1 more question: Do you miss the Ocean/Water? (Phoenix, Sedona: appointed, to live)

[MotleyCrew]

We are from CA and lived fairly close to the coast. We always wanted to live in San Diego but decided that AZ would be the better choice. The coast is too crowded now and property taxes too high. If you have millions and can afford an ocean view, then sure that would be a good choice as long as you can walk to the store. We just hop on S.West and go over for long weekends to see the sea.

[puffle]

Nancy,
I moved from California to Virginia and back again and I definetly felt land locked and claustraphobic having been able to get to Malibu in fifteen minutes before. The closest beach was almost four hours away! No place to cool off...went to an area in Maryland, Annapolis, hoping to find cooler temps like going to the beach in Ca. but was just as hot. We then moved to Boston and I felt much better just being able to look at the water. Hope it works out for you.

[lifeisgood1]

Nature has a ways to engrave an image in our brains (read memory). Like Salmon, we cannot help to want to return to where we were born. Returning to our place of birth is in fact returning home, and home is where the heart is. We all long to touch, feel, smell, listen, to re-live the memories of our place of birth, our childhood or the source of sweet memories. . Knowing that we can always visit "home" from time to time, iis often all it takes to quiet those ... oh you know what I mean. In essence it all becomes very acceptable that things most missed are often the memories of "the good old days which were not always so good anyway. Visit often you will be ok.

[esselcue]

I am from Orange County, CA and I miss the oceans of my youth (early 60's) but not the crowds and craziness of the oceans nowadays. I still have relatives in the OC so I travel over a couple of times a year to sniff the sea air around Newport Beach...but I don't miss it enough to EVER go back.

[crazyme4878]

I miss Lake Superior very, very, very much. Or any cold, clear lake surrounded by woods. But that is where my heart, and always will be, I suppose. I don't think the ocean would even help me.

I think it depends on how much water plays in your vision of yourself.

[SedonaShadow]

It would be hard for anyone to be more "salt water conditioned" than myself. Our back yard was the sands of L.I. Sound. My mother always said that when we kids were born, she immediately took us out back and tossed us into the water. We were totally at home in the water before we could walk. By now of course, the whole country has tried to migrate to and cover every inch of shore space with houses/businesses and the water with noisy, polluting watercraft of every kind. No need to go into the deterioration of water quality. I can hike here undisturbed, except for wildlife, through endless miles of wilderness even to the point of leaving the state. This is one time where remembrances of "the good old days" of a clean, quiet, beautiful ocean make thoughts of returning impossible.

[poolgirl51]

Originally Posted by lifeisgood1

Nature has a ways to engrave an image in our brains (read memory). Like Salmon, we cannot help to want to return to where we were born. Returning to our place of birth is in fact returning home, and home is where the heart is. We all long to touch, feel, smell, listen, to re-live the memories of our place of birth, our childhood or the source of sweet memories. . Knowing that we can always visit "home" from time to time, iis often all it takes to quiet those ... oh you know what I mean. In essence it all becomes very acceptable that things most missed are often the memories of "the good old days which were not always so good anyway. Visit often you will be ok.

What a great post and so true. Thanks!!!!

[Route_66_traveler]

Originally Posted by Nancy Lynne

For those of you who have moved to AZ from coastal areas of the US, as I will be, do you miss the closeness of the sea? do you feel land locked? or does the majestic view of the mountains make what you left behind a distant memory?

Nope, I don't miss the sea at all. I like the the mountains 100% better. Instead of a sea, I can see the beauty of the majestic mountains where as the Pacific ocean, was just another body of water.

[kdog]

Originally Posted by lifeisgood1

Nature has a ways to engrave an image in our brains (read memory). Like Salmon, we cannot help to want to return to where we were born. Returning to our place of birth is in fact returning home, and home is where the heart is. We all long to touch, feel, smell, listen, to re-live the memories of our place of birth, our childhood or the source of sweet memories. . Knowing that we can always visit "home" from time to time, iis often all it takes to quiet those ... oh you know what I mean. In essence it all becomes very acceptable that things most missed are often the memories of "the good old days which were not always so good anyway. Visit often you will be ok.

So eloquently stated, and yet I couldn't disagree more. I grew up in Mass, moved away 25 years ago, and couldn't care less if I ever went back again. It's not a bad place, it's just not for me.

[ArizonaBear]

Originally Posted by Steve97415

Oddly, I find that the desert and the sea have much in common. The desert is a sea of dry earth, the sea a desert of water. Both are environments to which humankind is poorly adapted and pose potential dangers. Both have wide horizons that offer expansive vistas. Both harbor exciting and somewhat alien life forms that humans normally have little contact with. Both are sere and economical biomes characterized by a lack of plants. Both have a particular relationship with sun and sky that other earthscapes lack. They are, in their own different ways, the top two places that people retreat to in order to seek out solitude and spiritual insight.
I live 100 yards from the ocean and I miss the desert greatly. In the tropics, or in a hot arid environment, proximity to the sea is a welcome amenity that tempers the heat of those climates. Elsewhere, the ocean just casts up fog and chill, enveloping the world in a shroud of gray and erasing the march of the seasons. I love gardening and in a mild maritime climate you can grow so many things. Were it not for that, I would return to the desert...at least I would if I could find a decent city there to live in!

Excellent insights there.

Trust me: I understand the solitude part. In all fairness; I prefer the 'High Desert' (above 3,000') due in part to it being significantly cooler and in most cases, more rainfall.