Need your advice on which city to live in Washington State

[dawnov]

Hi Everyone, especially Washingon "R-people",

My wife and I will be moving to Washington State in December due to a job promotion. We are looking for a great place to live other than Seattle. We have young children and want a "family community", but also a gay friendly area. Last weekend, my wife and I flew up to look around at a few cities like Gig Harbor, Kirkland, Redmond and Maple Valley. We like Gig Harbor alot but need your advice on which city would be good for us. We don't have to live in a specific area for the job. Laurie will be covering four states, mainly in Washington, Oregon, Idaho and Alaska so she will be traveling time to time.
Hope to hear your advice soon.
Thanks
Dawn & Laurie

[2moms2kids]

Hi there. That's great that you are moving to Washington. My partner and I and our 2 girls (ages 5 1/2 and 29 months) live in Maple Valley. We love it here. We have lived here for about 8 years. It's a beautiful, extremely family oriented community. We live near a huge park with a lake. There is music in the park and many, many kids events throughout the year. Especially during the summer. It's just rural enough to have a bit of a small community feeling but close enough to Seattle to have some diversity.The location could not be better if you like the outdoor's. There are endless hiking and camping opportunities all around us. We have never encountered a problem with anyone and our lifestyle.In fact, the higher the prices of houses go in Seattle, the more people that move out here. We bought a new house 1 year ago and sold our old home to a gay couple from Seattle :) We were very pleased about that. They also love it here. Our 5 1/2 year old will be starting kindergarten on Friday. We anticipate no problems. The Tahoma School District is highly ranked in Washington State. We feel fortunate to be a part of it. We feel very peaceful here and know this is where we are suppose to be. Good luck in your search for a new home. If you have more questions, please send us a private email. Melinda

[2mamasfor5]

This may be a bit late. We live in Federal Way with our 5 kids (3 bio and 2 foster) and I teach in Tacoma. Tacoma has more LGBT families/community then FWay, but its growing. There's a lot of great work being done to welcome families in the FWPS schools- I was a part of it and can fill you in. Drop us a line.