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Old 08-15-2011, 09:33 AM
 
Location: California {via New England}
34 posts, read 141,301 times
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I saw this question posed in the San Diego forums and thought it was interesting.

If you moved to Orange County from another part of the country, do you have any regrets? Are there things you miss that OC doesn't have?
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Old 08-15-2011, 04:04 PM
 
370 posts, read 995,547 times
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Quote:
Originally Posted by love4travel86 View Post
I saw this question posed in the San Diego forums and thought it was interesting.

If you moved to Orange County from another part of the country, do you have any regrets? Are there things you miss that OC doesn't have?

I moved to OC and stayed 5 years

I regret I didn't move out after 2 years, cuz the novelty wore off,
and what I was paying for housing was a waste

I missed the 4 seasons the most.

Missed the feeling of developing roots, OC is very transient,
people flipping houses, or looking to move up, don't
spend a lot of time getting to know their neighbors ...

Nice place to visit ...
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Old 08-15-2011, 04:33 PM
 
Location: Grosse Ile Michigan
30,701 posts, read 79,347,054 times
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We moved to OC and lived there for 18+ years.

For ten plus years it was magical. We loved everything about it. However my wife missed the seasons. After ten or fifteen years, we started having some misgivings. The once exotic looking palm trees started looking like telephone poles with green hats. The beaches lost their appeal as we got tired of waiting in lines, hunting hours for a parking space, bumping into tourists constantly, and some of us did not like all the scantily clad perfect looking young women running around all over the place. That coupled with sand all over and sunburns, made it hardly worthwhile to go. Traffic, and the rush rush rush lifestye began to wear us out.


Eventually we moved back to Michigan for a myriad of reasons:

1. Kids did not really know grandma and grandpa and aunts and uncles. I particularly regretted depriving Mom and Dad of their grandkids for 15 years. At times, I wish that we had never left for this reason. (Dad adores his grandkids and most of them are our kids - all but 1).

2. Looking for a more wholesome atmosphere to raise our children, especially int he high school years. Wanted to get away from materialism, rampant luttiness amongst girls, hyper competitiveness and the whole living in an ant farm type of life style. We wanted them to grow up laying in rivers, lakes and forests, not in parking lots streets and occasional visits to a park or beach.

3. We did miss some things from the midwest/east:

Greenness.
Trees.
Rivers lakes and ponds that have water in them and it is not dyed or chlorinated.
Clean air.
Clean water.
Not waiting in lines.
Not hunting and competing for parking spaces.
Driving 70 plus on a freeway for more than a few feet.
Puffy Clouds.
Lightening and thunder storms
Weather. Mostly my wife missed having weather. She found perfect every day interminably boring. She really missed the changing seasons, especially fall.
Small towns with character.
White Christmas
Canoeing and Kayaking


On the other hand we really miss some things about Orange County. Not so much me, becuase I spend about 15 weeks a year in the area, but the rest of the family:

1. Friends
2. Weather (especially in about March).
3. Resturuants - this was a big one. People in OC do not rrealize how great they have it in regard to availability of a huge variety of bars, resturuants and stores (all with lines, but loads of options).
4. Mountains. Another big one.
5. Awesome places within a 1 day drive (Yosemite, Kings Canyon/Sequoia, Zion, Grand Canyon, Las Vegas, Mexico, San Diego, Catalina, even some things in LA). We have a few Niagara falls, Mammoth caves, and Cedar Point are nearby, but nothing like OC.
6. great fresh produce available all year - but this is partly compensated for the local vegetable stands along the roads with some of the best food you will ever taste (e.g. Michigan sweet corn, cherries, blueberries).
7. Growing roses all year round (we had 70 and they grew and bloomed like crazy).
8. OCHSA. Schools here are generally better with some exceptions, but there is nothing like OCHSA.

9. L.A. (kinda) although we did not love LA, it was nice to have some of the events etc. available. Detroit has more professional sports teams (if you call the Lions professional) and a great theater district (supposedly second only to Broadway - not sure if true), but not as much going on as LA. Chicago has more going on than LA, but it is 5 hours away.

10. Ocean. Yes we have great lakes (and you can afford to live on/near water), but it is not the same as the ocean, plus for part of the year all being near a lake does is make you colder.

11. Hummingbirds and wild parrots in large numbers. (Lightening bugs help compensate for that one).

12. An economy.
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Old 08-15-2011, 10:38 PM
 
Location: Denver
9,963 posts, read 18,425,033 times
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Wife and I moved from NYC, it took us around 1 month to figure out OC was not for us. I regretted not looking closer at the people, the culture, and the very shallow material lifestyle before moving. I got so tired of being asked "what do you do?" when you first meet someone, no small talk, no weather, just status, status, status...I wanted to leave then.

We were too focused on getting back to the sunny temps and beaches, we missed what really mattered... "character".

Last edited by Mach50; 08-15-2011 at 10:47 PM..
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Old 08-16-2011, 06:58 AM
 
5,113 posts, read 5,942,385 times
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I have been in OC for almost 5 years. My regret is I didn't move to OC sooner.
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Old 08-16-2011, 09:58 AM
 
Location: SE Michigan
198 posts, read 505,623 times
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I lived in OC for 2.5 years back in the mid 80s. I moved back to Michigan for 18 years and now live in Texas. It was fun while it lasted but I don't miss OC at all. I can't imagine settling down and raising a family there, Michigan and Texas are for more conducive to that activity.
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Old 08-16-2011, 10:41 AM
 
Location: Huntington Beach, CA
5,888 posts, read 12,938,775 times
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Moved from NY in 1991. Stay here until I moved to Missouri in 2008. Hated living there so much that I moved back to OC.

Most of the people I met are genuine, hardworking and sincere, unlike the passive-aggressive buffoons in Missouri
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Old 08-16-2011, 12:13 PM
 
Location: Duvall, WA
1,677 posts, read 6,828,732 times
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I grew up in Orange County. In my 20s I moved all over the country, before settling in San Diego for 4 years.

My husband got a job offer in Seattle when I was pregnant with our first child. We jumped at the opportunity to leave CA. We lived in WA for 3 years and had 2 kids. Being so far away from friends and family with 2 children under 2 years old was really difficult, so last year we moved to Aliso Viejo (where I had lived during college, and where most of my family lives now).

Everything we didn't like about CA before is magnified by having children. With the collapse of the housing market we could actually afford to buy a townhome here if we wanted, but we hate how crowded it is here, the lack of weather changes (although my kids like to be able to go outside all the time), the taxes (WA has no income tax, and their sales tax is comparable to here), the way too close proximity to my family, how I'm pretty sure if I ever die in a parking lot, it's going to be at Town Center, the air quality here is bad, and the list goes on.

If my husband made twice as much money, or if we wanted to drown in credit card debt, living here would probably not be so bad, but I feel the cost of living is just ridiculous. There are things we like about Orange County, but probably not enough to keep us here much longer. Although, I fear we'll be stuck here because of my husband's job.

V. =)
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Old 08-16-2011, 12:58 PM
 
Location: San Angelo, Texas
795 posts, read 1,575,881 times
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Quote:
Originally Posted by grhtex View Post
I lived in OC for 2.5 years back in the mid 80s. I moved back to Michigan for 18 years and now live in Texas. It was fun while it lasted but I don't miss OC at all. I can't imagine settling down and raising a family there, Michigan and Texas are for more conducive to that activity.
I was born and raised in OC and I also moved to Texas. The only thing I miss about OC is the weather. But what I dont miss is the ridiculous cost of living, high taxes, and the heavy traffic.
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Old 08-16-2011, 05:48 PM
 
64 posts, read 133,443 times
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We moved here from the East Coast a few months ago and absolutely love it. The people are great, the weather is fabulous and there are just so many activities and things to do.

The traffic thing is completely overrated, especially if you are not going to LA. There is traffic, of course, but it's not as bad as Chicago or particularly NY or many other popular areas of the country.

Maybe we will miss the seasons, but it hasn't happened yet. We don't miss anything (except family) and there is so much here that you just can't get anywhere else. Yes, it is expensive, but again not worse than the NYC metro area. If you are talking about Michigan or Texas, as some other posters did, then cost is a bigger issue. But right now I believe you get what you pay for.
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