I’ve been in the job market for a year but haven’t found anything, and I’m starting to think that I can work fast food in a place with better scenery. I like outdoor activities (skiing, hiking, running, cycling) and beer (good local micros and homebrew scene), so I’m thinking Colorado-ish. Then again, I’ve never been to the PNW and I hear good things. Plus, how do you just up and pick a place to live?
So I figured I’d throw the question out there and see if any fellow brewers live somewhere they absolutely love, and why.
Throw darts at a map (blindfolded, if you can actually play). Its always easier to move somewhere if you know someone where you’re going. Do you have any friends/family in Colorado or the PNW? However, I grew up in the military and often had little choice - we moved where we were told to. It can be pretty refreshing to have a completely fresh start in a new town. In my mid twenties I made a couple long distance moves where I knew no-one in the city I moved to (one was with my gf, so I knew someone, but it was half way across the continent, so it still counts).
Pick somewhere you think would be a fun experience and have wanted to visit and go for it. Give it a go for a year or two - if things don’t pan out, try another. If you have a strong support network ‘back home’ you should do fine.
If you’re gonna live in poverty anyway, I’m partial to the west myself…Utah is stunningly beautiful, almost all over, I’m really partial to Colorado just west of the Rockies. CA is, well, too much a luxury, though my home state. So many beautiful places, but real estate and craziness (smog, nutjobs, government, insane traffic) kind of counterbalance it. And the problem with the pacific NW is that that’s where many Californians are fleeing to, driving up real estate.
I’m planning a slow, leisurely roadtrip throughout the West and SW in October, which is what’s keeping me motivated slogging through work right now, so forgive me if I wax lyrical.
Depends on your career, or what you want it to be. I moved out to Silicon Valley a few years back, best career move I ever made.
That being said, I wish to hell I lived in NC or SoVA or the like. Or PA, but back up in the hills. Actually, Montana’s been looking nice lately, but that’s a topic for another board.
Of course, my needs and desires are likely different from yours.
Don’t make an arbitrary decision. Make sure it’s some place you really like. Do the research. Also, will the economy support you arriving? A small community might have no work for you.
Having said that- if you can stand a little summer heat I recommend Austin. The winter’s are mild and the bulk of the populace are educated, liberal and like to party. Lot’s of hot chicks, live music, lakes, rivers and outdoor activities etc… Helluva place- wish I still lived there!
Here’s a couple options I am sure you haven’t considered.
I recommend Huntsville, AL for several reasons: its within 2 hours of some of the best kayaking on the east coast, its very close to countless back packing locations, great Mountain Biking/hiking trails in H’ville, plus there are actually jobs here and real estate is affordable. Also, its been named to many top 10- “best places to live” lists. The beer scene is just starting to wake up here but there is beer here, a couple good beer bars and a couple breweries are slated to open here just this year (yours truly, for instance. ;)) I live about 20 minutes from huntsville and I own 7 acres of mountain land that backs up to a wilderness larger than the Great Smoky Mountains - I can literally go out for a 2 or 3 day back packing trip right from my back door - which is awesome! There are few places in the country where I could afford to own this much land, with this much privacy, and this size house, this close to very well paying jobs with a still robust economy.
That said, for a young, unmarried scoundrel, I will readily admit that Asheville, North Carolina has Huntsville beat hands down. Awesome beer town (arguably the best beer town on the East Coast), right off the Blue Ridge parkway - literally endless wilderness for outdoor sports. Fairly well educated. Beautiful area, one of the prettiest places to live on the East Coast. Also some very pretty, fit, southern girls.
But, if you want a good economy (and, ultimately a great place to raise your kids) it’s really is hard to beat Huntsville.
If I were single, I’d be all over La Jolla/San Diego. Course you need a good job or a decent amount of coin (okay actually both) to enjoy it, but you could surf, hike and ski all the same weekend if you lived there, which is pretty awesome in my book.
Weather is fantastic, the female scenery is exceptional, and of course its a beer mecca.
Course you could move to Jupiter - my wife’s in real estate and could help you out. I think you work in biology? If so, Scripps is opening a big facility down the road from us.
Went to Huntsville with a group back in college. After some of our antics, the Huntsville city cops escorted us to the city line and demanded that we never return. And the Bama state troopers threw in “for that matter, don’t ever return to Alabama”.
So I guess Huntsville would not be an option for me
+2 for Asheville, NC. 6+ Breweries (Highland is the largest), good homebrew stores, couple of HB clubs, lots of outdoor sports. Don’t know what the job situation is like though.
I up and moved to Boulder, Colorado almost 5 years ago from Cincinnati. Grew up in New Jersey, went to college just outside Cincy, stayed there for a few years. Then did something silimar to what you are doing. I was done with Ohio, went to visit a couple of friends in Boulder for a few days. While I was visiting, I fell in love with boulder, signed a lease that started in 2 months with no job, and the rest is history. Sometimes when life gets in a rut, you’ve got to shake it up a bit!
Anyway, I love this part of the country, it’s kind of like an outdoor playland. It’s sunny all the time (300+ days a year), great mountain biking, road biking, backpacking (my favorite), skiing, any other snow sports. You’re close enough to Utah to hit up Moab. Then you start to look at the beer scene within a 45 Minute drive from Boulder and it just gets ridiculous. Just to name a few of the big ones: Avery, Odell, New Belgium, Great Divide, Lefthand, Oskar Blues, the list really just goes on and on…and on.
My brother and I are the only ones in our family to leave NJ; he lives in Munich and I live in CO. Bought a house a couple years ago and don’t plan on leaving Colorado any time soon. I’ve never been to the PNW, although I have always wanted to go. People seem to love that much the same as here, so I think you’re on the right track with the things you like to do and the places you are looking at.
Bwahaha! That’s awesome! So how long ago was that? I have seen the inside of the old Hunstville City jail. Not for DUI, so don’t jump to conculsions.
I realize a lot of people will snicker at an Alabama suggestion but Huntsville (and its surrounding area) really is a nice place to live. And, like I said, there are JOBS here.
Get an RV & go where ever the heck you want to. Visit friends, family, breweries, etc… Find some work along the way. Then decide what feels good to you & settle down, if you want to.
Thanks for the suggestions. I have friends in Portland and Seattle, so I’ll be heading up that way at some point. If nothing else, it’s an area I’ve just never seen.
As far as Asheville and Huntsville, I’ve at least visited both and they seem like great places to live. I spent three summers in Oak Ridge, TN, though, and it’s just too damn hot for me. Even the Midwest is too hot for me in the summer.
My degree is actually in nuclear engineering. I’m also looking for brewery openings though. Either way, the odds are good I’d be moving for a job, so I’m trying not to let that influence my decision-making too much.
I’m sure they have forgotten you by now. I was 11 in 1981 and living in Mechanicsburg, PA. I have been here since 1993 and it has changed a lot since then. I have been told it is a vastly different town from the early '80s. Not that there is a real incentive to VISIT Huntsville (except maybe the Space and Rocket Center) but it is a good central location close to a lot of great outdoorsy places.
a10t2 - in about 4 years I would like to be in the position to offer you a job! ;D You can have one now as long as you work for free.
That said, I’ll own my house here by the time I’m 42 or so. Had we moved to California we, or rather our descendants, would have the mortgage paid off by the 3rd or 4th generation, in all likelihood. ;D
I would actually like to retire to Flagstaff. Pretty area, that. Or Yorkshire.
