Accidental Retiree
Thinks s/he gets paid by the post
- Joined
- Feb 17, 2012
- Messages
- 1,501
I lived in the SF Bay area from 1968-1973, and in the San Diego area from 1977-1984.
I was one of those oddballs that didn't like living there at all. I don't mean to insult the Californians here.... but.... er.... of all the many (8?) states I have lived in for more than a year, for me, well, Cali was by far my least favorite. I didn't even like the weather; I have never felt colder than I did in the SF area, and the SD area was way too dry for me and for my skin. Weather wasn't my only objection to living in Calif, there were many and for me it just wasn't a good match. So, I was pretty happy when my ex was transferred out of there in 1984. I haven't set foot in California since.
See that's something that I feel a lot of people just don't "get"... no matter where you are, there will be some people that love it and some that hate it. It's just the way of the world. I love living in Louisiana but I know that many (most?) Americans would not put Louisiana at the top of their list. Great! More space for those of us here who love this state.
Anyway, my point is that when someone begins to think of moving to a different state, I think it's time to go on vacations to that state driving your car, so that you can explore it in depth and get familiar with it. No other state is going to be just like California, so keep an open mind about the differences and enjoy the adventure of it! You might find another state that you love just as much or possibly even more. It really can happen.
Funny—how you feel about CA is how I felt about Louisiana. We lived there for a short time during my teen years, and it was the worst place I’ve ever lived. I’d never go back there on purpose if I could possibly avoid it.
I also absolutely loathe the desert and cannot for the life of me understand the appeal of Palm Springs, AZ, NM, etc. as that’s all just a bunch of desolate ugliness I have to endure while driving to the Texas Hill Country. It starts to look better to me east of Ozona, Texas.
Fortunately there’s someplace for all of us, and we can make choices that suit our personal preferences.
My dad was in the oil fields and moved us around quite a bit, starting in south Texas. When he finally ended us up in Orange County in the early 70s, I thought I was in heaven.
To this day, when I drive back over to my old neighborhood, I get an uplifted feeling inside, even though the area has changed. If I had the wherewithal now, that’s where I’d be, and when it comes to downsizing, that area is still top of my list.
But lots of the areas down here in SoCal have deteriorated, as Scuba and others have pointed out. I also have seen those conditions elsewhere—but it seems worse in CA.
We were just in OC yesterday and appalled at the tent villages and random “unhoused” we saw wandering up and down one major boulevard.
On our way home, I asked my husband where, of all the places we’ve visited around the country, he’d choose to live if we HAD to leave CA. Between the two of us we’ve visited a pretty big chunk of the country and looked at it just as W2R suggested. We’ve done that with an eye to relocating in retirement for about the past 20 years. In fact, we already moved once in retirement.
Over 8 years ago, we left the San Francisco Bay Area after 32 years and moved back to SoCal, where we grew up and met and lived in our early married years. We’re between coastal OC and the desert.
We have favorite places we’ve visited, but those places are different from where we’d want to live day to day.
Neither of us could come up with the answer about where else we’d move. We haven’t found anyplace that we like better than we are, but we agreed that we’ve seen enough of the country that we could make a better informed decision if/when the need to move arises.
In the meantime, we love where we live in our little corner of the world and are staying put.
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