Where in the World is Carmen Sandiego?
Next year, at the end of the summer, Bart will graduate from school and take a full-time job. And that job could be literally anywhere in the world (notice, friends, how I said literally when I meant literally, not literally when I meant figuratively). This means, of course, that we’ve spent a ridiculous amount of time debating where we’d like to live come next year.
Part of me longs to stay here, in Austin, where we’ve lived for two years now. Where we have friends. Where the weather is lovely, where we know we are happy.
But the other part of me is anxious to go somewhere new, somewhere exciting, somewhere different and thrilling.
Right now, one of the top places on our list is the San Jose/San Francisco area.
If you could move anywhere, where would you go? Or would you stay where you are?
I belong in the pacific northwest. I know it. I would live somewhere between Portland and the coast, the closer to the coast the better.
Good luck in your adventures. I hope life takes you lots of exciting places. I have loved everywhere I have lived.
Also, I hope Bart makes a stinkload if you are going to live in S.F. we were looking at a job there but when I saw “fixer upper” houses listed in the $700,000 I very nearly died.
I grew up near SF and loved it. It’s a really great place to live.
HOWEVER, you should move to the Phoenix area. Seriously.
Part of me would love to pull up roots and go somewhere like Denver or Seattle, just for fun, so I know what you mean. It’s really exciting to think about it!
I love New England with all of my heart, but it is just not practical to live there, much to my chagrin. Luckily, Pennsylvania does us pretty well, and our town is wonderful. Plus, JG is teaching in a really great district, and you never know what that will be like if we were to move. So I’d probably stay where I was, but upgrade to a nicer neighborhood/house. 🙂
Wide open possibilities are always exciting but a little scary too.
I’m hoping to come back to DC after I’m finished with school, but I’ve also thought about looking for jobs in Northern California: Sacramento/San Jose/San Francisco. If all my dreams were to come true though, I’d find a great job in London and meet and marry a cute Brit with good teeth!
It’s hard for me to believe you have lived there for 2 years! WOW!
Will you be done with school too next year? What is Bart finishing in? Does he know what he wants to do?
I’m boring, if I could live anywhere I would choose to stay here. I LOVE Utah. Some people are sick of it but I guess since neither of us grew up here we just soak it all in! I would prefer a house though, with paint and nice furniture…soon, soon.
I second Kristi–I belong in the pacific Northwest as well. Phil and I would really enjoy Seattle or Portland. Right now we’re looking at maybe Vancouver, WA and working in Portland. It’s so pretty there. Phil’s also toying with the idea of working international for a bit–just for fun. We’ll see what happens!
I’ve been in DC for nearly four years and I am itching to move somewhere new. I will be here at least another year though, while I finish my current MA, but after that, who knows. I am currently obsessed with the San Francisco area for some reason, so maybe there! I’ve also been attempting to convince the boyfriend that London would be fabulous, but he’s not going for that idea 🙂
San Jose/SF is soooooooooooo expensive. That’s a deterrent for me, though I’d love to visit SF one day soon.
I would live in the following places: Denver, DC, Austin, Seattle, Portland, Vermont (maybe). That might be it!
Great poll. I’m with the Pacific Northwest Group. My dream city is Portland. I’d also love northern Cal, but it is just SO dang expensive.
I see I’m not the only person trapped in DC. I use trapped losely however since I’ve lived here all but 3 and 1/3 years of my life, and came back by choice. It is one of the most absurdly expensive places to live, and grossly humid in the summer, so I don’t really suggest it unless you LOVE to sit in traffic.
Since the only other place I’ve lived is Utah, I have it in my mind that I want to live in Tennessee. Not sure why, just sounds like fun.
I love the West Coast (we just moved to Sacramento) and I hope to be here forever, but I would really love to spend some time in San Diego or Australia. Somewhere where the weather is nice EVERY day. Maybe I should move to Austin.
i would choose to live in eden, utah…yes it is just as it sounds. it is a little piece of heaven on earth! my parents have lived there for over 5 years and everytime we visit, we wish we could stay. love it!!
Man, I LOVED lining in the SF bay area, but aside from the expense, I wouldn’t want to raise a family there. I think everyone should get to live there for a little while, but maybe while they’re young. Remember that ancient Baz Luhrmann song “Everybody’s Free (To Wear Sunscreen)song”? I agree with the line that goes thus: Live
in Northern California once, but leave before it makes you soft.
I LOVED Portland, but M would probably kill himself due to lack of sunlight.
I like DC where M is from, but still pretty pricey and hot and humid.
We passed up Boston too. People didn’t seem very nice (no offense Bostonians) and the prices weren’t exactly cheap.
The only place we know we DON’T want to live it is Utah.
I’m learning to deal with the heat, so I really like Austin. I think I would just stay here. But if I had to try somewhere new I might try one of the Carolinas, I’m not sure why since I’ve never been there. Or maybe somewhere else on the eastern seaboard that didn’t cost my firstborn each month. (Does that even exist? Because seriously we can really only afford a sacrificial child every 9 months or so. Just kidding of course!)
How fun to think of the possibilities. Good luck to you guys.
Since I was in 5th grade I have always wanted to live in Virgina. Someday I hope I have a forest in my backyard and a picket fence on the west side of Virginia…
For right now, I want to move to Cedar City (and, lucky me, I get to!)
We’ve been in DC for five years, and I’d love to try something different–a smaller town would be nice. I’d love to live around Knoxville TN or Asheville NC. That would be nice. I miss mountains and trees!
Oh I HIGHLY recommend San Francisco. My husband and I just moved from there after living there for three years. It might be expensive, but it is so unique. We had a baby while we were there, didn’t own a car and rented a great apartment in a historic building. Can’t live like that in Phoenix (where we are now). Oh how I miss it. If you get the chance, I think you would really like it. Plenty of places to ride your bike, cute little shops and restaurants, and great church members.
I would love to move to England for a few years. No kids and just starting out is a fun place in life to be. Just go explore. Have fun and go somewhere you might not have a chance to live in the future.
As someone living in the Bay Area…. it is lovely. (I grew up here so I am a bit biased) The weather is great most of the time. Tons of things to do and see but…. it is EXPENSIVE to live here. I don’t think the housing bubble has quite popped here yet. Prices keep coming down…. but nowhere near affordable. Which is why people don’t tend to stay here. They come when they are newly married, live here for awhile, have one or two kids and then pack up and leave for somewhere else. It isn’t a place many people put down roots.
I loved working in San Jose. There is so much culture and so many things to do – it’s a very exciting city. And it’s a great place to launch a career. But beware of the cost of living – anything even remotely affordable is in the surrounding cities, which = commute in horrendous, horrendous traffic that will send chills of horror up your spine. But! There’s always the train. And when it’s not rush hour it’s not so bad. And the carpool lanes would have brought happiness to my heart, had I had a passenger. But, alas, I was alone and had to endure stop-and-go traffic for an hour every day. And thus we see how I’m now in Utah, not CA.
I would personally pick San Jose over San Fran any day of the week – driving there makes me ill and it’s cold year round. And I’d be very wary of raising kids there. In my opinion, it’s a place to visit, not live.
I personally hope to end up in Northern California again – maybe Sacramento. I love it there – the weather is amazing, it’s so green, and the beach and the mountains are only a few hours away.
End novel now.
I currently live in AK and I love it here. Its such a wonderful place to live.
If I had to leave I would end up between Austin and San Antonio. (i’m from Houston)
good luck
Please – you know we’d move back to SJ/SF in a heartbeat – and we could put a seriously good word in for you at PwC (the biggest and best of the Big 4!! no really, it is – I’m not being biased!).
But remember – every location has a specific industry that they specialize in………..San Jose-Tech, SF – Finance, LA – Entertainment, Houston – Energy, Portland – offices are too small to specialize in anything : (. So be aware of that when you make the decision too!
We love Oregon. I would have a really hard time moving to California–too expensive and crowded. We really love Colorado too, just about anywhere in that state. If you had a chance to go overseas, especially before kids come or while they are little, I would jump at it. We never did that, but we both served missions internationally and it is such a great experience. Many of my friends have taken first jobs on the east coast and loved that. They often don’t stay because it is expensive and crowded. Actually, Eugene is about the only near-coastal area you can get that is still fairly affordable and close-ish to the beach. (And the mountains to boot.) But we’re a little bit partial. 🙂
We think that we might want to end up in Montana. It is just an idea, but it is pretty cold and has long winters, but is beautiful…so needless to say, you wouldnt like it…but we are snow bunnies.
Den-VER! Den-VER! It’s the best. Seriously.
I would spend my early career in NYC (where the really important deals happen) and then move to the California Coast, probably San Diego where the weather is virtually perfect and the ocean accessible. That said, San Francisco is a pretty good mix of both.
I’d also have a 2nd home in either Park City or, Eden, Utah.
Me without kids? Anywhere international. I’d prefer Argentina so I could see what my husband’s country was like. Also, just for the beauty of it, I’d love to live in Tennessee or Kentucky. Green green beautiful mountains.
Oh the freedom of graduating. How exciting! I realized as I was about to type alas it reminded me of you… funny how you hear peoples’ blogs in your head. Or maybe it’s just me.
Our top choice is Colorado. We’re going to scope out the area really well before we settle in and David opens a practice.
If we weren’t so darn practical as far as cost of living we’d both move to Washinton just north of Seattle where we got married. To me the green up there is more beautiful than Hawaii.
The good news is you don’t have to settle forever where you go – right?
anywhere but Utah…but why do I have to make a comment about my decision on this?? You already know…
I long to live in the Pac Northwest. Oregon, maybe? Or Washington. Or California. I don’t really care, I just want to live somewhere were there are mountains and it’s not so humid in the summer. I am bored with Baltimore, but then again… it’s so cheap. And I love my yoga studio, and the bakery outlet, and our neighborhood. Sigh.
My husband and I talk about that kind of stuff all the time. I would love to move out of state just for a little while, to have new experiences, but my heart will always be in Utah, so I know I’ll end up here 🙂
I’m pretty sure you said anywhere in the world, and if that was the case, I would so love to experience living abroad. France, England, Austria, Russia. These are just the top of my list. What an opportunity.
Good luck!
Mmmmm, I love SF!!! I would absolutely second that vote. (It is rather rainy/windy, consistently cloudy and a bit chilly…always jacket weather…you’ve been warned. I also think it would be amazing to live in New England for a year; the fall, the cherry blossoms, the seemingly snobbish academics. :o)
xox
Mexico! Or California. I LOVE California.
But as for Canada? The Okanagan (where I live) is like paradise.
I would love to live somewhere in Orange County, preferably in a house right along the beach. This would be me talking as if we had no kids and money was not an issue. However, in our practical world, Vegas is the place we will probably stay. That is, until Lewis graduates and we just might have that option of moving somewhere else.
It occurred to me long after I left my comment that the SF area is really cold. I have vivid memories of wearing jackets on 4th of july and huddling under blankets to watch the fireworks and STILL being cold. IN JULY.
Phoenix is warm in July.
Something to think about.
Good question! Jon and I dream of moving South, as in one of the Carolinas. Truth is, I know we would miss our families (in PA and MD) desperately.
Hmmm….anywhere? That is hard. I would probably choose Las Vegas since that is where my family lives. San Diego and Boston would also be right up there at the top of the list, though! Can’t wait to hear where you will be going!
brian and i are dreaming of living in france after he gets his PhD. brian’s even taking french classes next year so his resume can be even more tempting to the company out there.
I’ve spent the last couple of days trying to think of another place I’d like to live and I honestly can’t imagine living anywhere but where I am now (Seattle area.) It does make me laugh that so many people who commented said that as well, especially today when it’s June 6th and 49 degrees and raining with no summer in sight. I’ve grown to dislike the weather more and more as I’ve gotten older but with family & tons of friends nearby, I don’t really want to live anywhere else.
I love where we are right now. Colorado is perfect.
That being said, if we had all the money in the universe I would love to live in Satan Barbra.