Olympia, WA

Right off the bat, Olympia hits you with liberal city vibes. There are inclusivity posters, coffee shops, and thrift stores on every block. Although the capital building dominates the skyline, downtown is distinct from the governmental buildings. It rests along the Budd Inlet, yet it doesn't feel like a waterfront town until you are walking along the marina. 

I really liked all of the shops we went into, and I love that there is a year-round farmers market. I was ready for Olympia to feel too urban, but within the city limits there were multiple properties on the peninsula north of downtown with acreage. There was even a smaller village at the top of that peninsula, Boston Harbor, which would be a nice secondary town hub. I was envisioning how nice it would be to take a summer bike ride into town to do my weekly farmers market shopping and grab some pastries. I'm just not sure if the gloomy winters are worth the trade-off.

The Good

• Progressive liberal city vibes…although I’ll admit it might be a little too in-your-face, even for me. 
• Affordable land available that feels relatively rural, despite being within a few miles of the capital building.
• Year round farmers market. 
• Near to our closest social network. I have a college friend who already lives there, plus we're basically neighbors with our Seattle friends. Our family in Port Angeles is less than 3 hours away, and the SeaTac airport is really accessible.

The Bad

• I probably sound like a broken record, but the gloom! I did get a therapy light this week, so maybe it will be a sufficient coping mechanism. 
• It's more of a boat town rather than a ski town, and we're more ski people than boat people. 
• Homelessness is on full display downtown. 
• It's on the I-5 corridor, which is pretty traffic-heavy. It's nowhere near as bad as further north in the Tacoma/Seattle area, but I can't imagine it will get better as time goes on. I've had to work in Olympia for a few weeks, and the commuting traffic would get to me, even just after a few days.

The Verdict

Yes? This was another place that I wanted to dislike, but I just couldn't quite talk myself out of it. I am nixing Gig Harbor and Kirkland from the list, so this is likely our closest-to-Seattle option. That proximity is really great for our jobs and friends, but I'm not sure if it's worth it for everything else. 

Artsy water-loving liberals is the main vibe of Olympia.

Which is not necessarily a bad vibe. I could have done some serious shopping at Ember Goods if I had a house to put things into. 

I’m not entirely sure what the Olympia Center is, but the front desk employees let us wander around and look at the art even though it was technically closed to the public. 

Olympia in a nutshell: the capitol building, pride, boats, and PNW wildlife. Despite being a proper city, Olympia does feel more connected to nature. Maybe because it houses one of the most environmentally-focused colleges out there: Evergreen State College. 

Did I mention that Olympia is artsy? There was a sculpture-heavy walk alongside the waterfront. 

It’s a great place to be a boat person. And a gray-sky person. 

Some of the cutest neighborhoods are near the capitol building, but it’s nice to realize you can distance yourself from that public works section of town. 

That said, the capitol dome is a prevalent part of the skyline. 

Best part of Olympia? It’s year-round farmer’s market. 

I’d be curious to know if it’s always so lively, or if we were seeing it at its best since it was the week before Christmas. 

Another selling point? Santa salmon integrated into the city’s holiday decorations.

Leavenworth/Cashmere/Wenatchee, WA

I laugh at my younger self for scoffing at the idea that someone might choose to live on the east side of Washington state over the west side. Now that dreary weather is something I am actively trying to avoid, central/eastern Washington seems ideal. 

Leavenworth was one of the original 43 options, but after some recent self-reflection, we decided Leavenworth would likely be too resorty (it is a Bavarian-themed village, and they really lean into that image!) but the greater Highway 2 region following the Wenatchee River, stretching to the big city of Wenatchee (population: 35,000) was still worth considering. There are a number of distinct towns along that 25-mile stretch, but we focused on the three in the title for now. 

Leavenworth: As already described, it is pretty kitschy. It has literally been portrayed as "Christmastown" in a few holiday movies, and their annual Oktoberfest and Christkindlmarkt bring in lots of onlookers. The year-round population is tiny (less than 3,000), but because of the seasonal attractions it has everything you would want for an engaging lifestyle. 

Cashmere: Although it doesn't feel it, Cashmere has a (slightly) larger population than Leavenworth. The downtown is cute, but restrained. Its claim to fame is being the hometown of the local Aplets and Cotlets candy. I get the sense that Cashmere is where the well off but down-to-earth families live, and it was Cameron's home base when he worked in the area as a raft guide during his gap year.

Wenatchee: Apple capital of the world! It sits at the confluence of the Wenatchee River and larger Columbia River. Wenatchee is the Chelan County seat and houses Central Washington University, so it boasts more activity than I expected for a town its size. Downtown was popping, and I especially liked the Public Market – essentially an indoor permenant-stall farmers and craft market. 

The Good

• Agricultural and industrial, yet with a balanced amount of arts and education focus. Wenatchee especially felt like a really well-rounded town. 
• Every outdoor activity imaginable (except those that require salt water) is nearby and in abundance. Lots of east siders make regular visits to this area for hiking and rafting, especially.
• There are mountains any way you turn. They aren't all spectacularly imposing mountains, but it would be hard to find a house that doesn't have some sort of view.
• It would be nice to live in Washington. Although they feel like complete opposites, Seattle is less than three hours away. That's definitely close enough for occasional weekend visits for special occasions or socializing with our abundance of friends in that area.
• It feels so homey. I know that word doesn't have a great definition, but despite never having been further east than Leavenworth until this year, I felt like a local as I walked through the Cashmere and Wenatchee downtowns. 

The Bad

• Far from an airport. There is a regional airport that flys to Seattle, but it probably is equally time-consuming to drive the ~3hours to SeaTac or Spokane. 
• Land is hard to come by. It's a very mountainous region, so any flatter areas are already dedicated to agriculture. I read that Wenatchee is currently considering allowing road grades up to 25% to allow for construction at harder-to-reach places. 
• There was a little bit of a stinky smell in a few parts of Wenatchee; it was somewhere between sewage and electrical oil. I'm not sure if it was something coming off of the Columbia River or the railroad or an unseen factory, but I can't image the smell gets better in warmer weather. 

The Verdict

Yes. It may have even eked out Taos as my #1 spot. It has the same major downside that Taos does – distance to an airport – but living in Wenatchee area would reduce a lot of our needs to fly. If we need to visit Cameron's family or go to the office for something, we would drive. Although there's not the same practicalities as living in a bigger city, if we do choose to go remote I think Wenatchee is a very strong contender. 

This photo is not from this trip, but it's from one of many hikes we've done previously in this area and a very compelling reason to move here.

These are what many of the surrounding mountains look like – steep and scraggly. 

Getting into this trip, though, let's start with Wenatchee. I like all of the actives and landscapes represented in this city mural.

Winter in Wenatchee. This is the confluence of the Columbia and Wenatchee Rivers. 

It was really snowy! It was hard to find a path, even on the sidewalk, but there were still plenty of people out doing their afternoon meanders.

The year-round indoor public market really sold me.

Inside there were about two dozen semi-permeant stalls. I bought some local produce and art.

Wenatchee felt like a really nice mix of agriculture, industry, and art. 

Downtown had a lot of cute looking shops, mixed in with some of-an-era furniture and appliance stores.

This was another selling point – a handful of locals built a snowboarding jump down the stairs of the Performing Arts Center, which was advertising an abundance of shows for the year.

There was an art walk along the river and a few businesses, like the winery in the background. You can really tell the snow depth with this guy.

Isn't it cute! Maybe I'm seeing the town through rose-colored glasses, but I found very little to fault. 

Now moving on to Cashmere. The downtown was much smaller but really stinking cute!

Evening glow on one of the nearby hillsides.

Cashmere's best known business – Aplets & Cotlets. 

Although Cameron has an affinity for Cashmere, since it was his home base when he was a raft guide, it was a little lackluster in comparison to Wenatchee. 

This is what you get hit with when you drive through Leavenworth at this time of year. Everything is decked to the nines in holiday lights.

Since we've been to Leavenworth plenty times before, we didn't spend a lot of time there this trip, but here's a summer photo. We enjoy hanging out and floating down Icicle Creek, near Leavenworth. 

Another summer photo – Mom and Dad came and visited and they got a kick out of the Bavarian-themed village. 

Boise/Meridian, ID

We've been halfheartedly looking for places to cut, and almost bypassed Boise entirely after learning that Idaho has the fastest population growth of all the states and since we've had to implement a sped-up schedule to get from Utah to Washington for the winter holidays. However, Boise is exactly on the way, and I remembered liking it a lot for the two days I visited for a work trip five-ish years ago. Meridian was a second place in the areas that we did cut, largely because it's just a suburb of Boise, but mostly because we did a drive by and were not wowed. 

Because of the expedited nature of our trip, we probably didn't give Boise its full due, but despite having written it off, I wanted to spend more time there. We only spent two hours in downtown on a Sunday morning (meaning many spots were closed), after an evening bumming around the city's outskirts. Population-wise, Boise is on the larger size for our list (~236,000 people), but likely one of the more diverse spots because of it. We had a hearty Ethiopian meal and a sellable east coast bagel breakfast, and there were plenty of other restaurants we passed that were tempting. 

The Good

• An accessible airport, centrally located for family visits, plus it's far enough south that my fears about seasonal depression are less pronounced. 
• Lots of natural beauty and corresponding activities in the nearby vicinity. The Boise hillsides aren't stunning, but the landscape is varied and we wouldn't have to go too far to be deeper into proper mountains. 
• Adequately funky city that feels lively. I liked the art and architecture, and even though we were visiting on an off day, there were still plenty of people about doing morning things: running, mingling with friends at a coffee shop, visiting the gym, and grabbing bagels before heading to Bogus Basin, the nearby local ski area.
• Large city amenities, and presented in a way that feels accessible. Not to harp on Salt Lake City, but SLC feels like you need to dig to find anything cool, but Boise readily presents it's good side to you. For example, when I looked up good restaurants the Ethiopian place was listed as #1, and when we went downtown we were immediately drawn to the large climbable rope pyramid and five-story slide.
• Downtown felt bike and pedestrian friendly, but I expect that sentiment extends beyond downtown. There were lots of parks, both near downtown, but also in the surrounding areas. These included a nice urban trail system and a whitewater kayaking park. 

The Bad

• Fast (and probably unsustainable) population growth – what you see now is not what you'll get in 5+ years. I think native Idahoans are weary of the growth (which is partially natural, but mostly immigration from other states), and I don't want to start off on a bad foot with our potential future neighbors by being more non-native invaders.
• Really hard to find public bathrooms. This is partially a winter thing, but in the city it seemed like you'd only find a toilet if you are giving a business your patronage. 
• Boise is a liberal bubble within a wider "red" area. I don't mind this so much, but a friend of mine from Boise once said that it can feel very isolating once you cross over the city boarders. 

The Verdict

Yes. If there was a guarantee that it would stay exactly as-is then it might even be a strong yes, but I'm under no illusion that that's a possibility. In fact, I almost concluded that Boise should be a "maybe" because the extreme population growth is so off-putting to me. However, at the end of this I think there is a strong possibility that we will do additional research about Boise's surrounding areas to see how viable our long-term lifestyle goals are here. 

A very standard-looking capitol building sits a few blocks off of downtown.

I'm generally neutral about renal bikes and scooters, but I especially liked the below-street level businesses. I think these were a big contributor to Boise feeling like a European city.  

All of the large-scale art downtown was super cool. 

I mean look at that mural! Also, a few of the cross streets were blocked off to be pedestrian-only.

This is the Idaho Black History Museum, which I think is pretty cool to have.

We also bypassed the Idaho Anne Frank Human Rights Memorial.

This rose garden is "the second oldest in the Northwest and the largest in the intermountain region."

Their interurban trail system goes along the Boise River for about 10 miles. 

I was so curious about Jack's Urban Meeting Place. If they had been open on Sundays, we would have surely gone inside to see what other fun JUMP has in store. 

From the outside exhibits and large-scale playground-esque features, it seems like a really cool place.

Of course we climbed to the top of the rope pyramid.

Christmas decorations were up around town. I appreciate the general good vibes of the "peace" message, rather than something particularly religious. 

There were lots of banners for Bogus Basin, and plenty of people stopping by the bagel shop who were planning to spend the day there.

I'm not positive if the businesses listed here are current or historical, but I doubt there was a "Jimmy John's" and "Boost Media" here more than a decade ago. 

There are lots of park areas extending beyond downtown. Esther Simplot Park houses the Boise River Park.

Cameron was really impressed with the River Park's layout and five wave spots. 

Reality Disconnect

I’m starting to worry that I no longer have a strong sense of what I want in a long-term residence. I'm starting to disregard many of the initial qualifications and some of the current comforts that I’ve been seeking out seem inconsequential to the larger goal. More than once I have felt despondent about a location which should excite me greatly, and even more frequently I've wondered if I should give up on the Goldilocks Project to continue living the life of a nomad.

Maybe I should take this as a sign that I’ve been too far north for too long and my seasonal depression is kicking in, or maybe I should simply be relieved that van life is going so well. It’s similar to how I felt mid-Freshman year of college, when I realized I didn’t want to continue with my initial major declaration, but didn’t know what I wanted to do instead. My sister asked me what I wanted to do, and I (only half-jokingly) responded “I don’t know. Being a house cleaner wasn’t so bad.” Logically, I know everything is going well and that I am fortunate to experience this lifestyle, but being in the murky pre-decision phase is a little draining and stressful. 

I’m going to look at the flip-flopping of priorities as an overall good thing, with the presumption that we are learning more about what our core wants and values are. Here are few things that have shifted in recent months:

1. There must be a downtown. We realized this fairly early into the visiting process, but I feel more and more assured by that decision. As a visitor I like having a destination when I don’t have a clear idea of where I want to walk and what I want to see. I like to think that I’m testing the waters for our numerous future visitors.

2. Population, population density, and growth rate are all things I tracked but didn’t really know how to interpret initially. Although I’m not actively looking at the numbers, I know that we ultimately want a place that feels small, has room to buy land, and is not outgrowing it’s charm and capacity, which effectively correlates to lower population density and low growth rates.

3. Distance to skiing and quality of skiing. I really wanted to keep a few east coast options in my initial list, so I made some compromises, but I’m realizing that I’m not willing to adopt a dinky beginner hill as my hometown resort, and I don’t want to plan on a multi-week ski trip every year.

4. Public land access is something previously discussed as a newly added must-have. I began to worry that this is being overly favored due to van life, but even pre-van our lifestyle revolved around weekly hikes and seeking new adventure spots. It would be a bummer to commit to a long-term home only to realize we’d already seen all of the points of interests a few months in.

5. Not “deserty,” which Cameron uses to describe any place that has browns and golds in the landscape’s color palate and has summer temperatures over 90°. I’m working with him to distinguish what it is he truly doesn’t like, but I think it is an underlying association with the type of activities and vistas we like.

6. Stunning mountain views. This is not a mandate, but every time I see big snow-covered mountains I get happier. Plus, this compliments the three previous points, and mountains often feed into summertime water access (primarily rivers and lakes). I thought about other stunning view options – lakes, ocean, city scape – but none of them hold the appeal of a big majestic rock for me.

7. School ratings don't matter. It seems less and less likely that Cameron and I will have kids, so it seems stupid to limit our options to places that are topping the charts. Sure, it’s easy to find correlations between good school systems and other aspects of a community, but top schools tend to exist in white upper-middle class towns, and I’m not sure if I want to exist in a white upper-middle class town.

8. Home size. I used to think I wanted a five-bedroom home, to allow for visitors and office space, but after living in a van I really don’t think that’s necessary. Cameron and I are in agreement that anything over 3,000sqft is outrageously huge for our life style, and closer to 1,500 is probably the sweet spot. What we’re not in agreement about is the proximity of that home to walkable amenities. We both want to have access to walking/running trails from the house, and we’d like to have some land, although we’re in disagreement about how much. I would like to live in a proper neighborhood, be able to walk or bike to the grocery store, and think that half an acre would be plenty. Cameron’s ideal would be to have 10+ acres (although he hasn’t figured out what he wants to do with that land yet) that is within a 20 minute drive from town. Although we don’t need to decide on the exact home just yet, knowing the style of neighborhood/house/land that we want does change what spots we pursue further.

9. If Cameron wins out and we end up favoring acreage over amenity access, then my initial exclusions based on low walkability scores was unfair and unnecessary.

10. Non-seasonal public bathrooms. Most towns have public restrooms smattered around the high-visited areas, like parks, beaches, and the farmers market hub, but it drives me nuts when they are only available Memorial Day – Labor Day. People still use those spaces the other half of the year! I know this is a silly rant, and it won’t be the determining factor in our ultimate decision, but I think it is very possible that an inaccessible bathroom might sour me enough to put a “no” as my verdict for a place that would otherwise be perfectly suitable.

I know, I know – stop whining, Aisha! I purchased a UV-light that will hopefully help with the seasonal depression and I know wherever we end up will be great. Or it will be perfectly mediocre and I'll just periodically move out of the country for two years at a time to keep life spicy. 

Living in the van for the rest of our lives doesn't seem so bad. It's great waking up to a new beautiful landscape every day.

But realistically, I could have this as my view every day and that wouldn't be so bad. (This is in our home base town, Mountain Green, UT.)

Although not city people, it is nice to be close enough to see shows periodically. We really loved watching our favorite Icelandic musician in Salt Lake City in October.

I am very much looking forward to a full time home, though. This is our little art wall in the van, but I can't wait to have a full house filled like a gallery. 

Pancake can't wait to have a proper home, too. In her mind, the more room to explore, the better.

In the meantime, we're going to keep up with van life (and van safety)...

...and Pancake will have to figure out ways to stay entertained. We're teaching her tricks, including "spin" and "high five." Jumping on my shoulder and trying to steal my glasses is self taught. 

We are thinking about modifying the list. The Canadian spots are the easier to cut, and as mentioned above, the northeast probably doesn't have the skiing we've become accustom to in the Rockies, but I'm a completists and am having a hard time giving any place up.