11 April 2006

Top Reasons to Live in Yakima, WA

I have complained about Yakima plenty, but really it is not a bad place to live. I just wish I was closer to my family and friends in SD. But in an attempt to one up one particular friend, I will post my top reasons to live in Yakima, WA.

#6: Mexican Restaurants As Far As The Eye Can See.

In Yakima, the population is about one third hispanic. This has led to an influx of Mexican food restaurants. Anyone who loves/enjoys mexican food, you can eat at a different restaurant everyday for over a month! Yellowpages.com yields 39 results! And remember this is for a city of no more than 70,000 people.

#5: Cheap Apples

This is Washington folks, apple orchards are everywhere around Yakima. I have even heard it called "Fruitbowl of the Nation" During the summer and fall, you can go straight to the orchards to purchase your apples! Cutout those middlemen!

#4: Seattle Entertainment "Leftovers"

The Seattle Metro is less than a 3 hour drive away. This not only allows people in Yakima easy access to concerts and games in Seattle but easy access for entertainers to reach Yakima. Since being here, I have seen Lee Ann Womack, Sugarland, Toby Keith, Clumsy Lovers, and George Carlin.

#3: Weather

The weather here is almost always beautiful and (in my opinion) warm.

The summers are dry and hot and the winters are cool with light snowfall. There is an average of 290 days of sunshine each year with a normal total of 7.98 inches of precipitation. The average length of the growing season is 195 days.

Average Temperatures
Month High Low
January 36.7 19.7
April 63.5 34.7
July 87.8 53.0
October 64.15 35.1

#2: Defensible Position

Yakima is situated in a valley between to large ridges. The only access points are provided by the entrance of the Naches (I say Nachos) River and the Yakima River and the exit of the Yakima River. They can be seen below.
This makes Yakima easy to defend from a land invasion of any kind. Btw, I have spent to many hours playing strategy games ;)

#1: An espresso stand on every corner!

Coffee drinkers would love this city. It is difficult to go two blocks in any direction without finding a coffee shop or an espresso stand. I wish I was exaggerating but sadly I am not (or at least not that bad). A search for 'espresso' on yellowpages.com yields 60 results! And I wouldn't be surprised if it was missing some of them.

As you can now see, Yakima is not that bad of a place to live. My only problem with it is the number 1300... the number of miles to Pierre, SD and my parents. I could deal with 600 just fine, but 1300 makes visiting home difficult and expensive for me.

3 comments:

Arnold said...

Unfortunately for the citizens of Yakima my recon force has already scouted out the Nachos River weakness point and teams of commandos have now completely infiltrated the metropolitan area's most critical installations.

Andy said...

Well, I guess that explains why he's bailing and heading back to the home turf in South Dakota.

I certainly don't blame him. According to The Tax Foundation, Washington state has the 13th highest tax burden in the nation, even topping Kansas which has the 18th highest. Compare this to to South Dakota, with the 45th highest.

Benjamin Cutler said...

Andy: But they have coffee shops. Coffee!