I didn’t realize it was quite that long. I know the Seattle area has been doing a lot with its highways in the past couple years–is all that work done?
Assuming McChord AFB is the working area, Olympia seems pretty close, but I don’t know anything about that city.
It seems like the highway work is neverending. I’m not sure which specific project you’re thinking of, but there are many ongoing (as well as the construction of a light rail line). In any case, my experience is that the Seattle/Tacoma drive still takes at least 45 minutes (unless you’re driving in the middle of the night and speeding) and McChord is a bit further.
I know some people who live in Olympia and really like it. I think housing in Olympia is cheaper than Tacoma (which is itself cheaper than Seattle). It’s definitely a smaller city.
To the OP, if you can possibly do so, I’d strongly recommend visiting your top choices before deciding. It’s a very personal decision, so no matter how much information we give you, I don’t think we can accurately tell you how much you’d like any given place.
One more point regarding the weather. In my experience, people fall into two basic groups. One group thinks Southern California and Texas are too hot in the summer. The other group thinks Seattle is too cool in the summer. I’m in the second group (obviously). People in the first group tend to love the weather here. If you don’t like hot weather, it is very nice. If you do like hot weather, you’ll miss it here. You probably know which group you’re in.
Then Riverside is off the list.
I’m still very interested in Tacoma. What is the dating scene like for 20-something straight females? From a cursory check on craigslist, apartments appear to go for about the same as in New Orleans, from about $450-1,000 for a one-bedroom. Can you bike around the city?
The DC gridlock is truly not appealing, but I tell myself I could just take the subway most places and do all right.
Oh, and since Six Flags keeps getting mentioned, if you are in San Antonio, they have Six Flags Fiesta Texas (no idea on the quality of the park), and if you don’t mind the drive (maybe 4 or 5 hours, not sure), there is the original Six Flags Over Texas in Arlington (the only park whose name makes sense, located just south of Dallas/Fort Worth), which I remember as being a pretty decent amusement park, located next to a Major League Baseball stadium (Ballpark at Arlington, home to the Texas Rangers).
I’ve been told that Austin is a great city, although I’ve never been. I hear driving in that city is a nightmare though, at least compared to other cities in Texas (I got flipped off by a guy in Houston cause I was only doing 80. I’ve been told that this is considered friendly compared to how they drive in Virginia). I lived for a few years in College Station, about an hour and a half north of Houston, and four and a half hours from SA, and I remember Houston had a few interesting things to do if you didn’t mind driving to find it (the Space Center, the Battleship Texas, various assorted stuff).
The DC Metro is nice, so don’t worry about the traffic. Or just live close to where you work and it’s not an issue. It’s only bad for people who live in the far suburbs who commute a fair distance.
They do this because it’s cheaper. Mississippienne is at an advantage here because he’s (apparently) single and looking at apartments. The trick will be to find an affordable apartment within a reasonable distance of what he wants.
The Old Town area in Alexandria in the DC area may be good for you, although I’m too lazy to see what apartments are going for in that area. From what I’m hearing, Tacoma is sounding a bit… rough. What I haven’t figured out yet is whether the nicer parts of Tacoma are suburban or if there are some downtown.
My life is flashing before my eyes in this thread. My dad was in the Air Force; I was born at Westover and grew up at McChord.
Damn, where were you 15 years ago?
**Riverside, Baby!!! **
As a second choice, San Antonio.
I tend to avoid places where it snows.
This may be peripheral to the discussion, but isn’t UC Riverside the UC with the big science fiction library collection?
She was around 5 years of age 15 years ago. 
I agree, “Six Flags New England” doesn’t have the same ring as “Six Flags Great Adventure”.
Or were you referring to something else?
Well, “Six Flags Great Adventure” is a much better name than “Six Flags New England”, but I was referring to what I assume to be the “original” Six Flags park, Six Flags Over Texas (referring, of course, to Spain, Mexico, France, Republic of Texas, the Confederate States, and the United States, the Six Flags to have flown over Texas throughout the state’s history)
Of course, given that tidbit about the name, you’d almost expect it to be a theme park about the heritage and history of Texas or something, but instead its just your textbook amusement park with rides and music and food and such.
Resident of DC checking in, the traffic is horrific, but if you live in the city, not really an issue. For city dwellers, traffic is mostly something you hear you co-workers who live outside of the city complain about (a lot).
IMHO, living in DC and living near it are two totally different experiences. We own a house in DC, but before that I lived in Alexandria, VA and Takoma Park, MD and neither of those places have the energy that DC does.
We’ve been in Tacoma for 8+ years and like it fine. (We did have a car stolen, briefly, but got it back right away.) I haven’t seen many people biking around but I suppose you could. There are some humongously steep hills downtown.
Umm, 5th grade?
Does Tacoma get snow? I don’t mind snow, but I’ve never lived with more than Maryland-area levels. I’m not a skier or a snowboarder but maybe I could get to like sledding.
We don’t usually get much snow. This winter has been rather atypical. Mostly it rains a lot in the winter.
Tacoma does get snow. I assume it’s similar to Seattle’s snow. That is, most years it snows a couple of times, and it doesn’t usually snow a whole lot at once. Most of the winter precipitation is rain.
Recently, whole Northwest got a very unusual amount of snow. We had about 10 inches at our house near Seattle, which is the most I’ve seen since I’ve lived here (I previously lived in Wyoming and the Lake Tahoe area, so I have experienced much more snow – just not here). The whole City of Seattle ground to a halt.
Ididn’t read of word of this, but Tacoma wins.
I believe so. They also have a truly epic comic book collection.
Tacoma resident for seven years:
–Look primarily for apartments in Tacoma north of 6th Av, or in the adjoining cities of Puyallup or Federal Way. Avoid Lakewood (SE of the city) and Tacoma’s southern suburbs like Spanaway. Even the area’s worst neighborhoods are way better than New Orleans. Virtually everyone who moves here from the Midwest or NYC comments on how nice people are here.
–Tacoma is a very family oriented community. I’m single and it is hard to find new people here. There are only two rock clubs in the entire city and other activities are similarly scaled down. Of course, you could just go to Seattle for the weekend.
–Olympia is much quieter. There is a noticeable community of enviornmental/radical political types, but outside of that it’s just an overgrown small town.
–Biking doesn’t seem realistic due to our hilly downtown and lack of dedicated bike trails, but a thriving cycling scene does exist.
–Winter weather is a concern. Outside of this year it might snow one or two days in a year. However, you can go two or three weeks without any sunlight.