My son-in-law is very excited about a job offer in Seattle. My daughter thinks that she also will have good job prospects with her experience as a bio-chemist. She has 3 job leads already so that sounds pretty positive to me.

Up till now, all 5 of our children and all of grandchildren have chosen to live in the St Louis area. I always knew this was an unusually good situation that wasn't likely to last forever. I'm happy for our daughter and son-in-law but {sigh}.

That will be a big change for you but an even bigger change for them. They will be leaving all of you behind.

Tough--but the good news is Seattle is a great town, and planes fly there every day. I predict a bike trip to the San Juan islands in the near future.

Visit anytime between late April and September and you'll have the ride of a lifetime.

Funny you should mention that. A bike trip through the San Juan islands is definitely on my bucket list.

My son moved to Seattle several years ago to work at UW. It's a great area to visit and I love having a ready excuse to go out there!

I understand that it sometimes rains in that neck of the woods.

We loved the more remote areas of Whidbey Island, and visiting the San Juans, Olympic National Park. Then there are the Cascades and other National Parks.

But, houses are rather expensive.

My niece and her husband live in "West Seattle" and have a vacation rental on Whidbey.

I have lived in 9 cities in 3 countries since I graduated from college (5th-generation Kansan). Seattle is one of the best places I've lived.

If you love the outdoors, I can't think of a better place -- something outdoors to do 52 weeks of year.

A great place to raise a kid -- in high school, my son's phys. ed. classes were: rock climbing; mountaineering; wilderness first aid; snow camping; and sea kayaking. Both my son and daughter have participated in the "ski bus:" kids get picked up after school and they go skiing, or you can put them in a Saturday ski bus program and just drop them off for the bus up to the slopes.

For the most part, the winters are pretty mild, as long as you can tolerate constant drizzle. If the rain gets to you, you can go up into the mountains for snow. And, the summers are spectacular - no humidity, few bugs, not hot.

I *will* admit, though, that we're not in touch with our Midwestern relatives (including parents) as we were when we lived in Chicago. Even the time zone difference makes it just a bit harder to stay in touch by phone; and trips home are more time-consuming and expensive. Our parents are always welcome to come see us, and they've taken advantage of our presence here to come out for a number of long visits, but as they're getting older it's harder and harder for them to get out here. I'm sure you'll figure that part out, though, and make it work.

And, of course, a great biking town...there are two LBS's that also make custom bikes (www.davidsoncycles.com; www.rodcycle.com). There are at least three bike shops featuring museum-quality collections of classic bikes, such as this one on Bainbridge Island that just popped up over on C&V:

https://www.bikeforums.net/classic-vintage/506061-vintage-bike-museum-bainbridge-island-pic-heavy.html

Seattle is a good area. I graduated from High School in Bellevue and used to spend a lot of time there. Yes it does rain a lot. My last year of High School it rained 178 days. Not in a row but in total. If you plan or riding a bike in down town Seattle get a rear cassette with at Ultra range with a 32 granny. You will be climbing a lot. If you are into boating Seattle is a great place.

A change like that can't help but be good. Your son-in-law and daughter are breaking into new frontiers for your family. You'll have as great a time discovering all the amenities of their new surroundings as they will have showing them to you. Just bring rain gear and fenders.

Tell them to bring money - lots of money. They can buy my ramshackle 1955 house for only $450,000. It'll be a bargain around here. The Seattle area is great if you have the bucks. If not...?

Dusting of snow today in Seattle and here, just north.

Warming up to the 40sF now though with just the usual wet stuff. Do a loop of San Juans and Gulf Islands.

Worth looking at -- this post from the Pacific Northwest forum of "the beautiful Pacific Northwest."

https://www.bikeforums.net/pacific-northwest/487644-beautiful-pnw-photo-thread.html

I was born and raised in St. Louis, and have been Very Much Happier since I got out there! Of course I live in SoCal now, but still . . . Seattle is a city I've visited a lot and I agree that it's just way better for everything than St. Louis.

Instead of being sorry they're moving to Seattle, you should join them there! See you on the Seattle to Portland ride some year!

Rick / OCRR

This winter has sucked and its getting suckier by the minute. If it weren't for the anti depressants I would probably have stabbed myself in the forhead with a fork. Well not quite that bad but the weather here can get pretty monotonous in the winter. The fog and cloud cover of the last few weeks is making me nuts although I'm taking a vitamin D supplement this year and it has helped I think.

I graduated from Mercer Island High School. You were my enemy!

I now live on the central coast of California, where it was in the 80s a couple of weeks ago, and will be in the 70s and warm and dry for at least the next week. I'd like to move back to the Northwest, and my family and friends think I'm crazy! I visit friends and relatives up there almost every summer.

One warning: I was told that Seattle has one of the highest suicide rates of any major city - often transplants from other parts of the country who can't take the incessant rain and gloom (I'm guessing about that last part.)

There's not a better place to be if you love the outdoors, but get good raingear, and be ready to enjoy the outdoors in the rain.

Here's what my winter looks like, with no end in sight:

...just don't forget your raingear!

SP
Bend, OR
(but I lived in Seattle for 19 years)

Only a couple times a year - for six months at a time!

SP

I was just looking at my mileage totals for January -- if I commute Thursday and Friday, I'll have 600 miles of bike riding done in January. About half of that mileage is commuting - 14 round-trip commutes from the Eastside to downtown Seattle.

It's very easy to bike year-round here if you have the right gear.

Do your daughter and son-in-law use computers? It might be a less painful distance with daily/weekly on-line chats including live video. I know it's not ideal, but it's closer to the intimacy one has in face to face conversations than phone calls or letters.

Our San Juan trip pictures.

Why is the sky that funny color. I have not seen that before.

Both my wife and I lived in the same village and all our close relations lived fairly close to each other. 20 years ago I wanted to move and the wife didn't. She did not want to move away from her family. She felt that if we moved- we would lose contact. Then I pointed out to her- that her relations never visited us- We always visited them and if we moved just 30 miles away- we could still visit them. That did not happen. Instead they visited us as we were so handy for the beach.

So before they move- you have a few things to arrange for them. Make certain they get a house with a couple of spare bedrooms for when you visit- and a secure area- or extra an room for the bikes.