I'm serious folks!

[KAILANI]

Slick828-ABSOLUTELY RIGHT!! Some people don't quite realize this..

Some of us actually are looking forward to living 3000 miles from the mainland and are quite happy with being a minority.

"Fantasy-like perception" hits the nail on the head.
I get oh so many questions from people, after they hear I have lived in Hawaii and want to move back, about- do they have stores, do they have cars there, what language do they speak... It's amazing what people don't know.!
Going on a 2 week vacation to a fully landscaped, pooled, tropical island resort is NOT the real Hawaii. Sure, you can walk through them, apply for a job if you like, but outside is the real Hawaii. Not all of it is "pretty" to some people. I think the alleged negativity is just a warning to some who think otherwise.

[hart4july]

I have a story that seems off topic, but bear with me its not.

As a young mother I was in downtown Long Beach Ca, a rougher area than where we rented, and met a well dressed young mother in Bixby Park. As people in the Golden State often do, she told me her story. She and her husband and several small children (2-3?) had given up their nice home back east somewhere to quit his normal job so he could follow his dream to be an actor. She at that moment in time was convinced they were so much happier in their tiny apartment there by the park because he was doing what he loved, where he wanted to live. She appeared middle class and staid, not a typical downtown Long Beach resident.
How much longer they lasted I'll never know, but it seems some hopeful souls are filled with a sense of their own life dreams that they will endure tiny living spaces, ramen noodles and other quality of life issues because they feel they should live somewhere special and do something great.

The beauty of Hawaii and one (wo)man's dream may well be enough for a New Age dreamer to shake his or her head at all the naysayers and reality issues.

Myself, I know we can't afford the milk...

[sjnative]

I think the OP should throw down this very gauntlet in the CA and FL forums as well, assuming he hasn't already.

It's very easy sport to go to the people who live there and challenge them to take responsibility for other people's disillusionment with where they live.

Come to think of it, it's so easy that it's done every day in the CA forum and probably the FL forum as well.

As for me, when I post in the CA forum I post only to say that things are 100% wonderful and I just wanted everyone else to know. I used to do it every day but the mods threatened to cancel my account so now I do it only every week.

[cloudcroft]

"Where else can you live in a cave and get abducted by aliens." -- flygrl

Thant's an easy one: Roswell, NM.