What can you tell me about NW. Washington state?

Preferably, a town minutes away from the Canadian border. Talking to my younger brother this morning, we were wondering if maybe living up there close to canada, Brittish Columbia might not be too bad a place. The marijuana laws are relaxing, and if things continue on course he can send his son accross the border, the hell with being canon fodder for the bfee.
He's got time to make the move, the boy is only six, but it might be time to start looking into it. He's on social security and disability so employment is an option. Theres Bellingham, that might fill the ticket, but what's it like there? hot/cold? rain 300 days out of the year? mountains?

If I could I put a pry bar under the woman and move there myself.

I have work that part of the state for the Dems for awhile.
It is the 2nd CD and we have a great Congressman (Larsen)
The local communities vary widely from the ultra conservative Lynden to very progressive Friday Harbor. Lynden and Sumas are a weird pair of towns that are only a few miles apart. Lynden is very wealth and very fundamentalist place. Sumas a rough cowboy boarder town (more bars than churches). Bellingham is the largest city in the area.

I think the Northern Cascades are the best mountain range I have ever been to. I have been to many states (with the notable exception of Glacier NP and Yosemite NP) and the Northern Cascades are tops in my book. They are a "new" mountain range, so they are quite rugged with sawtooth ridges. With the maritime climate, there is a substantial snowpack that keeps the peaks white well into summer. That makes for beautiful vistas. Some of the trails get busy, though.

My brief impression of Bellingham was that the people were quite friendly.

got a newspaper link?

www.newslink.org

http://www.bellinghamherald.com/

One of the nicest places to live in Washington state.

in BC on an Island called Saturna for my youth. Two hundred people and we were running rum from Friday Harbour by dinghy before we we could drive cars.

The San Juans (USA) and Gulf Islands (Canada) are very tight and are extraordinary islands, virtually crime free and abolutely beautiful.

Do some searches on google.com and check out the area.

From what I know the San Juans have almost a Mediterranean climate and have more than 50 per cent less rain that Seattle or Vancouver.

Cheerio

Caribmon

lived in Bellingham years ago, revisited in July.

I think there were more sunny days in the week I was there in July than there were in the five years I lived there ... All the same I am thinking seriously of Bellingham or Whatcom County (that's the county Bellingham is in) as a retirement spot. All in all, damp and all, it's a great place to live -- just not much of a place to make a living.

As for the Islands -- we stayed there on vacation a couple of days -- that does seem to be pretty much the industrial base in the islands. -- A couple of days after we left one of the ferries that serves the San Juans lost a propeller, and the delays to get on the ferries peaked out at about 24 hours and stabilized at 6. Hours.

However, there are other islands -- Whidbey and Fidalgo -- that are not ferry dependent. Not quite as close to Canada, but nice.

There is also the Olympic Peninsula. The northern rim is "the banana belt" of western Washington and just a ferry ride away from Victoria, BC. My inlaws lived there for 20 years.


http://www.bellinghamherald.com/

It is really a beautiful place and a great place to visit, but I am not sure how many jobs there are on the Island. My SIL had to commute to Seattle for many years before she finally found a job on the Island.

the "I stand behind President Bush and our troops!" bumperstickers I see around here. The further North you go, the better the political climate, generally. There used to be a white seperatist group operating not far from Bellingham, though. Live in Blaine, if you can. Right ON the border. You can slip across pretty easily if you have to if things really go to fascist hell in 2004.

It doesn't rain as much as people say. We say that to keep out-of-staters away! :evilgrin: Just kidding, though. The more progressives here, the better.

We're in Auburn. Hi, neighbor!

it's a college town (Western Washington University), so like most college towns, it's a bit more liberal than the surrounding area. The climate is very mild, albeit often cloudy. It doesn't rain a lot, but there are a lot of grey days.

However, consider how difficult the border crossings are sometimes; long lines and crabby Customs agents. I wouldn't move to the border area with the idea of going back and forth a whole lot; they get suspicious if you travel back and forth too much.

Bellingham is a great place to own (or live aboard) a boat; moorage is pretty reasonable there, and there are wonderful destinations for day trips and longer.

I didn't realize we were so close! Would you agree that Puyallup is a freeper paradise? Seems to me to be that way. 'Course, I'm pretty far to the left, so freeper is anything right of center.

howdy to both of ya, from the Nisqually river basin just outside of Olympia!

Over here in Ferry County we are snuggled up next to the border, and living costs are WAY cheaper. I would recommend Curlew as a nice town close to the border, with cheap land costs, and MUCH easier access to Canada than Bellingham area, no long lines AT ALL. It is colder in the winter, but we make up for it with MUCH less rain, averaging about 15 inches a year, half of the total on the coast. Yup, we get snow, and it can get pretty cold at times in the winter, but the school systems are much smaller and have more individual attention than coast school systems. I was born and raised in Western Washington, and I'd NEVER move back there.
Good Luck!
:hi:

Bruce