My husband and I are from Western Washington and started traveling with our young family to Baker City in the early 2000's to dabble in some small time gold mining. We quickly fell in love with the Mayberry feel of town. It's the little things, less traffic, having people stop when you approach a crosswalk, being able to visit with local shop owners. Our favorite thing though is the weather, we love the brightness of the area as we come from a much grayer and wet region. We hope to retire here in the near future!