What is it about Bellingham that makes people love it so much? I met a guy from there and he could not shut up about the place. Reading your post and thinking on my own ideas for the ideal locale make me think once again that the car-centric model of US towns and cities could be better. I'd love to live really close to a walkable city where I could still get that "in nature" effect. But back to reality: life is about compromises and I'm cool with that. I'd love to be in a place where I have a ladder to a castle in the sky, but it looks like a lot of hard work and figuring out what's what are in order before then. Being outside of that though, does make me wax romantic about my ideal living situations, unrealistic though they may be. Awesome reply by the way.