Hotel with Indoor Pool???

[Chapelle]

jkgourmet - thanks for the link!!

twingles - sounds about right!

believe me, you guys would be miserable if it was the other way around and you moved here! LOL - Although we will miss the city action, i am sure we will adjust!!

thanks for the well wishes - the kids cant wait to see the city of raleigh! this will be our 3rd trip in a year to NC, 2nd to raleigh and one to the outer banks. my husband and myself plan to go back to raleigh in the dead of the heat this july for a 4 day trip, and are going to do the drive to the coast to see what it is like in Wilmington.

they say its best to visit a place a good number of times before moving if its completely out of your familiarity.

if the march trip goes well and we have no clear allergies to pine, then onward and upward towards our big move!

[BlessedLife]

Originally Posted by Chapelle

one more note - i also think you guys view traffic differently than New yorkers do. Bc on another thread when I was asking about the commute from wake forest to RTP, some of you were comparing that to the commute from suffolk to the city - I am not too sure about that. It can take an hr or more during rush hr to travel from nassau to the city and that is only covering 18 miles. i have a feeling you guys experience traffic a bit differently than we do!!

I have been doing this drive for the better part of a decade, as has my husband. This drive, during rush hour and NOT on a Friday, will easily take an hour. Throw in a car accident (hint: they always happen somewhere in that distance when the roads are wet) and the need to do a daycare pickup in there, and some days it can be an hour and a half, easily. You really need to visit on a weekday, when schools and colleges are in session, and try to leave RTP at 5 and go to Wake Forest. Then you can judge for yourself if it really is comparable or not. I've never lived on Long island so I can't say, but if anyone says this particular drive is easily/ regularly under an hour I will probably openly laugh in their face.

Two additional pieces of info: there is a big difference between commuting from western Wake Forest area (where you can optionally take some side roads), and the central or eastern Wake Forest area where you have to cross or manage the Capital/hwy 1 corridor. Secondly, the impact of the school year is huge.

Lastly, I can guarantee you what you see in traffic now will be different next year and the year after that. Drive times have become significantly worse coming from this area in the last 5 years due to development. It's not going to get better (this is a fact I've had to come to terms with myself).

[MikeJaquish]

Feller says to me, "I'm used to commuting over an hour."
I said, "Let's get you a 15 minute commute and you can have an extra hour and a half with your daughters every day."

He didn't have to think long about that....

Car time is not QOL time, IMO. BTDT.

[Chapelle]

mike - I agree, and this is one of positives on the pros and cons list to moving!

while we are exploring, its worth driving around, but when we make a decision on our daily commute - that will be of utmost importance. People who spend 4 hrs a day going back and forth to NYC from suffolk and Pa are wasting valuable time, i think its completely nuts to do that.

blessedlife - I dont doubt that the traffic is getting worse there, but it sure as heck isnt getting any better here!! They are building apt buildings in the towns on long island that have LIRR stations, and they are filling up all of the empty land in suffolk with condos. The used-to-be plumbing supply building across the street from my house is turning into a retail store. Long island is becoming the new "Queens". just when you think you can't populate long island any more than it is - well, dang wrong, and there is no place to add any more highways. The roads out here are parking lots during rush hour. It takes me 25 minutes just to go down hillside ave to pick my daughter up from her gymnastics class which is only about 3.9 miles from here. It took my husband and myself 45 minutes to get to a restaurant 5 miles away during Christmas week. IT IS INSANE - you guys have no clue.....I CANNOT STAND IT ANYMORE!!!

upon reading the thread that gourmet linked to - someone stated the following:
"While traffic has grown heavier since we moved here in 2007, it is more than a decade or two away from approaching anything I knew growing up in and around NYC."

this is what i am getting at!!