In the MPSIMS poll thread, there is a question about which is the best town to live in that lists several decent places. The two that got the most votes are Santa Fe, NM and Bellingham, WA.
I’ve thought about moving to either of these for some time. Santa Fe has the advantage of not hosting Minnesota winters, and Bellingham is not terribly far from several of my friends, some in Canada, some in the PNW U.S. Of course, both locations have downsides too. Bellingham in winter would not be good for my SAD but it can hardly be worse than here. New Mexico has water access issues and hosts some nasty critters Minnesota is happy to do without.
First up for me to take a look at is Bellingham. I’m flying out there later this month for a look-see and to visit friends. If you have lived there, have family there, etc. I’d like to know what you honestly think about a senior with some mobility issues living there. Have at it. Please.
There are a number of 55+ communities, so.e of which may include stepped care options (as well as gyms, pools, community areas, etc.). Pretty good bus line coverage.
Bellingham is a nice town. Quiet but not really in the middle of nowhere. It’s a college town, Western Washington University is there. My best friend graduated from that school. I’ve been to Bellingham multiple times, in fact the state agency I work for has an office there and I will on occasion go up there to provide support.
Winters shouldn’t be all that bad. Western Washington in general isn’t too terrible, it’s not until you go east over the Cascades that you get extreme weather. It’s on the Puget Sound, which acts to make weather fairly temperate in nearby areas.
I can’t compare it to Santa Fe though, because I haven’t been there.
I’ve never lived in Bellingham, but I visit occasionally. I love it there. It’s very picturesque even in the wintertime. @Johnny_L.A may have info to offer, as he isn’t too far from there.
One of the reasons I’m looking at Bellingham is that even though the area around it is mountainous, I am told it is flat. This is good for me as steep climbs set off my sciatica and back issues.
I’m not trying to compare it to Santa Fe, at least, not yet.
@needscoffee How gray is it in wintertime, generally? Is there any winter sun or is it gray pretty much all the time?
I’m used to more extreme weather. Heck, Friday night found me moving the last stuff out of my condo in a blizzard and then driving across town and back. However, Minnesota is usually prepared for extreme weather. I wonder how Bellingham would handle it? And is it at risk from ocean rising?
I’m in Seattle, so the weather’s not quite the same as Bellingham. But I don’t mind the winter weather. I find it very picturesque against the backdrop of the bay and the mountains. There are some clear winter days. And a lot of misty grey days.
I’ll echo the positive things that others have posted about Bellingham.
It can be pretty grey. OTOH, the grey is interspersed with cold sunshine. We live in Birch Bay, which is 20-30 minutes north of Bellingham. It can get brutally cold in Winter (says the guy from L.A.). It seems like we get snow every year. Maybe a couple of inches that lasts a week, or maybe a foot or more that lasts a month. It varies. The Wife thinks it’s pretty. She doesn’t have to shovel it, and she can cancel her patients if there’s too much snow at the house or their places of residence. We’ll sometimes get a ‘hard freeze’, where the temperature drops into the teens or low-twenties for a week. Usually our hot water pipe freezes. We have a radiator-style space heater that we put next to the wall where the pipes are, and I think it helps. We have heat tape on the outside water pipe.
Summers are glorious.
What kind? All I can think of are various rattlesnakes and the black widow spiders. At least that’s what we had when I lived in the Mojave Desert. And we never saw any snakes, except at night in non-populated areas.
Bellingham seems to handle it better than Seattle. As I said, there’s usually snow every year. Of course there are people everywhere who don’t know how to deal with weather.
Bellingham is pretty flat from what I remember. Johnny, how do they do with weather-related power outages? Are there a lot of them, and ifs so, are they handled pretty efficiently?
When I was in my twenties, I had a good friend that lived there, so I visited a lot. What I remember most was the natural beauty around it. Gorgeous.
Bellingham is pretty flat. Lots of trees in the PNW. Our niece lives in a small house on Lake Samish, which is very pretty. You’re also not far from Whidbey Island and the ferry system to the San Juan Islands.
Santa Fe is very picturesque, but also full of tourists in the summer. They also get pretty cold winters because of the altitude. We’re talking teens at night. Great food, though, and access to all that Southwest scenery in the National Parks and Monuments, as well as the Pueblos.
There are rattlers in SE Minnesota but not where I live. I’ve never seen a black widow spider up here, but that doesn’t mean they don’t exist. Climate change is causing northward migration of all kinds of nasty plants and critters. I’ve been told Santa Fe doesn’t have scorpions, but I don’t quite believe it. Africanized bees don’t thrill me. A regular bee can raise quite a sting reaction on me. But then, many, many fewer mosquitoes is attractive.
Yeah, this is our first winter in MSP and I didn’t think it was all that bad. I’ve been on The Range in winter several times in the past, which can be brutal. Hard to choose between the PNW and the SW. PNW has beautiful coastline, with all Oregon beaches in the public domain (no private ownership) and very accessible for camping and boating. As mentioned, the SW four corners states have some really spectacular parks. We spent a couple of months down there just being tourists.
Generally, La Nina, brings MN a lot of snow but not a lot of cold. But I have lived here all my life. Winters are truly not as brutal as they used to be in my childhood. Part of my reason for moving elsewhere is that the super cold is hell on my arthritis and the ice is hell on my balance. I’m not afraid of the cold at all, my body just complains about it. To be fair, my body complains about a lot.
And yeah, driving across The Range in a blizzard is not for the faint of heart. It can seriously deplete your adrenaline.
Yeah, but what about Spring? No one ever mentions that. The dense, wet cold that climbs into everything and refuses to leave until it gets into the 90s in mid-July. People who used to live in Alaska complain about the PNW cold.
I can’t speak for Bellingham (although I’ve visited), but here in Kitsap County WA we have essentially zero mosquitoes. I can sit on my deck at dusk on a summer evening without even the thought of those bastards.
