So my fiancé and our two girls ( 9 and 7 ) are looking to move from lame IL. We currently live on the boarder of IL and WI, it pretty much SUCKS here. The summers are hot and humid as hell and the winter is brutal .

A little about us, she's a nurse, so she can work anything. I work for a technology sales company as a Microsoft Licensing Specialist and in reality my job can be done from anywhere. We're both pretty lucky in the fact we have jobs that make good money and are flexible. I am pretty open to where we live, I moved to Portland Or for 4.5 years and with the exception of the rain it was nice. Her on the other hand would prefer to be somewhere warmer ( CA for example )


I'd love to be close to the county so we can do outdoor things more often. The closest legal place to wheel in IL is 1.5 hours away ( Cliffs ) and there's the Badlands in IN and that's 3 hours away.


Just looking for some ideas as to WHY you love where you live, so we can seriously start to narrow down this search. I think it's safe to say, we'd both prefer to be WEST rather then EAST. She's lived in FL And not very fond of it, and she's also lived in CA and LOVED it.


So folks, what say you?

 

North or South Carolina, better economy than New York State (Buffalo). Still get a change of the seasons too. Summer is longer , about 4 months. Personally, we (wife & I) have to live near water. We can Walk to Lake Erie from our house. I love the smell of salt water, grew up vacationing in Long Island.

We moved to Virginia a couple years ago (just before the economic collapse) and got caught up in it. Wouldn't ever go back, Carolina's, deffinatly Carolina's for us. Always looking for work down there.

 

I LOVE OBX ( outer banks ) and would move there in a heart beat! I've never been to SC, but I hear it's very nice and laid back.

 

i live in washington and love it. i have always said if i were to move it would be southern oregon north cali. i feel like that would be the best of both worlds

 

WA isn't bad, but the cost of living sucks. However for my job it would be perfect as I pretty much work for Microsoft. When I lived in Portland I dated a girl in Tacoma for a year, so I pretty much spent every weekend up your way.

S. Oregon is nice and you're right it's sorta best of both worlds as its not Cali but it's warmish.

 

I've lived in southern NH my whole life. It's not bad here, but i love it a few hours north up in the white mountains. I had a group of buddies that moved to summit county colorado a few years ago and they love it there, although it's winter like 9 months a year. I hear Boulder, Colorado is a great place (but I've never been). Western Montana, Washington, Oregon, nor. Cal, anywhere in the mountains is really my ideal place to live.

 

I have lived on the Outer Banks for 25 years, Hatteras Island. It is nice but the Federal Park Service is trying to minimize off-roading here. One of our highways (State Route 12) is the beach for 12 miles.

 

My grandparents had a house in Kitty Hawk and every few years we'll rent one of the HUGE houses ocean front in Corova ( 4WD only area ) I really love the OBX, I could see myself living there for a long time!

 

I spent three months in Canmore, Alberta about 15 years ago. I've always wanted to go back! Dunno if they need any MS salesmen, but with all the outdoor sports I'm sure your wife-to-be (congratulations!) would find nursing a busy job.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Canmore,_Alberta

http://www.albertaeh.ca/alberta-acti...f-roading.html

 

Cannot... Resist...

 

I say somewhere near Seattle/Tacoma Washington. Beautiful country. You are near the big mountains and also close to urban areas if you need work, school, housing etc. Never gets to hot or to cold.

 

I'm a pure Southerner so have a bit of a bias. I was born in Atlanta and have lived here all my life (except for time in Army). Although we are in a very nice neighborhood (for 34 years), we're looking at moving to Waynesville, NC, near Asheville. We've had a weekend place in the North Georgia mountains for 17 years and are selling it to consolidate to one house (in NC).

North Georgia, eastern Tennessee, and western NC are great outdoor places. We are moving nearer to Asheville for access to shopping, healthcare, cultural activities, etc. We're bailing out of Atlanta due to taxes, crime, and politics.

I love Washington and Oregon, but could not live in the political environment. That 's an individual issue and probably of more concern to older folks. However, my experience is that the less urban areas of those states as well as Calif have lots of great people living there.

No offense intended if I stepped on any toes.

 

The southwest is IMHO the place to be, moved from Kansas 7 yrs ago & am in love with Arizona.


Chose to be half way between Phoenix & Flagstaff in the Verde Valley A minimum of 2 hrs from desert to sea of Cortez to ski country or a few more hrs to Utah or western Colorado, 6 to 8 hrs from Calif ( if you must ) also about the same to Vegas.


Where I am it sometimes gets 100/105 but evening's from 40s to 50 in the summertime & no snow to speak of winters highs around 55/60 to lo's of 30/40 at night. haven't scraped ice or shoveled snow in 7 yrs,, that means a hell of a lot to me.


Forgot to add that I'm smack dab in the middle of four--count'em 4 national forest --Tonto, Coconino, Prescott & Kaiab. Hows that for 4whelling adventure?


Damn near perfect I'd say.

 

We keep taking about North Carolina. Western part. Still have 4 seasons which I have to have. Right now I'm in Kansas and about the only good things about it are big deer if you can find a good place to hunt and no emissions tests on vehicles.

 

Yup. I'm in Prescott.