Tell us about your state/place you live.

Superfly said:

No, but thanks for the info! Sounds absolutely perfect :lol: . We are hoping to go out west this summer, and hopefully we can visit there.

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If you do let me know. I'm a Seattle native. I know a lot of cool places.

Top Cat said:

If you do let me know. I'm a Seattle native. I know a lot of cool places.

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Will do. Thanks!

Top Cat said:

Have you been to the San Juan Islands?

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Rainfall and temperatures by month in the San Juan Islands ( Lopez Island, San Juan Island, Orcas Island, Shaw )

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Not all that far from where I reside. I could be wrong as it has been years I've seen this from the air but it appears this photo is facing west with Vancouver Island in the background, which would put the ferry just off Friday Harbor.

I live in what was once Canada's "Haight Ashbury" called Kitsilano in Vancouver a five minute walk from the beach. I no longer drive here, it's easier and cheaper to use public transit. We are the fastest growing city in North America where real estate is quote in $ per square inch. A basic, no frills fixer-upper detached two bedroom will set you back between $1.5 and $2.5 million.

There are lot of aging hippies in this neighborhood and a lot of artists. What used to be a commercial district with shops owned by people in the neighborhood selling to people in the neighborhood; now we have Rodeo Drive brand name outlet stores owned by large multinational corporations selling to people who come from even more wealthy neighborhoods to buy an "original" something belt for $450 or whatever. Which makes for interesting traffic patterns with drivers hurrying to find a parking spot.

The commercial district comes complete with Lululemon headquarters, some boarding companies, five medical marijuana dispensaries, one pub, 50+ ethnic restaurants and the world's largest rip off called "Whole Foods" where you can buy organic bread for up to $10 a loaf, but dont't read the dietary label as one slice having 680 grams of sodium is a deal killer for people with high blood pressure.

No part of Vancouver is car friendly. They held a vote in the late 1960's which banned any and all controlled access, elevated or "freeway style" roads until the year 8080 so all cars, cabs, trucks, buses motor cycles all use surface streets; the lights are time to make you stop about every other block.

We have the lowest crime rate in Canada which is low to begin with, $85 million in bike lanes, an underground "sky train" and the cleanest air of any major metropolitan area, probably as much due to ocean currents and winds as anything else.

We also lay claim to the longest running all-vynyl record store, Zulu Records which was opened sometime before anyone can remember since most of the permanent inhabitants of the area have suffered varying degrees of brain damage

And or yeah, I have never nor have I ever heard of anyone ever being bitten by a mosquito in Kitsilano.

Northern California, up in the forest. Used to live in the central coast but had to move. Prices are atrocious there. Better here. But, if I can't have ocean and the sea...ponderosa pines will suffice. Oh, and LOTS of rain! It's GREENER here.

Superfly said:

My husband says that about Colorado Springs. He misses it and wishes he could go back, but he has breathing problems, and I guess the altitude would just be too much for him.

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I've lived 5,000 feet and up almost my entire life. My in-laws have a hard time doing anything that requires physical exertion when they visit.

This is less than 20 miles from where I live.

I grew up in a small town in Southern California, then moved to Oregon as a teen. I live in the Willamette Valley we have 3 acres. Our daughter and her fiance just took over the 25 acres where hubby grew up and are growing organic vegetables. It's a very nice area, but rains about 9 months of the year, and that's a real downer. If you don't have a greenhouse, the growing season is rarely long enough for tomatoes. The coast is about two hours away, and it is lovely. The mountains are about an hour away with great hiking, equestrian trails and fishing.

Winchester said:

I've lived 5,000 feet and up almost my entire life. My in-laws have a hard time doing anything that requires physical exertion when they visit.

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Exactly. He wants to take me to all the places he remembers from Colorado this spring, but I worry that he's going to struggle when we get there. He had lung cancer last year, and had to have part of his lung removed. Coupled with COPD anyway, he has a hard time breathing from time to time.

I am always skeptical of those on the internet that would like personal information about members of any website.
Verification of what the NSA already knows?
...or just additional background information.

I grew up in and around Hot Springs, Arkansas. Here it is:



It's a beautiful area with lots of public land. Great place to retire, but not the best place to earn a living in. So when I was in my early 20s, I moved up to Kansas City, MO. We own a little Cape Cod built in 1941 on the Kansas side of the metro today, about 2 miles or so from the Missouri state line. It takes me no more than 10 minutes from the time I leave my door until I get to my workplace downtown. Kansas City is a nice place to live with a relatively low cost of living for a major city, a good and diverse economy, and it's actually a very pretty city with rolling hills, tons of trees, more boulevards than Paris and more fountains than any city other than Rome. It's quite the culinary and hipster mecca these days too.

Here is the Plaza:



Downtown:



We have well over 100 miles of single track just in the city limits itself:



Several lakes in the area, the Ozarks are less than 3 hours South, Colorado is just an 8 hour drive to the West, and Minnesota is just a few hours North. We have a thriving cultural scene, traffic isn't bad, and our overall quality of life is very good. The downsides are cold and sometimes bitterly cold winters, hot and humid summers, and the closest Mountains would be 4 hours South in Arkansas.

ttwtt78640 said:

It does get small rather quickly but with a 20% remote duty pay hike, PX and commissary privileges it has its advantages. Plenty of fun to ride the backroads on a motorcycle. I was able to rent housing really cheap, and make some cash on the side, in exchange for fixing up some really trashed section 8 housing units for a real estate firm. That part of the world has the most constant temperatures on the planet at 87 plus or minus about 2 degrees. Other than the rainy season it is always beach and BBQ weather (too hot to cook indoors). I never did acclimate enough to even think about sleeping without A/C but did like the people and the food.

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Truth be told, I loved the people - Hafa Adai - and the local food. I'm in Puerto Rico right now, and the weather, terrain, soil content, vegetation and much more reminds me of Guam. The people and food are completely different, of course, but if you went to sleep with no one around in Guam and woke up in Puerto Rico with no one around, you'd not know the difference.

Beaudreaux said:

Truth be told, I loved the people - Hafa Adai - and the local food. I'm in Puerto Rico right now, and the weather, terrain, soil content, vegetation and much more reminds me of Guam. The people and food are completely different, of course, but if you went to sleep with no one around in Guam and woke up in Puerto Rico with no one around, you'd not know the difference.

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Where in P.R. ?

I loved the western side of the island. (quiet...........unlike Ceiba to San Juan)

RetiredUSN said:

Where in P.R. ?

I loved the western side of the island. (quiet...........unlike Ceiba to San Juan)

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The west end is where I'm working and living. I'm headquartered out of Agaudilla at the old Ramey AFB, but I'm responsible for all of the west end of the island from Camuy in the north then due south to Guanica and Agaudilla, Mayaguez and Cabo Rojo in the west.

Beaudreaux said:

The west end is where I'm working and living. I'm headquartered out of Agaudilla at the old Ramey AFB, but I'm responsible for all of the west end of the island from Camuy in the north then due south to Guanica and Agaudilla, Mayaguez and Cabo Rojo in the west.

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I used to play a lot of golf at the Ramey/Punta Borinquen golf course. My friends living on the island keep telling me that I need to come down to stay and play a few days the new Royal Isabella course

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I live in the north of Ontario.
Not much population - dropping all the time.
The area is Canadian shield - thousands of lakes and streams.
My town is mostly French speaking but everyone speaks English these days as well.
I just pulled this photo from online but it is typical of the region. We get lots of snow and it's a cold winter - but I love that.
When we retire we are going to spend sometime travelling in the States.
I want to see a desert. I want to see all of Texas.
Also Chicago and Nashville.

can2man said:

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I live in the north of Ontario.
Not much population - dropping all the time.
The area is Canadian shield - thousands of lakes and streams.
My town is mostly French speaking but everyone speaks English these days as well.
I just pulled this photo from online but it is typical of the region. We get lots of snow and it's a cold winter - but I love that.
When we retire we are going to spend sometime travelling in the States.
I want to see a desert. I want to see all of Texas.
Also Chicago and Nashville.

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I live in the California suburbs. There's not really much going on here, and the big cities aren't very close by.

RetiredUSN said:

I used to play a lot of golf at the Ramey/Punta Borinquen golf course. My friends living on the island keep telling me that I need to come down to stay and play a few days the new Royal Isabella course

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I'll be here for a few months. If you get over here, let me know and I'll buy you a beer.

I was born and raised in Franklin County Ohio. I grew up in a suburb of Columbus. Left for a while spent some time in Texas and other places but came back, met my future husband over 46 years ago, when we started a family we moved back to my hometown because their school district was one of the top ten in the country. Real estate in that town was not cheap. We ended up with a cap cod, 4 bedrooms, one bath, and needed a lot of work. We turned that place into an adorable home in 12 years and sold it well over twice as much as we paid for it. House wasn't on the market more than a week and we had offers. We moved to a new sub-division on the outskirts of town and have been here 28 years. This house has been appraised triple the amount we paid for it. And once again it is getting time to sell. Too much house for two people. It's time to downsize but where? Don't know but because we are such a close family, I doubt very far.

I have no regrets spending our time in the same place for so long because it gave us the opportunity to care for our parents in their last days. We sure had opportunities through the years to relocate but our family is so close. Our children/grandchildren haven't strayed far either as we can be to their homes within a couple of hours. The priorities we try to keep is G-d first family second.

Not sure where we will end up this next coming move. But we sure are getting all kinds of very nice offers to sell our place. But my guess is we will not venture far from "family".

Superfly said:

I live in a small town about an hour south of Savannah, Georgia. My husband's first duty station was HHAF, so he wanted to retire here. Personally, I miss New York. I lived upstate, north of Syracuse. It's so hot here where I live, and so humid. It's also just a crappy town, all around. The only thing it has going for it is the beach. The rest of the town is just garbage. The crime is through the roof, there are no jobs except seasonal jobs, and our local water authority has got this place locked down so tight that everyone is squealing. We all average anywhere from $70 to $100 a month for water, and any new business that wants to come in has to pay an astronomical tie-in fee. We had a Hooter's bow out last month because our water authority wanted to charge them a $384,000 tie-in fee. So I had a well dug, and planned to tie in to my well for water, but since I live in a subdivision, it's not allowed. The guy who lives down the street can, but I cannot. Has nothing to do with the HOA or anything, either. Water authority rules.

I was born in Alabama, and lived in Huntsville for many years. I have not lived there in a very long time, though. As bad as the politics are in Georgia, they are worse in Alabama. But at least the college football is good.

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When we were deciding to come back the golden isles, we ruled out the islands and B***k and D***n. We went inland. Maybe the roads aren't paved, and a real grocery store is 25 miles away. But in ten years I have heard 3 police sirens. And two of them were for lumber trucks that went off the road across from my house. WTF, I live in the middle of 5 mile straightaway. The only gunfire is from hunters or us. In these ten years I have had two people come to my house uninvited. A local church lady inviting us to join the congregation and a guy needing help who got stuck out in the WMA behind the house. The county is poor and desperately needs industry to help the tax base and employment. There are drugs, but it seems to be at the far side of the county which has a much higher population density. But there are artists, and businessmen, and families that have been here for generations. It is full of good people, who even if they have little, will offer some of it to others who have less. I love this place. I love our home. It was destined to be our home. And I feel very, very lucky to be able to say that.
Superfly, you are living in an armpit of Georgia. Move just a bit off of the coast. It will get better. The commute will be worth it.

Soopairik said:

I live in the California suburbs. There's not really much going on here, and the big cities aren't very close by.

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I lived in sonoma county for 20 years. I loved having the coast a short drive away west and the mountains a short drive to the east. There were some wonderful lakes and rivers and we spent a couple of weeks camped in the woods several times a year.
But it just got to be too fast, too much, too, well, everything. And the down time in the woods couldn't compensate. We needed to slow down and left.

I was born in upstate NY, just west of Albany.

35 years ago move to downstate NY, right on the Hudson north of NYC.

I'm retired, and could afford to live just about anywhere. But I like it here. So we're not going anywhere. I like the 4 seasons, even though the 15 below we recently had definable sucked. I like being able to go 1 hour south and be in NYC, or go 1 1/2 hour north and be in the mountains and lakes. Many years we go to NYC for 4-5 days for a vacation, and then in the following weeks go camping in the mountains for a 2 week vacation without seeing anyone for days. Quite the contrast. Can't beat it. And I like the diversity of the different foods here.

I like it.

trblmkr said:

When we were deciding to come back the golden isles, we ruled out the islands and B***k and D***n. We went inland. Maybe the roads aren't paved, and a real grocery store is 25 miles away. But in ten years I have heard 3 police sirens. And two of them were for lumber trucks that went off the road across from my house. WTF, I live in the middle of 5 mile straightaway. The only gunfire is from hunters or us. In these ten years I have had two people come to my house uninvited. A local church lady inviting us to join the congregation and a guy needing help who got stuck out in the WMA behind the house. The county is poor and desperately needs industry to help the tax base and employment. There are drugs, but it seems to be at the far side of the county which has a much higher population density. But there are artists, and businessmen, and families that have been here for generations. It is full of good people, who even if they have little, will offer some of it to others who have less. I love this place. I love our home. It was destined to be our home. And I feel very, very lucky to be able to say that.
Superfly, you are living in an armpit of Georgia. Move just a bit off of the coast. It will get better. The commute will be worth it.

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Actually, that's the plan. We are readying our house to go on the market in April, and we are planning on taking the equity and paying cash for a smaller place, or maybe a fixer-upper, in B******* county. That's not far from where I live anyway, and the commute is not terrible.

Superfly said:

Actually, that's the plan. We are readying our house to go on the market in April, and we are planning on taking the equity and paying cash for a smaller place, or maybe a fixer-upper, in B******* county. That's not far from where I live anyway, and the commute is not terrible.

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I'll see you at the pig.

trblmkr said:

I'll see you at the pig.

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:lol: If it's the place I'm thinking, I've been there once. BBQ place out in the middle of nowhere, looks like a storage shed on the outside, and all cedar planking on the inside (and two stories?)