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Old 08-12-2009, 10:11 PM
 
6 posts, read 33,074 times
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My husband and I currently live near Pittsburgh, PA and are looking to move somewhere no more than 12 hours away so we can still visit family easy enough. We do have some specific criteria – mountains for hiking and small coastal town are musts! We would also like to be within an hour or two from the beach if possible and somewhere without an extremely harsh winter. Any suggestions would be greatly appreciated!
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Old 08-13-2009, 04:32 AM
 
Location: 3.5 sq mile island ant nest next to Canada
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Welcome to the forum. 12 hours is good driving length of time. Used to do it while stationed in Jersey. 12 hours will get you around Augusta more or less. Quite a bit of coast down that way adn mountains are within easy reach. Not a bad area to begin exploring the rest of Maine.
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Old 08-13-2009, 04:49 AM
 
Location: Southwestern Ohio
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Welcome, ljsmath! Retired, how far away will that put them from the coast?
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Old 08-13-2009, 05:21 AM
 
Location: 3.5 sq mile island ant nest next to Canada
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Mornin' mama. The only beach I know by there is Popham which is around an hour south of Augusta. But not being a swimmer or beach goer I don't know much on beaches. Depends on where you settle as to how far/long a drive. Plenty of lakes around Augusta down to Portland.
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Old 08-13-2009, 05:27 AM
 
Location: Waldo County
1,220 posts, read 3,924,505 times
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Quote:
Originally Posted by ljsmath View Post
My husband and I currently live near Pittsburgh, PA and are looking to move somewhere no more than 12 hours away so we can still visit family easy enough. We do have some specific criteria – mountains for hiking and small coastal town are musts! We would also like to be within an hour or two from the beach if possible and somewhere without an extremely harsh winter. Any suggestions would be greatly appreciated!
Well, you almost have described Maine. Maine is a state of small towns, and we have plenty of mountains for hiking.

But if you don't want to have "extremely harsh winter", you will be very unhappy in Maine about five months out of the year.

We have a saying in Maine that works here: "If you can't stand the winters, you don't deserve the summers."

Last winter here, in this small town on the coast, we had 36 inches of snow fall in total during the month of December. Snow stayed on the ground until April, and at one point I told my neighbors that if we got another six inches of snow, I would have to bring in a loader or skid steer in order to push the snow back as there was no way that my 3/4 ton truck could move any more. We never got that next storm.

Of course, it wasn't extremely cold last winter at all, and we didn't get the howling winds across the bay that can give us windchills of minus 30.

Not many winters ago, we had almost NO snow all winter long, and what we did get didn't stay on the ground long. The freezing/thawing cycles that winter were really strange. But when we got freezing, it was extremely cold, and we had one period of more than a week when noon time temperatures didn't get about singe numbers above zero. It happens here along the coast, and inland and in the mountains it can be worse.

If you think this variety of winter is "severe", you won't like winter in Maine.

The old saying, is true. This summer we didn't get summer until August first. It has been quite pleasant since then, but before that, we had spring rain. And rain, and rain, and rain, and rain.

Whatever you think you want for weather, Maine has a terrific way of ordering up something else, and if you want some sort of predictability, look elsewhere.
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Old 08-13-2009, 05:40 AM
 
Location: 3.5 sq mile island ant nest next to Canada
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I imagine we wouldn't be any worse than Pittsburgh in winter. Just that teh cities have even less places to push snow than Acadienlion mentioned. I remember thinking the same as you did there. Maryland and Nth Virginia would be milder than the New England states you were checking out. Further travel time from mountain to beach there though.
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Old 08-13-2009, 08:34 AM
 
Location: New England
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My wife's family is from Pittsburgh and it takes us about 12 hours from Portland. We have been out there a lot in the winter and temperature wise they seem similar, but Portland usually has a lot more snow.
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Old 08-13-2009, 08:55 AM
 
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Default Thanks!

Thanks for the advice. I was hoping to hear that the winters in Pittsburgh were similar to those in Maine.
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Old 08-13-2009, 10:51 AM
 
Location: Gorham, Maine
1,973 posts, read 5,208,817 times
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Quote:
Originally Posted by ljsmath View Post
My husband and I currently live near Pittsburgh, PA and are looking to move somewhere no more than 12 hours away so we can still visit family easy enough. We do have some specific criteria – mountains for hiking and small coastal town are musts! We would also like to be within an hour or two from the beach if possible and somewhere without an extremely harsh winter. Any suggestions would be greatly appreciated!
I'm confused, coastal town that is 1-2 hours from the beach? Do you mean minutes?
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Old 08-13-2009, 11:48 AM
 
8,767 posts, read 18,612,584 times
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Quote:
Originally Posted by WhoFanMe View Post
I'm confused, coastal town that is 1-2 hours from the beach? Do you mean minutes?
I was wondering that too. If you're in a coastal town you're near a beach of some type anyway. If you live inland you're most likely within an hour or two of a beach too. 90% of the towns on the coast are small and winter is cold, snowy and long! Generally if you move north the winters are colder and harsher, if you go south the winters are milder and shorter.
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