California locale "closest" to Seattle?

[alt]

Agree San Francisco.

But only places in CA i've spent time in are SF, LA, and Laguna.

[Bearsan]

San Jose/Santa Clara have the urban environment that you would want in terms of searching for jobs, and they are only 15 minutes away from Fremont, a nice suburb with reasonable rent prices.

[Khamsin]

Thanks, I'm not sure if I would move, but I'm halfway considering it. I was laid off again, and (despite the economy there not being any better than here) I figured I could look for something in both places. I've already got calls from places in Alaska and Canada, but no way in hell I'm moving out there.

If I did move, I'd prefer a place that's a hotspot for corporations (e.g. over here, we have Microsoft, Expedia, Amazon, Google, and dozens of others, even though I'm not even in the tech field... Starbucks, too!) as well as people (most people within an hour of Seattle just say they're from Seattle when talking to people in other states... so basically, a place that people have heard of), and has plenty of places for locals to go, reasonably priced living within 30 min, etc.

Only reason I care about it being on the water is because I've always lived close to the water, so it'd be really weird to live someplace that isn't. lol Doesn't have to be a nice beach area, though, since... well, the beaches I'm used to are rocky and gray and cold.

[Fhqwghads]

Santa Cruz would be a ? for me.

It's also boring as fuck here.

Except for all the damn vampires.

http://img519.imageshack.us/img519/4853/grandpa1.jpg

[zoobernut]

Khamsin if you need industry then definitely move to the bay area. Pretty anywhere from San Jose up to Berkley is good because you can get anywhere else in the bay on Bart. There are lots of very large businesses that are centered there.

[Azalee]

When I went to San Francisco over the Summer it reminded me a bit of downtown Seattle, just not quite the same atmosphere. We drove to San Jose for a concert and it was nice, looks like a place with lots of jobs and places to live, it just doesn't have the downtown atmosphere.

[Zanz L. Barre The 3rd]

Monterey, CA is gorgeous with a nice atmosphere; 30mins away hosts the US's highest murder rate per-capita city, Salinas.

I would recommend San Luis Obispo or Santa Barbara.

[zoobernut]

Salinas WAS like that about 10-15 years ago. It is not bad at all anymore.

And yes Monterey Bay has Carmel, Seaside, Pacific Grove, Carmel Valley, Monterey, Sand City... ect. All amazing places to live. Some of them are ungodly expensive places to live though.

Oh and for the ultra posh you could always live in Pebble Beach which is where they have the Concorse de Elegance The coolest car show in the world.

I used to love when that car show was going on because all the cars would drive past my High School on the way so I would get to see some amazing cars.