I gotta admit......Scandinavia is an area I’d love to spend a LOT of time exploring. And not just in the summer. I was born and raised in Houston, and other than my almost five years in Calgary, I’ve spent my whole life (50+ years) within 150 miles of Houston. Dealing with snow, ice, and 8 months of winter is a pain in the ass.....and I miss it every damn day. Granted, I had the luxury of frequent vacations to sunnier climes, but summers up north are the greatest invention since sliced bread. And the beauty of the land....and the wildlife that calls it home......just stunning.
Ice sucks, no way around it. Cold and snow can be dealt with. All depends on your perspective. Why do people live in Phoenix? Cause it’s 80 for 9 months but 110 for 3 months lmao
The last couple of years Minnesota has been running a "Bold North" campaign to play up how cold it is and that's a good things. The Vikings have been using it to with specific ties to the GOT and the Vikings TV Series.
Eh... Alpena is nice on the east side, and many spots on the west side, overlooking Lake Michigan, are pretty nice. Also a fan of college towns Ann Arbor and Holland. But I haven't been there in the last few years where they like, you know, try to behead governors and stuff.
Ann Arbor is nice, there are certainly pockets of areas that are nice..... there is just overall a really bad economic situation and a lot of poverty.
I enjoy gulf coast christmases. Usually get to wear shorts with a random cold one mixed in every decade.
one of my setters is from Alpena, the other one from Crystal Falls. Love the U.P., spent the month of October there this year, until it got too insanely cold
A lot of my people (Finns) are in the UP, which makes sense because Finland is ****ing serious about being cold. It's funny how the rest of Michigan thinks it's an insult. I used to tease a contractor from Michigan and tell her she was a 'youper' and she would get all salty about it. I read a book that was set in the UP and everyone there was tough as nails. I enjoyed it.
finally got my wife to go with me after 25 years, she's fallen in love with it too. This fall we enjoyed the biking around Marquette and up in Calumet. I joke I'd retire there for six months and Moab for the other six. she's kinda coming around to that idea this morning's pic, we dodged a bullet. Cobleskill will have gotten 36" when it's all over
I worked in North Dakota for a couple of years. When I was in Bismarck, we would flatten our positions by 8:00 and do a stand-down meeting for our manager at 8:30; in January and February he would drive out to Minnesota right after that, every day, to go ice fishing. My complexes had rows of garages when I lived in both Bismarck and Fargo, had to shovel every night after work, then wheel barrow it out to the sidewalk and street curb, so I wasn't just creating moguls in between mine and the other garage units, as they would partially melt during the day and then refreeze overnight. Fargo was dirt cheap, but nice due to being the biggest city and mostly Minnesotans, but Bismarck had interstates that took you right to Tioga, Watford, Minot, Williston and the rest of the Bakken; so it was weirdly expensive. Both places had relatively new commercial and residential development and were not very crowded, so they seemed a little cleaner than either the South or Gulf Coast, and were a lot less "rundown" looking than the Rust Belt or south suburban Pittsburgh / West-Southwest PA (although downtown Pittsburg is impressive for the city's size). I worked near the state capital in Bismarck, and the driver's license and registration were all in one place. When I asked my manager for the day off to handle it, he said "you'll be back before lunch" and I was visibly euphoric after coming back, just comparing it to getting re-licensed after moving back to Texas. The summers were nice, to the point that you really didn't use air conditioning, but also a little weird when you would go to sleep right after work, then wake up again at like 8:00 pm and it was still bright out. Insanely conservative, but due to the low population and social homogeneity, cops really didin't do anything. The long driving distances and lack of road lighting or fuel stops meant everyone was going at least 80, and cops just didn't pull anyone over, ever.
More than diversity, Calgary is two hours from Banff. Being able to go into the mountains on demand (along with having views of the Rockies from your house) is just unbeatable. And the Canadian Rockies are amazing (very similar to the Swiss Alps). Also the bigger difference between Calgary and North Dakota is the weather itself. Calgary is MUCH warmer than anywhere in North Dakota. Don't let the latitude fool you. North Dakota is a whole different level of cold. And not only is it cold but North Dakota's flat terrain and complete lack of trees creates crazy winds. -50 degree (Fahrenheit) wind chill isn't abnormal in January. And the flatness means that winds will actually pick up snow off the ground and create ground blizzards. You'll be sitting in your house and you can watch the street and the houses across the street disappear because the wind has picked up the snow off the ground. Needless to say, driving there can be outright terrifying at times. You can be driving on a perfectly sunny day and next thing you know the wind has erased all visibility. For the record, living in North Dakota isn't so bad but you really need to know what you're getting into. Fargo itself is actually quite nice and well educated. And if you're worried about the politics, you can always live across the border in Minnesota. But the weather there is truly something else. And if you want even worse weather, drive three hours north to Winnipeg. Take Fargo's temperature and subtract ten degrees and you get Winnipeg. And Winnipeg has the same horrible wind chill/ground blizzards.
No shorts this year. Looks like 30's Christmas morning in Houston and highs in the 50's...pretty much the weather we're having today.
