Painted

North Spokane is more of an area than an actual town. A lot of it is just farms and ranches, slowly encroached by housing developments and shopping centers. It really isn't that far from Spokane, and it doesn't get a lot of traffic problems that plauge the western part of the state.

Spokane itself is a very old looking town, there aren't a lot of new buildings/stuff, and it is pretty conservative. It's also a lot poorer than Seattle/Portland. Not...ghetto poor, but almost in a white trash kind of way. Oh yeah, it's 98% white.

That being said, you can look in the local newspaper for cool old apartments downtown, and not expensive at all, probably could find a 1br1bath for $500-700, while in a newer apartment complex on the skirts of town it'll run $400-600.

There's the everyday city stuff (malls, theaters, downtown, bars, etc..) but a lot of it lacks the newness and trendiness of Seattle/Portland.

It has tons of mountains, forests, rivers, lakes, & skiing. I grew up nearby in North Idaho/NW Montana. Beatiful mountains. Gorgeous trees, a mix of pines, cedars, firs, and deciduous. Millions of acres of hunting property. Definately very rural and sparsley populated, something that you don't really get in the Cascades.

Temperatures are more extreme than by the Sound, with warmer summers (90's often) and colder winters (negative temperatures, snow) however it usually suffers from the same endless rain in spring/fall.

Be forewarned: Due its northerly location it has really short days in December and really long ones in June, the same goes for West WA. We're talking 6 hour days in Dec., 16 in June. Well.. thats exaggurating a bit, but it feels like that!

It depends on what you're looking for. Western Washington is more urban, has a lot of high-paying jobs, is more expensive, and is far more crowded. Spokane is less expensive, also urban (but not world-class urban), mildly conservative, and definatley less crowded. Both are pretty cool places. Visit.