Joe, I grew up in Chicago back in the 50's to the early70's when I joined the corps, got real tired of the unbearable humidity in the summer and the knee deep snow and sub zero temps in winter, 4 eyars in the corps in various parts of the world then 20 years in So Cal, summer temps above 100 for weeks at a time, moved up here to the Pacific Northwest in 97, best place I've lived in my life, summer temps are usually high 70's, we do get a couple of weeks in Aug in the 90's, yea it does rain here but our average rain fall amount is way less than most of the mid west, just that it spits and drizzles for weeks at a tome occasionally, in the 23 years we've been here I have only had to shovel snow 4 times, better than 4 times a day when i was a kid in Chicago! plus the Mountains and forets here are a huge plus and the ocean in 60 miles away, win, win, win!