California

[downsizingnow48]

From SF drive north along the coast to Astoria Oregon . California North Coast and coastal Oregon. Amazing drive. Two days.

 

[prichard]

From SF drive north along the coast to Astoria Oregon . California North Coast and coastal Oregon. Amazing drive. Two days.

2 days? Did you see anything?

My only trip to California was last year. We took 2 days to go from Eureka to Santa Rosa. Of course we did the goat trail on the coast. The cows up there have a million dollar view. Very beautiful country.

 

[jerrybob]

From SF drive north along the coast to Astoria Oregon . California North Coast and coastal Oregon. Amazing drive. Two days.

Agree....an absolutely gorgeous drive. We take that drive a couple times a year....never get tired of it. We shop in Astoria....a great little town but don't stop there......keep going and drive around the Olympic Peninsula........some beautiful country as well.

 

[dragoneggs]

Agree....an absolutely gorgeous drive. We take that drive a couple times a year....never get tired of it. We shop in Astoria....a great little town but don't stop there......keep going and drive around the Olympic Peninsula........some beautiful country as well.

Yes sir! Ocean scenic drives, beautiful Cascade and Olympic Mountain ranges, rain forests, and pristine country. No... don't come and get an idea about moving here. We are full.

 

[mapper]

Yep... I'm in Thurston County and my taxes went from $6800 to $12,000 in one jump after I-747 was tossed... my neighbors all experienced the same...

Home on 16+ very pretty acres with a little creek where a few salmon spawn... real peaceful and serene.

It $1000 a month property taxes really give my pause to re-evaluate my long range plans...

A typical move of one of my retired friends is to be closer to kids and grand kids who made lives outside California...

You must be in the urban development zone, we are in SE Thurston county, tax bill is about 25 percent of yours!

 

[MossRoad]

I think its something my wife and I are gonna do once the last one is off to college. She's never seen the big trees before and I've never been farther north than Thousand Oaks. Wife hasn't been there since the early 70's. She has relatives in Oregon, so it would be a good drive up the coast.

 

[California]

... that's because I was pretty much concentrated within a 100 mile radius of LA most of the time. But even out in the area between LA, Bakersfield and the Sequoias, even the farms and ag operations depressed me.

Many of us who live 400~750 miles north of Los Angeles - still in California! feel the same way about urban Southern California. To start, its extensive urbanization out in the middle of a desert. It is truly a land of opportunity, people come from all over the world to maker a start there and many do accomplish this. But that also can make a culture where people don't know their neighbors. I couldn't stand the smog when my work had me commuting down there ($39 airfare!) for multiweek long projects, several of them. But my work - visiting highway construction field offices all over the entire state for 20 years, gave me an appreciation of the incredible diversity of terrain, climate, culture that this large state encompasses. It's over a thousand road miles from NW to SE corners. In the context of where you live, equal to Milwaukee to New Orleans. You can expect to find some diverse regions over that many miles.

Bakersfield as you noted is depressing. Lots of people who haven't made it. Unmercifully hot. Huge commercial farms and oil wells comprise the business culture. There's money made there, but it isn't spread around there. Coastal California, plus the Sierras starting north from Yosemite, are a lot prettier than the urban and Central Valley regions you saw.

Come visit. Bring money. Don't stay, we have too many people here all from somewhere else.


Added: just saw your note. Sequoia has some big trees. The Redwood Highway up the north coast has far more, hundreds of miles of them. And a much nicer ocean-cooled climate.

 

[ultrarunner]

You must be in the urban development zone, we are in SE Thurston county, tax bill is about 25 percent of yours!

Out towards Boston Harbor... well water and septic and postcard pretty natural landscape!

No internet of cable until last month and it took almost an act of God to get it... my tenant threatened to leave without it... horizontal bore over 900 feet... crew did an amazing job!

The shocker was when my taxes went from $560 to $1000 per month and the $560 was based on the price I paid 18 months prior.

California for all it's faults does provide some stability when it comes to property taxes for which I am grateful.

 

[ultrarunner]

I host visitors from Austria often... mostly students/kids of friends.

They quickly fall in love with California... everything is new they totally immerse themselves.

For one... they know SF far better than I will ever know it... most will spend about week walking the city and taking in the sites... then there are the Redwoods down near Santa Cruz, Monterey/Carmel to the South and Napa/Sonoma to the North...

I had two 18 year old nursing students the last time... they also spent time in Colorado with a 4H exchange then three weeks in California... they bought two used bicycles at a Berkeley Flea Market and bicycled down Highway 1 all the way to Los Angeles... memories of a lifetime and could not say enough about how friendly everyone was except for the person that stole one of their bikes in LA... Big Sur was right up there with the other sights they saw...

 

[dragoneggs]

I think its something my wife and I are gonna do once the last one is off to college. She's never seen the big trees before and I've never been farther north than Thousand Oaks. Wife hasn't been there since the early 70's. She has relatives in Oregon, so it would be a good drive up the coast.

Do come... and take your time and enjoy. Things are much more spread out here in on the west coast but the change of scenery almost definitely will be welcome to you. Welcome north to Washington State too... have you been in a rain forest?