I appreciate everyone's help.

Thought I would share some pics of my town so that perhaps they can explain better what we are trying to replicate!

http://www.newburyport01950.com/downtown/gallery.html

http://www.newburyport01950.com/Jopp...t/gallery.html

http://www.newburyport01950.com/waterfront/gallery.html

Are the places we are looking at - Ashland, Corvallis, Eugene remotely similar? (Of course I realize they are not on the water).

Wanderer--I just replied to your thread on WA, but had to reply here too since we live in OR now The towns are alike in some ways, but they differ a lot too. I have not spent much time in Ashland in a few years, so will let others comment on that. Corvallis is a great little town. Both Corvallis and Eugene have the Universities there. Eugene is larger, so the city is not centered around that as much as Corvallis is. I went to school in Corvallis and love the town. Corvallis and Eugene have the same weather, lots of rain being in the valley there. From what you posted from the links, I would stick with the Edmonds idea though.

One thing to consider about moving to
Eugene, Corvallis, Salem etc is airfare if you want to fly anywhere else in the country. There are only about 4 airlines that fly into Eugene so not much competition. I live in Eugene and I usually end up driving to Portland for
flights as it still ends up being less expensive - so something to think about unless $$$ are not a factor

Of the places you list, Ashland is probably the closest match to Newburyport, but I think it's hard to compare towns separated by several thousand miles of geography and several hundred years of recorded history.

sunbum is right about Eugene, Corvallis, and Salem being somewhat isolated (from a travel standpoint). Ashland is worse yet. Ashland is the "place that's great with nothing else around it" you say you don't want to move to.

Sorry to be negative, but I think you're setting yourselves up for disappointment by looking to "replicate" where you are now (except for the snow). Can't be done IMO. I'd suggest either staying where you are, or looking for someplace completely different, but still with criteria that are important to you.

Well, I would disagree. Part of the reason I've taken a interest in this thread is that our really close friends are Cape Cod natives. Our friend has been a ski instructor, river rafting guide, and more. We are in our 50's. Our friend has moved her mother and father(since deceased) out here from Mass., and Mom would never go back to the east. Maybe I'm banking on the sense of adventure I see underlying your posts, but seriously, we don't need much in a big city that we can't get around here. Nordstrom's level shopping, I guess. I wouldn't want to base the rest of my life on how close an Airport is, and I doubt that's your primary concern either. Feel free to e mail me if you want,
[email protected] but the 2 big factors to me are sense of place(people feel home when they come here to visit) and weather-25 ' of rain, much sun, little cold. Come vist, then decide.

Thanks bbqboy. I guess I misspoke when I said "replicate". What we want to replicate is the "feeling" we have where we are. It's hard to describe, you just know it. I'd love a change and different experiences!

Ashland, so far, sounds like more of what we are looking for. Trying to rearrange our CA trip in May so we can pop in for a few nights, then come back later for more.

We live close to Boston, but rarely go in. We feel we've got all we need here in this town of 20K. Guess that says something. We're fairly simple people. No Nordstrums for us!

Thanks for everyone's help!!

bbqboy and merseyheart do a disservice to McMinnville by declaring it just a suburb of Portland, as if it has no existence on its own. That is NOT true and I think bbqboy's cheerleading for Ashland is carrying him away in his aspersions against other OR towns.
My husband's parents live in McMinnville and find it delightful (and for comparison, post-retirement, they lived in Taos, NM, Sequim, WA, Austin, TX, and Bellingham, WA--pre-retirement they lived in Seattle, Vancouver, Hong Kong, Singapore, Perth[Australia], Kuwait City, London, and Baden-Baden, Germany, among other spots). There is plenty to do in McMinnville itself and it is in Oregon's lovely wine country. They do NOT find the weather to be "constant drizzle and no sun." Summer and most of fall this year was lovely. They like being within an easy drive of the coast, the mountains AND the attractions of Portland, OR. Being within easy reach of Portland, one of America's best cities, is nothing to sneeze at, esp. if you are the type of person who enjoys a change of pace from time to time. Ashland is a great place, of course, but I agree with beachbum that it is somewhat remote, at least in comparison to Corvallis and McMinnville.

Sorry, I see nothing magical in McMinnville. I'll stop being a booster. I explained my reasons for thinking the RV would be a good fit for Wanderer and Husband. My SIL Lives and works in Beaverton, and nephew and niece are both working in Portland, so I'm familiar enough with the land up there, just don't see it as a retirement mecca.

hi ya Wanderer, just wanted to post this nifty article out of our regional AAA magazine.
http://www.viamagazine.com/top_stori.../ashland06.asp
Enjoy.

Well, if you're looking for a "historic district" kind of feel, you can find that in Salem.

Sure, Salem doesn't have a ton of fancy restaurants, or a commerical airport (yet), but we're not SO small, you have to go on a road trip when your T.V. dies. We're in-betweenies.

Keizer, which is a little city (under 20,000) RIGHT next to Salem, has that homely feel to it. I lived there for a couple of years, before moving back into the Salem city limits, and I loved it.

In Salem & Keizer, with the exception of West & parts of South Salem, you can get a NICE, new 3BR/2BA for under 200K, if you look around.

Don't move to the beach! It's NOT worth it!

Oh Wanderer, the grass is NOT greener.....we live on the Cape and we do the same kind of "retirement" shopping. We've also traveled to most parts of the country and guess what, New England is still the best place to live IMO of course. Newburyport will be hard to duplicate but I can understand your need to escape the snow.

As you know last year the Cape was buried, we saw 100" over the course of many many storms. This year, we have had one dusting and no snow at all. We have been able to golf for the most part on some of the warmer days which were many in January.

We hope to escape the winters when we retire by becoming burdens to our son who lives in Florida! We've already warned him and I think he's shaking in his boots as we speak! To escape a couple of the coldest months in winter is my only desire, otherwise, I simply love New England far too much to leave. Please think it over....we'll miss you.

Are you sure you folks have checked out the price of real estate in Ashland?

Look at Grants Pass or, for wonderful coast living, check Coos Bay.

Because I've spent the last 23 years in Alaska, I hope my comments can be accepted as helpful and tactful, not negative. I've read 2 or 3 similar threads and I notice several things that are not mentioned--I think because most of the people responding to the questions are not 5th and 6th generation Oregonians or Washingtonians.

Oregon is one of the three highest tax states for retirees in the whole country. Not only are property taxes high, but your retirement may be taxed at 9%. On the reverse, Washington has a sales tax and charges heavily to keep a car registered.

Now, about those colleges: if you didn't graduate as a Duck, Beaver, Husky or Cougar you're going to feel really out of place on a Saturday afternoon. There's no way to 'fake' being a Duck fan.

While people always ask about the rainfall in the Willamette Valley, nobody mentions the field burning and the fact that the grass seed growers have created the highest pollen count in the country. Also, when the wind shifts, several of the towns within an hour and a half of Albany get that sicky smell from the pulp mill.

McMinnville was a wide place in the road 20 years ago. Dundee, now a winery haven, was a grove of trees with a sign that said "nut capital of the world". The changes in economy and growth are fine, as long as you realize all those thousands of newcomers are still driving on the old Hwy 99. Anybody who says they are one hour from downtown Portland must be driving at 2:00 a.m.

Next, and maybe you won't care about this, but Oregon's ex-governor Tom McCall was famously quoted as saying "visit but don't stay". You might not be accepted by oldtimers--which is something I've also read about rural New England.

And lastly, Bend is going to run out of water. The high desert around Bend is largely juniper which deplete the water table.

As I said, don't mean to sound negative, but there is more to look at than whether the 40" of rain in Eugene falls at 5"/day for 8 days, or whether it drizzles all year.

Hi Wanderer,

Have you considered looking closer to home? There are some lovely smaller towns in Connecticut or even Rode Island and if you are closer to eh water you the snow is not bad at all. If you are driving distance to one of the larger cities you have the medical care covered. You'll have the historic charm you love so much in your current home but not as intense of weather.

The West is a Culture change from the East, not just a geographic one.
We grow artichokes and grapes, not snow.