DW and I met in Seattle and lived there during my early working years but moved on to Colorado and Arizona. Most of her family is still in Western Washington so we return regularly for summer visits.
No desire to ever spend extended time in the rainy gloom (and nowadays gridlocked traffic and sky-high real estate prices) of Westside WA or OR but we've long wondered if we could ever find a year-round place with a climate we could tolerate, decent culture and food scene and good hiking and biking somewhere in the NW. Good friends who like us used to be Mexico expats but kept a house in Seattle just sold it and moved to Walla Walla and from the research I've done it sounds like it checks most of the boxes on our wish list.
I'd be grateful to hear from anyone who either lives in that area or knows it well. So far the only downsides I'm seeing are winters cold enough to make us still want a tropical escape for a month or two and distance from major airports and shopping - both of which we could live with.
No desire to ever spend extended time in the rainy gloom (and nowadays gridlocked traffic and sky-high real estate prices) of Westside WA or OR but we've long wondered if we could ever find a year-round place with a climate we could tolerate, decent culture and food scene and good hiking and biking somewhere in the NW. Good friends who like us used to be Mexico expats but kept a house in Seattle just sold it and moved to Walla Walla and from the research I've done it sounds like it checks most of the boxes on our wish list.
I'd be grateful to hear from anyone who either lives in that area or knows it well. So far the only downsides I'm seeing are winters cold enough to make us still want a tropical escape for a month or two and distance from major airports and shopping - both of which we could live with.