I’ll probably be relocating with my wife and daughter in a few years. We have long considerd Seattle and Portland. But, the places named in the subject line are now on our radar. We are both lawyers (she is already a bar member in CA). I’m not looking for votes of yes or no - too many variables that you do not know. But, if you have been to these places, or lived there, I am interested to hear your thoughts.
I went to school in San Diego and can’t say enough good things about it. I miss it everytime I have to ride up PCH in LA, getting buzzed by cars and trucks alike. If given my choice, I think San Diego is the best place in the country to live. Great rides, great weather, motivated training partners. On the downside, from what I understand real estate is less than affordable. It does seem to be the only large city in your list though so I’m not sure if that’s a mark against it.
San Luis Obispo is a wonderful town. Still has the small town feel. Lots of open space outside the city limits. Great weather (can have hot summers, though). Friendly people. I’ve lived in Los Angeles, and the pace of life is so much calmer on the Cental Coast. Kind of a hick town, but SF or LA are only a few hours drive. Really cute cowgirl type chicks not hung up on themselves. Housing is tough to find. Growth is frowned upon. Employment options, I’ve heard, are limited. Lived there only five years.
San Rafael - pretty nice suburb of SF, nice weather. Not a whole lot to do but SF/Oakland are near. Probably a great training environment.
Santa Rosa is a much smaler town, and really not anything of interest (except Sonoma wine country(… my aunts/cousins and now grandmother live there. I wouldnt want to… If you were considering Portland or Seattle, Santa Rosa would be the last thing I would think of as an alternate. Sorry, no offense to any Santa Rosans here.
if you work in seattle you can take the ferry from bainbridge to work. My wife has a few coworkers who walk on to the boat and catch a short bus ride or walk to work at the seattle end. bainbridge if pretty much a bedroom community with a little rural flavor. the small town of Winslow seems to pretty much exist off of people waiting for the ferry and tourists. Nice riding on the roads around the island and great views from the eastern shore of Seattle and Mt. Rainier. The down side is being tied to the ferry schedule for commuting. you can drive off the other side to the penninsula but it’s a really long drive to Seattle. If you plan to live and work in the general Seattle area, I would try to live and work on the same side of Lake Washington and avoid having to cross Lake Washington bridges (Hwy 520, I-90). the bridges over to Redmond and Bellvue are parking lots at commute time. I’ve lived here over 12 years and still like it. the Seattle tri club slogan “we train in the rain” only applys from Oct-April. Summers are nice, 75-85F and no rain. sometimes we have nothing but clouds and don’t see the sun for 6 weeks in the winter though.
How old is your daughter? It can be very hard to get into some good schools and there could be a long wait list in San Rafael. Where do you live now? Planning on buying a house? Not possible for many in San Rafael. Santa Rosa is pretty far from the hustle and bustle of urban areas. I think some of the easily available ride choices are limited in Santa Rafael/San Francisco versus other areas in Northern California.