I've visited Spokane for weekends several times in the past decade, usually following the Stanford women's basketball team to games with WSU or regional tournaments. So I haven't any experience in living there, but for a tourist, Spokane's not large but it is very pleasant with a walkable downtown core centered on Riverfront Park and of recent years, several very decent restaurants. The airport is small but efficient with lots of flights to SEA and PDX and a few direct flights to SFO. Good highway connections in all directions.
WSU is an intellectual asset, a major campus, but it is located a 90-minute freeway drive away in the smaller town of Pullman, which don't get much respect but isn't so bad either.
Edit: Under the heading of intellectual asset, I completely forgot Gonzaga U, which puts some brain-power right in Spokane.
Pullman is out in the middle of a bunch of hills with wheat fields. Didn't strike me as having much besides that, whereas lots of other places mentioned have some pretty good outdoor activities.
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I've visited Spokane for weekends several times in the past decade, usually following the Stanford women's basketball team to games with WSU or regional tournaments. So I haven't any experience in living there, but for a tourist, Spokane's not large but it is very pleasant with a walkable downtown core centered on Riverfront Park and of recent years, several very decent restaurants. The airport is small but efficient with lots of flights to SEA and PDX and a few direct flights to SFO. Good highway connections in all directions.
WSU is an intellectual asset, a major campus, but it is located a 90-minute freeway drive away in the smaller town of Pullman, which don't get much respect but isn't so bad either.
Edit: Under the heading of intellectual asset, I completely forgot Gonzaga U, which puts some brain-power right in Spokane.
Pullman is out in the middle of a bunch of hills with wheat fields. Didn't strike me as having much besides that, whereas lots of other places mentioned have some pretty good outdoor activities.