf25e9f7-5e26-4a03-8a3f-9dcc59e0d59aPost:44359acd-8dd1-4d97-abd4-32a5164a6f48">Re: West Coasters, pimp your area</a>:
[QUOTE]Sherrbearr said no sales tax.  Maybe in Portland?  Maybe she meant income tax?  I'm confused!  Sherrbearr!  Come esplain yourself!
Posted by J&K10910[/QUOTE]


Sorry I was gone for so long.  There is no sales tax whatsoever on anything.  I don't actually know how much higher income/property/etc tax is, if it is higher.

Aside from that I think we're also the only state that has people pump your gas for you.  Like, doing it yourself is not allowed at all.

ETA: I don't know what the deal is with all the strip clubs!! And I don't get how more are still opening in this economic climate!  We have more strip clubs per capita than anywhere else in the country, I believe.  Which, admittedly is not our strongest selling point...unless you're into that sort of thing :)

alyssag721

Hello!

Dot is right I live in the south bay and I love it Santa Clara, Mountain View, Willow Glen, and Campbell are all really nice (and safe!) areas to look into. It is more suburban here but I like the quieter pace of life, and there is still plenty of stuff to do. Oh, and the weather here is usually perfect. We are 1 hour away from SF, 2 hours from Wine Country, 30 min from the Santa Cruz beach area, 4 hours from Lake Tahoe, 2 hours from Monterey/Carmel, and I just got back from a girls weekend wine tasting in the central coast (3 hours away). It is great to be able to make a day trip out of basically anything. Wine tasting, hiking, skiing, surfing, shopping? Sure... all in one day if you want! You can also get just about any type and ethnicity of food here which I love. The traffic here can be bad but it is no where near as bad as southern cali (I used to live in Long Beach). And as others have said the cost of living is high, but so are the salaries. One thing I really like is that it is so laid back up here, you can go shopping in sweats and no one will care PM me if you have and questions!

SereJane

I'm late to this party but wanted to throw another hat in the ring for Portland/Vancouver/Seattle!
I live in Vancouver, WA which is literally across the border from Portland. I absolutely love it. It's a great place to raise a family, it's a growing city with a thriving Farmer's Market. There's a state university with amenities free and open to the public, there is a fun waterfront, lots of parks, etc.
Sales tax here is 8% or you can just drive across the bridge to Oregon and avoid it.
Rent is fairly cheap-we're paying $700 a month for a 900 sq ft two bedroom in a gated community with granite countertops and stainless steel appliances.
Also, just up the gorge are some amazing hikes! We just hiked Hamilton Mountain yesterday. It's so lush and green year round here. I absolutely love it, even with the rain.
It's so easy to spend a lot of time doing things outside in this area.
FI and I spend a lot of time in Portland, there's soo many great restaurants (Typhoon Thai is delicious), lots of shopping, an abundance of parks (we got engaged in one!) and pro sports-Portland TrailBlazers and the Portland Timbers.
I want to live in either Portland or Vancouver for life. I LOVE this area.
And that was my 2 cents. Or maybe closer to 25..

J&K10910

Thanks guys!  Sherr, I think NJ pumps gas for you too, and I find that to be kind of odd, actually, and I'm not sure how I feel about it!  I'm sure I'd get used to it though. 

Alyssa, that sounds just lovely!  It sounds like there would be a lot for us to do there, but sadly, the more I look, the more I think we couldn't afford to live in CA.  Or, rather, we couldn't afford to maintain our current lifestyle there.  I'm blown away by how similar pharmacist salaries in that area are to what H is making now, compared to how much more expensive everything else is.  That's really weird to me.  But I would SO love to live in that area.

Sere, I was looking at Craigslist for Portland and Vancouver yesterday just to get an idea of rent prices (we'd likely buy if we moved out there, but it's easier to compare rent) and I was pretty happy about how similar they are to around here.  I really feel like somewhere in western WA/northwestern OR is probably the place to be for us.