Mike; a short tour of inland rural california may change your wife's mind. Believe it or not, Northern California has a lot to offer. It's 70 degrees nearly year 'round and the weather's beautiful. I have had the unique experience of being raised on a ranch in the middle of nowhere and yet somehow being exposed to inner-city life on a daily basis. It lends to some unique culturing.

Please take a look at my blogs. Your critiqueing and comments are not only welcome, they're invited.

tigisfat,

We've already done a few such tours at my insistence and they made no difference. I took her out to Desert Hot Springs, fka Aguas Calientes, and she enjoyed it, but no, it's not Colorado. We drove to Lake Arrowhead (and through Big Bear?) and on down into Riverside -- nice views but not Colorado. We drove to the Palomar Observatory -- interesting drive but no sale.

In my post above I hadn't gotten to her real issue which is earthquakes. I'm used to them having spent much time in SOCAL as a kid. In fact, I was out there during the big quake of 1952 that leveled Tehachapi and seriously damaged Bakersfield, and toured the damaged areas with my grandfather the next day. (I was in Sherman Oaks when the quake struck and apparently the big initial jolt tossed me out of bed. I wouldn't know, I slept through it.)

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We also toured northern California as well as Oregon and Washington. Northern California is a different country as is southern Oregon. (We might as well call it Califorgon or Orefornia. :)) However, even I would miss the sun, which is the main reason we moved to Colorado -- for plenty of sun without the heat of Arizona/Nevada.

The fact is, here in Colorado we have everything except an ocean -- and we agreed thirty years ago that if we could ever figure out how to support ourselves adequately, after the grandkids are gone we would probably move to ... Wyoming.

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I guess that we all take our picks of natural disasters. I would rather face blizzards and tornadoes than mudslides and fires, or than heavy rain and floods, or the hurricanes of my youth in NYC and PA.

I would love to live in rural SOCAL, I just would want it to be in a new house that was up to code re earthquakes, and I would be smart enough to pick an area that's not going to slide into Flatland.

Ahh.....slight correction, Mike: I said one of our "kids" lives in California; not our daughter. Happens to be one of the sons. There's seven of 'em (sons and daughters) and they're scattered all over the country! No big deal. Just setting the record straight.

For me, I can't think of a place in the Lower 48 where I would want to live LESS than ANYWHERE in California. I have an older sister who has lived there forever, it seems, and loves it. I've been there and no thank you! Oh, up in the mountains and away from LA and San Fran aren't all that bad, but I just don't like the thought of being there when that whole State slides into the Pacific! And, there's just too many "political" problems in that State to suite me.

Another reason for us getting out of Florida was the imminent collapse of the real estate market there, and as it turns out, everywhere else for that matter. Yes, I'm psychic in some areas. Although we were about six months late to maximize our investment. Took me that long to convince a certain person that it was time to go!