[christine in pitt]

please help me ,, wanting to move to michigan.. is there anyone that can give me info on northern Michigan? want to talk to someone living there that can tell me all about my future new home .. coming from pittsburgh..THANK YOU

[Perferator]

How "northern" do you want to get? Lower peninsula northern or Upper peninsula northern?

[Luzette]

I live in northern Michigan, but what is it you want to know? We're more rural up here than downstate. Traverse City would be our main small city for shopping, culture and anything else you would look to a bigger town/city for. If you're coming to the Lake Michigan side then in this poster's opinion it's the best part of northern Michigan. Other areas are nice too, but there is nothing like living close to one of the Great Lakes. I guess in Pittsburgh you're far enough north to know it's cold with a lot of snow up here in the winter time. Summers are wonderful here.

[Luzette]

Yes, the poster ahead of me is right. I assumed you meant northern Michigan here in the Lower Peninsula. If it's in the Upper then that's a whole different thing. You need to tell us the general area you're talking about.

[christine in pitt]

upper but maybe central also

[christine in pitt]

we were thinking of moving to soo but not sure if we will find jobs , i have been told that there isnt a whole lot there.. we traval to ontario every year and this year decided to go through michigan instead of new york. we would like traverse city i'm sure. but wondering how the jobs are there and also how are black fly's ? we hunt and fish

[christine in pitt]

seems in most pictures michigan is very similar to pennsylvania.. we have pretty cold winters they seem to last forever.. snow doesnt really bother me , makes you look forward to spring time. is it hard to get around in the winter there. like are you snowed in for days.? can you tell me some good verses bad ?

[Perferator]

Originally Posted by christine in pitt

we were thinking of moving to soo but not sure if we will find jobs , i have been told that there isnt a whole lot there.. we traval to ontario every year and this year decided to go through michigan instead of new york. we would like traverse city i'm sure. but wondering how the jobs are there and also how are black fly's ? we hunt and fish

I'm not much further north than TC here in Boyne City. Glad to see you hunt and fish....I do, too. The job market might be tough here but for hunting and fishing we do pretty good. Dont worry about black flies unless you are heading for swamps and/or night time. Sometimes they are thick and sometimes it's just plain 'skeeters. It really depends on certain timing of hatches plus the amount of rain we've received. Of all the years I've lived here the mosquitoes have been terrible only a few times.

[Luzette]

If you aren't bothered by snow you shouldn't have an issue with Michigan on that account. I'm around the Traverse City area but not right in the city. It takes a truly severe storm to cause people to be snowed in for days at a time. This winter people out east had worse weather than up here. Snowstorms are common, but people usually get plowed out the next day. Jobs are hard to come by just about everywhere, but since I don't know if you're specialized in a more in demand area that might make it easier to find work.

It's very beautiful up here. I personally have a hard time getting through winters because I suffer with the seasonal depression type issues. This would be my negative for the area, but many here who love snow, cold and winter sports would list this as one of our big positives. We can run years where summers are on the cool side which I think is a negative, but last year it was quite hot to the point we had many drownings in the lakes as people were jumping in to cool off and take advantage of the summer sports. If you enjoy hunting and fishing you'll be in paradise up here whether it's in the upper or lower peninsula. Black flies aren't a big issue where I live. I hear more about that in the UP, but folks from there can fill you in on that. Fishing is just really big here not just in the lakes, but we have a lot of rivers and streams as well. You never have far to go to find a body of water, and now folks are on the lake for ice fishing. Fall is a beautiful time of year for us.

We don't have the bigger cities in this part of the state so if you like a lot of socializing it's more of a challenge. This is what I like about Traverse City. It's big enough to offer some diversity. It can be quite isolating in the smaller towns which is a negative to me, but some would say this is a plus. Just depends on what kind of personality you have I guess.

[christine in pitt]

i'm not interested in really living close to a big city. would rather stay out in the country a little..does anyone know how long it takes to cross the independece bridge into ontario.. and how is ontario for a job.. can you live in michigan and work in ontario..or is that more of a pain then its worth?