....we are moving to Boise. Yes, Idaho, that Boise. I don't really even know where to start. Moving out of state has always been a topic of discussion anytime that we have come to a new stage in our lives since we've gotten married....can we afford to move to Livermore, or should we look at moving out of state; can we afford to have a baby here, or should we look at moving out of state; can I afford to take a cut in pay to lower my commute and stress level, or should we look at moving out of state, so while this may seem like a snap decison, it's been a long time coming.
It's too easy to say that we can't afford to live here anymore, and I think that is a problem that we have had. We have been trying to distill our reasoning down to what is logical and black and white. Both to make the decison easier to explain to our family and friends, as well as make the decision easier on us to make. Without going onto all of the reasons (which we would be happy to do, if you would like, just call us and ask), we have made a very hard decision to move from the Golden State to the Potato State.
In trying to keep this post upbeat, I'll just concentrate on what we found when we visited this last weekend. A disclaimer up front...these are just opinions, not condemnation of anybody else's likes, dislikes, lifestyle etc. My website, my opinions, no offense should be inferred.
We really loved Boise. We flew in Friday night, it was dark so we couldn't really see anything of the area, but the airport seemed nice enough. What really struck me was that, when we went outside to get our rental car, it just smelled clean. It was crisp, but not really cold. Once we found our POS Kia rental, it was a very quick and easy drive to downtown. We got to the hotel about 10:00 PM. At which point Marisa wanted to go back out and drive around and begin exploring the city. I tried to explain that it was dark and that most things would be closed, but she would hear none of it, so out into the night we went.
We drove around downtown, which was easy because there was no traffic. We found the dark spot where the Boise River is during the daylight, found a couple of areas that we were quickly able to rule out as possible relocation spots (I am NOT living there!), but mainly just drove around lost for a couple of hours. We got back to the room and to sleep @ midnight.
We got up early on Saturday and drove around to several of the surrounding areas just to see if we could get a feel for the towns and see if there was anything that we could rule out. We met with the realtor and spent all of Saturday looking at houses in various areas. We really liked an area called Hidden Springs in the foothills of Boise, www.hiddensprings.com is the link if you want to check it out. We are trying to get a house up there right now.
We met with a guy who is the moderator of a Yahoo! chat group for Californians who have moved to Idaho. Marisa found the group before we went to visit and we made arrangements to sit down with Mark and talk to him about the area and his experiences. There are so many Californians moving there, it's a whole underground community. Everybody moving for more or less the same reasons; money, commute, traffic, the rat races, the outdoors etc.. It is nice to have a group of people with a shared experience and knowledge to bounce things off of.
But we had a very nice time and really loved the place. We arrived home Sunday late afternoon, exhausted and missing our boys. We will update with what happens next and will post some photos as soon as I get them downloaded from the camera.
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