Love Living in the Pacific Northwest

                                                    near Astoria Oregon

I am sure that most people enjoy living where they are at however I believe that I am very blessed being born and still living in the Pacific Northwest.

My hometown of Gig Harbor is one of the fastest growing towns in Washington state. I have to say that I don’t blame people for moving here but it would be nice if it wasn’t developing so fast. The traffic is getting worse as time goes by. On Sunday I went to view a development on Hunt street less than a mile from where I go to church. Someone I met  at my favorite coffee who lives nearby to the development told me about where it was located so I decided to check it out. I couldn’t believe that there was about a hundred and fifty homes in that development. They are large homes between thirty-five hundred and five thousand square feet going for around eight hundred thousand dollars. I thought they were lovely homes however we don’t need them since they will raise the property values in the area higher. The average family are not going to be able to keep living here because of the prices and then traffic on Hunt street is going to be quite busy when those homes are sold. At least the development wasn’t cleared cutted in the same manner as North Gig Harbor. At least they left trees around to enjoy. I would have to say the population in the area must have doubled at least in the last ten years. I can imagine what will happen in the next ten years. I am sure many of the other cities and town in Washington state are growing rapid as well especially north of Seattle. Many of the people coming are in the tech industry where they have high salaries.

Right now Oregon seems to me the place to go if you want to still have affordable housing and get a good view as well. Would not surprise me though if that changes in the next ten years as well. My cousin Jennifer who grew up and has spent most of her life in Seattle a year ago moved to Astoria Oregon. It is located on the Oregon coast and it looks lovely by the pictures I have seen from her. She was able to sell her house in Seattle and get twice the size in Astoria for half of the amount. Make sense since Seattle is getting so expensive to live and along with her husband are retiring in Astoria. They do have to get used to all the wind along with more rain. Yes there are places that get more rain than Seattle. If you ever have a chance to travel highway 101 along the Oregon coast it is a lovely place to visit. I look forward to traveling down to see Jennifer one of these days. My sister will be coming out from Quebec in five weeks. She went to college at the University of Oregon in Eugene along with her son Connor for a few days. He has a conference for work in Portland so she will meet him there and they will travel around Oregon for a couple days plus seeing Jennifer in Astoria. After that they will travel up to see my mother and I for a few days as well. It is a lovely drive going up on Interstate 5. It is about a two and half hour drive from Portland. There are two twin cities on the way up. The first twin cities is Longview and Kelso. It has been a while since I visited both places however I remember them as being very nice. When I have the chance I will go down and spend a day seeing what changes have happened. Longview used to be known as a logging town however the industry isn’t what it used to be. I am not sure what the main industry is any more. The second twin cities are Centralia and Chehalis. They are located about another hour drive up. From there is our state capital of Olympia before coming to Fort Lewis Army and McChord Air Force base. The bases are only about fifteen minutes to Tacoma and then exit to highway 16 for Gig Harbor and the Olympic Peninsula. What a beautiful drive to take.

There are so many lovely places to see on the Olympic Peninsula besides Gig Harbor. Seattle is about a forty-five minute drive north from Tacoma. There so many beautiful places north of Seattle as well. So traveling the Pacific Northwest it is a good idea to take a week if not two weeks to see as much as you can. Wherever you stop you can’t go wrong.