Santa Barbara is as every bit as gorgeous as you would assume. The weather is perfect. But perfection is very expensive. So expensive that after my first couple of years in school I am going to transfer to finish my degree. I’m thinking of Klamath Falls.
Anyone have any first hand experience with the area? I’m aware that it’s small and has no night life, but my girlfriend and I are old and we don’t go out. When we do it’s usually to walk the beach and such.
So yeah.
This is going to be a really, really minor contribution, but I spent a night there once. It had kind of a cool small-town feel to it. I visited the town’s bowling alley while I was there, and all of the locals were really nice people. The morning we left town, there was a low-hanging fog all along the hills and fields which made it seem eerie, but beautiful.
Unfortunately, I can’t offer much more than that since I was there less than 24 hours. But I wouldn’t mind visiting again. I seem to recall hearing that economical problems made a difficult place to relocate to, but my trip there was about 7 years ago.
ETA: I should add that the reason my wife and I went through there, which was out of our way during a road trip to Portland, was because my boss at the time and his girlfriend spent a lot of time there. They’d fallen in love with the place and frequently vacationed there. So that’s at least one solid vote for it. I have no idea if they’re still there.
K-Falls is great if you’re into outdoor stuff–hunting, fishing, hiking, etc. If you like culture and bookstores and neat shops, look at Ashland instead. The topography won’t look too different from what you’re used to, because K-Falls is in the drier side of Oregon, sparser trees, low brush, that kind of scenery. It’s not a bad little town, but they do roll up the sidewalks at night, for sure!
If you want the full experience, come to Portland instead–it has everything! 
My husband’s parents live there (about 15 minutes out of town) but I wouldn’t say I’ve got a really good feel for the place. I think a lot of the young people who live there just can’t wait to get out.
It is very dry. The waterfowl on the lake are kind of cool (pelicans and stuff). Tons of gnats in the summer (by the lake). My mother-in-law once found a dead body on a walk around a park, but I’m sure that was an isolated incident.
Oh, and there aren’t any falls. You should know that too.
I lived in Klamath Falls for a couple of years back in the early 1970s; I worked as a VW mechanic for Stone’s Volkswagen dealership. I loved living there; I rented a house that was right on a very short river. The name is gone and the river might be but it ran just outside my bedroom window back then. My co-workers were natives and they were all avid outdoors men; hunters, fishermen, horseback riders. They took me in and we had some great times in the mountains. It does get cold there and back then, fist fighting was sort of a pass time: if you were bored with drinking, you could always get a fight started. I myself was physically thrown out of a bar by a few lumbermen because I defended Muhammad Ali’s right reject the draft. Another big contributor to that particular beating was that I defended his right to change his name from Cassius Clay.
IIRC, K-Falls was sort of in between the Klamath and Modoc reservations; those two tribes had a history of hating each other and some of their fights were very serious as in gun fire and knife play. I once saw one guy chasing another down the main street, wielding an axe and shouting curses; I didn’t stay around for the conclusion.
Klamath Lake was a very nice place during the season and it made a good ice patch during the winter. A very large number of Pacific pelicans spent a part of each year mating and nesting on the islands there; in order to track the origins of those pelicans they would be netted and, depending on where they were from, they would be painted/dyed various colors; if you didn’t know this in advance, the sight of blue, green, pink, etc., etc. pelicans was somewhat disconcerting. Also, IIRC, Tule Lake was located to the north east of the city; there had been very large lava flows there and there were multiple caves available for exploring. That area was also the site of the Modoc Indian War against the US. The Modoc nation fought the US to a standstill and I believe that the Indians have never surrendered.
Again, IIRC, the north western part of the city had a lot of houses that were heated by geothermal methods. Those houses, of course, were among the most expensive in the city.
Anyway, I’m old and I ramble but I did absolutely love that area and wouldn’t at all mind seeing it again. It was certainly a significant part of my hippie days.