My husband and I are in the beginning stages (very beginning) of planning a long-distance move. We decided after this winter, between the absurd amounts of snow and the polar vortices (vortexes?), we wanted to go somewhere it snows a whole lot less. As the fates will have it, a job opportunity presented itself somewhere it never snows, and if it were to, the apocalypse will be near.
So, tell me dear readers, if you were to pick up and move, where would you go? Are you already in your dream locale? Do you crave nature, or find that you can never live without the conveniences of city life?
7 replies on “Lunchtime Poll: Dream Location”
Unfortunately my dream location involves immigrating to Canada, which in and of itself is insanely difficult. I love being in Western New York for so many reasons, but if I could move to Toronto, I would do so excitedly. I’m one of those weirdos who loves a great public transportation system. When my s.o. & I visited there for a few days in February, we stayed at a hotel in the outskirts (Scarborough, for those familiar with the area), and I was so thrilled that a couple of buildings away was a bus stop that took us to a train station. Getting to our destinations took upwards of an hour sometimes, and as many as three trains. I planned out our commutes days in advance. Virtually every moment of that vacation, I was happy.
My knee-jerk answer would be Hawai’i. It’s beautiful, it’s warm, it’s got more beaches than you can shake a stick at. And Loco Moco! But, in all honesty, I think I would end up SO BORED! I think I’d probably end up in New York City. Shows, places to walk, restaurants, an endless variety of STUFF. And then a pied a terre in Hawai’i, for when it Polar Vortexes.
I’m sort of generally in love with where I am. The Philly metro area is close to my hometown and family, full of history and culture, but Philly seems like a more relatable, less intimidating city than NY or LA. We get real seasons and kind of the best and the worst of all worlds. The weather can be sublime or a literal disaster, the people are really generous and relatable, but also generally assholes who expect you to keep pace with them. And we’re close to the NJ Pine Barrens, which are not your stereotypical forests, but full of these tough, resilient, sturdy, really not very pretty trees.
Pacific Northwest, specifically Portland. I don’t like the sun, love trees, am ridiculously liberal.
I’d love to go to Australia, I loathe winter! It’s ridiculous really that I settled in the UK, where it’s never warm enough for me, but hey… I couldn’t go anywhere too far away from my parents and siblings, and we need an English-speaking place, so the UK is sadly kind of perfect.
(I love how the lunchtime polls are always around dinner time for me [I’m in the UK].)
Assuming a lot of things were ideal – up to and including America getting its collective head out of its collective ass – it’d have to be the Denver area for me.
A) My aunt and sister both live in the area.
B) Want city? We got city. Want nature? We got nature.
C) Summers are neither as hot nor as humid as in the midwest (where I’m originally from) while still being quite warm. (This I know from experience, as I’ve been there 5 separate times in the summer.) There’s a lot of snow in the winter, but (from what I’ve been told), they know how to deal with it.
In fact, back in 2001, my STBX and I extensively researched moving there, after having been there for my aunt’s wedding. It wasn’t in the cards, unfortunately.
I too have tired of endless snow, polar vortexes, and conversely high summer temps (which I love) coupled with 90% humidity (which I don’t). I’ve been slightly obsessed with the southwest recently, and trying to find my way to Arizona or New Mexico. Dry heat, beating sun, and endless sky!