Seems like a nice place, potential job opening for me out there. Has anyone been through there, thoughts?

I currently live in the tricites and have been here since January. If you like outdoors stuff there is a lot of things to do. There are a lot of parks and trails within a few hours drive and the columbia river goes right through the cities.

My fiance and I have discovered the local restaurant scene to be fairly mediocre. While the food isn't bad, its not great either. The nightlife is not the best either but I found that is pretty typical for this size population.

Portland and Seattle are both about 3 1/2 hours away, but 1/3 of the year its a bit sketchy to get over to them to going through the passes in the mountains. Its a great drive to take though.

One thing I did not know before getting here is that there are a lot of vineyards here some of which have pretty good stuff. I think there are a hundred or so within a 45 minute drive.

Weather wise it seems like it is almost a copy of Northwest Texas including the dust storms and occasional temps around 0.

Sorry this is probably a lot more than you wanted. It is not a bad place to live, but I don't know that I want to be here more than 3 or 4 years (how long my job wants me to be).

Feel free to ask me any sort of questions you have.

Thanks for the reply, I have most of my family in Yakima, Spokane/N. Idaho and Seattle. My in-laws are in Alaska so getting closer to family since we started one of our own last year would be nice along with getting to a smaller town versus Houston were I am at now.

I have been searching to find a place that met lots of criteria such as 1. Good parks.outdoor rec year round 2. Decent cost of living 3. Close to family in the NW 4. Low crime/safe/goof family environment/smaller communities

It seems the Richland/Kenniwick meets each of them, not really concerned about lack of nightlife our dining scene since we have a little one.

Is Wenatchee an option? I'd go with Richland before the cesspool that is Yakima...

Wenatchee isnt, jus the Richland/Kenniwick area.

I've lived in the Tri-Cities in the past from 1985 - 1991 and since then 50 miles to the east in College Place next door to Walla Walla, at the foot of the Blue Mountains. I work for the Army Corps of Engineers in Walla Walla.

If I had to move back to the Tri-Cities, I would not have a problem doing so. Would probably opt for a place in Richland if I could but Pasco and Kennewick also have decent areas of town. There is a decent size Hispanic population up here and of those three communities, probably the largest percentage live in Pasco.

Previously I lived 8 miles north of Pasco in an agricultural area and liked that just fine.

Who is the potential job with? There are a number of people who make the commute daily from Walla Walla / College Place and vice versa. I did that for three years but it got old, especially during the winter months.

If you have any specific questions, let me know and I'll try to get you an answer.

Cardiac, it is with an Insurance Co. My territory would be centered in The Tricities expanding from Yakima to the West to Walla to the East, so living in the center/largest of the 3 would be ideal. I am aware of the larger migrant population up there as I have family in Yakima, but the TriCities seems better all around for raising a family and quality of life.