I’ve been to all 3 and wound definitely pick Maryland also (except for maybe Austin which I realized I complained about a bit but is still a solid place to live). You do get a great variety of environments (mountains, coasts, seasons) and indeed as you note have LOTS of “weekend trip” type options. before moving to Austin we were seriously considering the Raleigh-Durham-Chapel Hill area (think they call it the triangle) for those reasons. It still felt a little too “southern” (I’m generally more left than right leaning and am basically an atheist… and the professional setting at least in my industry felt very southern frat boy in a way just grown up). I do NOT like LA. I mean sure if you can afford to live in one of the nice coastal communities and don’t need to leave a lot it can be fine. I have a friend in Manhattan Beach I’m sure it’s great lol. But in general LA was a hard pass. there’s obviously some vanity to La Jolla as it costs both arms and legs to live there … but it’s on a different level to me. It’s rich people and tourists really just trying to chill and enjoy life seemingly. That’s what I desire lol. we typically spend a couple weeks in the Colorado mountains every summer - am here right now. It’s a remote working vacation for me which I can fortunately do. Lets me take a “real” vacation later in the summer (Costa Rica this year)…. But increasingly I’m convinced I don’t want to do Colorado anymore and wound rather just Airbnb in northern San Diego and just let the kids go to the beach everyday. They haven’t turned into HUGE hikers anyway… probably because we tried to make them do so much if it in and around Austin and while in Colorado. “Ugh, another hike!” And I’m old now. So it’s not my jam either! also another side-bar… there are vein people everywhere. The vein’ness in Colorado is subtle at first… but I’ve come to hate as much as any vein people anywhere. The locals really think their **** don’t stink kinda thing.
True, heroin addiction is a problem everywhere and is basically a gateway into the harder opioids like oxy and fentanyl.
Summers may surprise you, including stickiness and swamp butt, but they are much shorter at least. Hope you have a great new chapter. Am going to see my parents in TX soon, near Austin, and looking like I will not escape the 100's. Oh well.
every day I wake up and want to move from Houston.....I don't know where. So I go back to bed and have the same thoughts the next day. Houston is freaking ugly. Concrete jungle with cookie cutter "suburbs" attached to any highway or road you can find. @JayZ750 Good posts about other options...I need to look into them. I have always thought Colorado would be nice but I might be romanticizing it. wants: less humid weather (but don't want to trade it for months of snow), more scenery (mountains/parks/hiking), don't really care for the beach.. don't want a small town and don't want LA/NY either.. seems like a good time to move too..i have no kids; remote jobs.
Colorado is solid. Fort Collins is really cool. Was just noting that people in Colorado - especially natives - really do have a tendency to think they’re special. But it’s in a passive aggressive kind of way. They don’t know it. But they like to eat organic granola in their Subarus while driving to some state forest where they’ll solo camp for a week before climbing a 14er kinda of thing - sure it’s a stereotype and if they’d your thing anyway… go for it, lol. i REALLY liked Bend, Oregon when I visited last summer. It’s like Ft Collins but in Oregon (lol) - but while you’re right there in the high desert it’s just in the edge so just west and you’re in redwoods/cascades type environment, then beach… and you’re still relatively close to Portland. The Oregon front range there is some of the prettiest parts of the country I’ve ever seen. It’s just endless miles of insanely beautiful forests, lush green vegetation, etc. like around the Crater Lake area. Colorado is … surprisingly brown. Maybe it’s cause I have decades of trips here now, but I want something lusher and prefer the beach/mountain combo. I love love love the PNW … but suspect the 7 ish months of gloom wound get to me, badly. I like sun. It makes me happy. I’ve looked into places in Oregon, Washington, Idaho (Boise), Nevada (Reno) in the west as potential retirement ideas… and always ultimately just come back to California. ultimately it’s the Mediterranean climate I need.
It would seem that I'm not far behind either but I'll be heading towards Dallas. To be honest, it's a good professional move but if I had my druthers, I think I'd probably be moving to the northwest. Even the northeast, I don't mind cold and rain. I'm kinda tired of sweating 9 months straight and being around a bunch of racists. If I moved and my parents moved... I'm not sure I'd have another reason to ever come back.
All I can tell you from my experience is that Grapevine is nice and so is Ft Worth. Good luck to both of yall.
I have been to La Jolla many times, including very recently. It's nice. But I was surprised, on two recent visits to SoCal how COLD it was, compared to South Florida. To each his own, but I love the Florida climate (although it is hot and humid in the summer, but I like it that way, as long as I have pools, AC and my cold plunge pool).
Yes, yes you did. Which is why I moved there back in 1998. Well, one good thing around DFW is that most of the burbs' property taxes are nowhere near as horrific as a lot of the Houston burbs/exurbs. You replace hurricane/flooding threats with hail/tornado threats. Same lunatic drivers. Same stupid heat index. I think we're about to hit several days of 100-degree heat here in the next week and it ain't even July. *sigh*
I had to go there a lot this year and it was always 10 degrees cooler, at least. I'm sure summers are still brutal but at least there's some cold.
