Moving back to California?

I was just happy my tom thumb discount card worked at safeway. Lol. I did however have the best pork tacos ive ever had on Oahu.

 

Check out Sequim in Washington state. 16 inches of rain a year, by the water, mountains, and sunny unlike anywhere else in Washington.

 

Tried Florida for 7 years but came back to the great PNW. Something about it.

 

Texas would be my second choice for sure since boulder/Denver are too expensive and still have income tax. I occasionally work in Oregon but I hate Portland's damn 10 percent income tax. Bum city.

 

Hated my friends smugness about "no sales tax" in Oregon. I stopped in a Eugene Walmart to grab a couple white boxes of 9mm. Price seemed a bit high but heck, no tax. Got home and bought a box at Calif Walmart - there was a one cent difference between the two when you added the tax.

The get you either way....

 

Similar experience with beer. You can buy Oregon beer cheaper in Washington state. Oregon's bottle tax is crock of shit.

 

At one time, IIRC, you had to return your bottles to the store you bought them from. Kinda keeps you from buying out of your area...

 

I can’t imagine wanting to move back to California.

 

I enjoy the trips as well , but after driving rigs over the road for 8 years ........... I get bored driving down the interstate for hours at a time. Lol I need a trail from TN to Cali without pavement.

 

Is there a tax or are you referring to the 10¢ deposit for bottles?

 

Try recycling the bottles in Oregon. Machines take about 25 percent of the bottles at the grocery stores or even the recycling center. Don't get me wrong oregon and california are nice to visit but why live there. Juice ain't worth the squeeze.

 

Michigan has been doing 10¢ deposits for a long time. We have a 90%+ recycle rate because of it (although it's also illegal to throw them away, technically). There are good machines and bad machines.

 

Mostly bad machines. You really like michigan?

 

If it’s the weather of so cal thats missed, you would love the summer of CO but hate the winters. I grew up here in CO, so I love the winter temperature drops, I dont know what I’d do without the snowy cold winters.

One thing I hear over and over again from transplants from warmer climates, is how they hate the cold here. As exampled by the last 2 days, we literally had about a 70 degree temperature drop in less than 24 hours. 101 degrees yesterday at midday and by noon today, it was 32 and snowing. Now it’s all cold outside. But other than that, if it’s the exploring of mountains and nature, it’s among the best. (I’m obviously biased as hell about COs awesomeness)
the coldest I can remember recently was like -19 in the city. -38 in the WinterPark/Fraser/Tabernash valley.

 

Colorado is definitely on our list. Surprisingly the wife and I enjoy cold winters. We feel that if we move back to California, we will definitely miss the winters here in North Texas. The one thing we definitely won't miss are the brutal summers. We are thinking that Colorado will be a happy median.

I've been looking around the Colorado Springs area. Any other decent cities that you'd recommend? Something with a decent night life and a city with diverse food.

 

Someone may have already said it but as someone who has grown up here in Northern California let me give you some perspective...

Is it as bad as all the haters say it is? That depends on a lot of factors and view points you may have.

As someone who leans to the right, it’s becoming increasingly difficult to justify living here, especially with current political climate and everything going on Covid-19 related. It’s even worse as you move west (SF) or south (LA). Just something to consider.

Heat - I know there’s hotter parts of the country, but being 28 years old with a lightening fast metabolism, I run hot and these NorCal summers are adding up. This summer was especially obnoxious.

Fires - I think that speaks for itself if you flip on the news. It’s all you see here right now and it’s wreaking havoc. If you work outside regularly like I do, you won’t enjoy the air quality nor will your lungs..

Housing market - if you’re moving from out of state, chances are you’ll be paying a premium compared to where you’re currently at. Worth it? To me, no, but again it’s all subjective.

taxes - One of the highest tax Rates in the entire country. No explanation needed if you work for a living.


I don’t HATE California, but it’s definitely sad to see it deteriorate right in front of me compared to was it was and what it could’ve been. There’s still a few reasons to stay (my immediate family being one of them), but there’s also a reason many many people are leaving by the thousands as well.

Just my point of view, please anybody reading this don’t take it personally/get offended - yes, I have to say that in today’s world unfortunately.

 

Of course I like Michigan! I'm from here. Lots of natural beauty. No, we don't have tall mountains, but we have woods, 3,000+ miles of coast line, lakes that look (and sometimes act) like oceans, hills, urban areas, sparsely populated areas. I've been to a lot of cool places in this country (actually heading to Washington next week), but no place I've been feels like home.

 

I don’t know about the summer heat thing. costal CA has the coolest summers vs most other states. Nor cal summer daytime highs , in like Fort Bragg for example are 68 deg or so. Even down to San Diego , summer highs are in the high 70s most summer days with few peak days out of the year.
The alternatives are Midwest/south/east coast with hot days AND humidity, or hot and dry in the western states.


*Actually the high is going to be in the upper 50s low 60s this week up there for “summer time”

 

Born at John Muir--- Old Wing in Walnut Creek. Grew up in Alamo/Danville on Mt. Diablo. I would have gone to Monte Vista had I not moved. The most beautiful part of California IMO. But yeah since my parents moved nearly 20 years ago, none of us can justify moving back. House that sold for 997,000 is worth over 3.5M now. Crazy!!! Texas welcomes you!!! I could use a new friend anyways.

 

Another thing to think about is work. If you're looking for "tech jobs" in tech, biotech or other fields where you enjoy the R&D aspect it's very hard to beat CAs job market. It's almost incomparable to any other part of the country. If you like being apart of companies / projects which innovate then CA is where you'll be staying. I know the joe rogan pod-cast talked about the mass exodus from CA and all jobs will be remote, but calm down. Soon the same companies will be like oh guess that scary flu season is over. Time to come back to work slackers and earn that paycheck again.