Gorgeous! Am a bit envious, but still would take San Diego overall. We go to “visit winter” in the Sierras whenever we miss it.

[quote=spdrun]We got about 10″ of snow out on the other coast, and I put on my x-c skis at 7 am and went to hang out in Central Park. Y’all may not appreciate this, but here is why some people can’t live without four distinct seasons[/quote]I guess you won’t be able to live in you’re retirement condo in SD. We don’t get to deal with snow dumping on us.

[quote=spdrun]No plans to retire, far too young for that. Just building up enough rental property to be able to have a comfortable income while going to grad school in two years. I’m interested in being a student or going back into research, but not a broke-ass one with loans out the cornhole. In short, I have no interest in living the financially miserable life of the average American.

@bearishgurl – if you don’t move to New Mexico or wherever you were looking, you could do a lot worse than a small college town in northern New England. Pretty scenery, generally walkable/bikeable in summer, and civilized but not boring people.[/quote]

Thanks, but I’ve only been to MD (Baltimore area) and DC a few times and both FL coasts. I’m not too crazy about the east coast as a place to live (except I luv the “crab cakes” and “hailing a `car'”) :=D

I’m going find me a nice ski-oriented community in the Sierras or Rockies to try out, the less permanent residents, the better :=]

[quote=spdrun]Coastal Maryland (too swampy) and DC area (too much traffic) definitely aren’t the finest parts of the Northeast, at least in my book. Much prefer parts of Mass, Vermont, and New Hampshire given a choice.[/quote]

Yes, I saw all the “swamps” from the air in the daytime 🙂

The MD countryside is nice, but the two-lane “hwys” taking you from town to town are winding with blind spots and a bit dangerous, I think, due to all the local traffic.

For this reason, I wouldn’t want to be a daily commuter between MD and DC.

In the few times I went to DC, we parked in an underground garage and got on a double-decker tour bus.

I love touring fall leaves in the rockies but will put a NE fall tour on my “bucket list.”

[quote=spdrun]DC can’t really be appreciated unless you walk around. Fly into National next time, take the train in (about 10 min) and walk around the Mall and Southeast, then go to Georgetown and up along CT and WI Avenues….[/quote]

I have walked up and down the Capitol Mall and toured the Smithsonian and saw all the attractions a couple of times, including walking across the bridge to Arlington Cemetery.

I’ve also been there on “spring break” to the “Cherry Blossom Festival” where we were lucky enough to find street parking. It is was very beautiful!

I wanted to get off the tour bus at the south end of Georgetown, but we didn’t have time to catch another one that day.

A walking tour of Georgetown (and possibly Chevy Chase) is also on my “bucket list” 🙂

spdrun, is your first xc skiing pic of a jogging trail in Central Park??