Originally Posted by zed wolf

I'd have to vote you to come to Bellingham. I lived there most of my life and still work there but now I live in Burlington. Although Burlington does have a store too. Its alot smaller city/town then Bellingham is though. I realy do like both but Bellingham definatly has more...culture then Burlington. Lots of outdoor activities, fishing skiing snowboarding hiking bird watching camping boating on lakes rivers and the ocean surfing...Oh, and one of the best clay oval sprint car tracks on the west coast, Skagit Speedway (shameless plug, I race there).
And did I mention thats just your first day here? when you wake up the next morning there is all the wonderful coffee that Washington is so well known for.
I cant be much help on where to rent or buy a car. If you could get yourself an apartment in the fairhaven area You would be well pleased though.
As for how to get here...plane would be good, but that would likley only get you to seattle. Bellingham dose have an airport but I dont know how cost efective it would be to get a flight to there. If you can get someone to pick you up from the airport though its only a little over an hour to bellingham depending on traffic.
Feel free to look me up when you get out this way and I can help show you around a bit. Also with enough warning time I might be able to help out with the airport pick up if you need it.