SEQUIM OR BUST

by Mama Gypsy

The number one reason we did this trip was to find a new place to live. Well, after 14 months of traveling the country we have made our choice, "DRUM ROLL PLEASE!!" we've decided to move to Sequim, Washington. (Sequim rhymes with gym and swim, like sk-wim)

The first question most people ask us is "Why Sequim?" Good question, right!?

Purple Haze Lavender Farm

Sequim pasture

Elk or where they just big deer?

Joss with a new friend at the organic dairy farm

Joss and the boys at the Dungeness Spit

Last December, we spent three weeks in Sequim and it just felt like home. When we were packing to leave for other areas I said to Robert "I'd be perfectly happy just staying here right now." He said he would be too so we talked about it. We both thought that we may regret it if we did not complete the whole year long trip around the country so we decided to go ahead and go. We decided a few years ago that we did not want to have any big regrets like that in our lives any more, so we continued on our trip. Whether we noticed it or not, we found ourselves comparing every other place to the Northwest and specifically to Sequim. We decided pretty much by Valentine, Nebraska (late August this year) that Sequim was IT for us. But, there were still some other areas we were considering right up until last week. We had to get over our fears about what to do for a living there. Sequim is a little bit isolated from the big city, it's two hours or more from Seattle by ferry and about two hours from Tacoma or Olympia by car. But, like we handle most everything these days we decided that we were being led to Sequim by both our hearts and divine intervention, so we'd better just TRUST it and go.

We love Sequim because of it's beauty, weather and extremely friendly people. Sequim is known as the "banana belt" because of its unique location in the rain shadow of the Olympic Mountains. The average annual rainfall in Sequim is only 16 inches, yet 40 miles away, the Hoh Rain Forest boasts an annual rainfall of more than 150 inches, among the highest recorded within the United States. On June 21, 1995, the City leaders passed Ordinance 95-009, prohibiting "weather that may disrupt the plans of its residents and visitors (source: http://www.ci.sequim.wa.us/welcome.cfm)." The quality of life in the Sequim-Dungeness valley is something sought by others, and embraced by its residents.

We love being on the Straight of Juan De Fuca, the Puget Sound and across the Straight from Victoria BC. The city has water views in many directions, mountain views and beautiful valleys as well. The scenery is amazing. We have beaches galore to choose from and I LOVE a cold weather beach!! Sequim is also in close proximity to the beautiful San Juan Islands the area in which the movie "Free Willy" was filmed and has many pods of orcas living there year round. That's so cool. It is close enough to Seattle to go for the day or take friends who come to visit us (HINT, HINT). In the small town of about 5,500 people we have local organic produce farms, local raw dairy with fresh milk and cheese, local lavender farms to tour, and two festivals a year, the lavender festival and the irrigation festival. But we also have a Home Depot, Wal-Mart and Costco as well as a great Mexican Restaurant (a must for me). It's a small town surrounded by beautiful scenery, rivers, lakes and straights and sounds. Lots of water for us to kayak and canoe around. The whole Olympic Peninsula also has tons of biking trails both mountain and flat as well as fishing, boating and camping. It really is a great place for people like us who really like to live out of doors in nature.

We also felt the people in Sequim were just really friendly and seemed so happy to be living there. Even the teens we met there were polite and friendly and made us feel like this place was a place we could call home. So, in about a week or more, we will!

After we visit our family and friends here in our "old" home of Southern California we will drive up to Portland to pick up our trailer that has been in for repairs, then we'll head to Sequim and the end of our travel adventure will be the beginning of a new adventure for us, a new hometown and new state. We'll continue blogging as we get settled in and let you know how it's all going. Stay tuned as we find employment, get the kids in school and adjust to life as "normal" people who don't move their house every week.