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90 minute drive in traffic from Newton?
Whenever the mood moves me to go to the beach, it is a 1 hour stress free trip to any number of beaches in Eastern MA.
As far as weather goes. We in New England are blessed with a balanced climate. 3 months of all four seasons.
Sure the winters can be a bummer but have you ever experienced 45 straight days of >100 degree heat in SE Texas?
Why would you talk a person out of a life enriching change of scenery? This makes no sense to me.
Scenery...you mean 100 year old houses covered in vinyl siding? Because that's what makes up a large majority of homes in eastern Mass. Yes Mass has beautiful beaches on the Cape as I mentioned, and I've never made it to the Cape (from Lexington) in less than 90 minutes...unless you leave your house before 6:00AM to beat traffic and drive 90 MPH. Hell it took me almost 30 minutes to find parking last time I went to the Cape.
Mass has great foliage for about three weeks, and then you have sticks for the next 6 months. Some scenic coastline around Marblehead and not to mention the rest of nothern New England like the White Mountains and Maine, but those things are not what you'll be experiencing in your everyday work-a-day life. Once the honeymoon is over in a few months you are faced with the daily grind, which can be a lot harder to cope with when you are homesick in the dead of winter. I would offer this advice regardless if they were talking about Boston, NYC, or Seattle. Just trying to get her to think of the things we often overlook when considering a change of scenery. Overall I think New England is a great place to raise a family and plant roots for yourself, but there are harsh realities in every region of the country people should be aware of.
90 minute drive in traffic from Newton?
Whenever the mood moves me to go to the beach, it is a 1 hour stress free trip to any number of beaches in Eastern MA.
As far as weather goes. We in New England are blessed with a balanced climate. 3 months of all four seasons.
Sure the winters can be a bummer but have you ever experienced 45 straight days of >100 degree heat in SE Texas?
Why would you talk a person out of a life enriching change of scenery? This makes no sense to me.
Not true at all. One of the reasons I hate it here is because the seasons are not even. I might not mind 4 seasons if they were divided equally. This is not the case in New England. When I think of 4 seasons divided equally, I think of Washington DC. It gets cold but not to the point of New England. It gets cold enough to remind you it's winter but it doesn't snow on snow. The cold weather in DC is, more or less, confined to the months of December-February. That is 3 months of winter. New England is more like 5 months.
In the summer, Boston and Providence have live music. But the climate of Austin allows year round live music.
They're both excellent all year round. Boston's scene is still better than Providence, but Providence is great considering its size.
It's really nice though, when you can listen to bands al fresco in the summer.
*Edit*
Also, it's a real misconception that the only beaches near Boston are on Cape Cod. You can go to some EXCELLENT beaches in the Plymouth area or the Westport, Dartmouth, Marion, Mattapoisett areas (etc) or some North Shore beaches in well under 1.5 hours. Yeah, driving to the Cape is not fun, but it's hardly as disastrous as people make it out to be and there ARE alternatives.
As far as scenery goes, there's plenty and in all seasons. Enjoy it.
I know they have music year round but not live music. When I think of live music, I think of music outdoor that anyone walking by can hear.
Well, what you describe is certainly live music (and I love music outdoors), but so are the bands playing at bars and small clubs all throughout the city- year round. It's not as if it's hard to find a place to go hear some good tunes in Boston (or Providence). In fact, it's pretty easy; it's just that from Mid-October through May you won't see it oudoors (mostly).
Boston (or Providence) certainly doesn't have outdoor music year round, but there's plenty of live music to be found all year long.
In the summer, Boston and Providence have live music. But the climate of Austin allows year round live music.
There are outdoor music events year-round. Blues on the Green is a big live music series during the summer. However, I generally don't go to them because even in the evenings, it is hot! It's still in the 90s (summertime lows are 78 or so, and that's in the wee hours of the night).
We've gone to the Austin City Limits Festival for the past few years. It takes place in mid- to late September. Even then, it's hot. One year, it hit climbed into the 100s. Many friends from other parts of the U.S. won't go watch the bands during the day because they can't take the heat. They wait til the sun goes down (thereby missing most of the bands as only a few headliners play in the evenings).
As for Austin being the new New Orleans, I can't imagine that's going to happen. I grew up in New Orleans. It is a town seeped in history. The music that developed there is an integral party of musical history. There is a cultural richness, a texture, to New Orleans that Austin doesn't have. I think people forget that Austin is a new city. Even during the sixties, it was tiny!
Location: The land of sugar... previously Houston and Austin
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Originally Posted by inapickle
As for Austin being the new New Orleans, I can't imagine that's going to happen. I grew up in New Orleans. It is a town seeped in history. The music that developed there is an integral party of musical history. There is a cultural richness, a texture, to New Orleans that Austin doesn't have. I think people forget that Austin is a new city. Even during the sixties, it was tiny!
Totally agree. I've lived in both cities. Austin will never be a New Orleans for the reasons you stated. Much of the local music scene is now just cover bands, and there's a cheapness to it that's hard to explain. And once you're outside of the very central parts of Austin (such as around the university), it has just as much newness, sprawl, stripmalls etc. as the other cities in Texas that people complain about.
There are outdoor music events year-round. Blues on the Green is a big live music series during the summer. However, I generally don't go to them because even in the evenings, it is hot! It's still in the 90s (summertime lows are 78 or so, and that's in the wee hours of the night).
We've gone to the Austin City Limits Festival for the past few years. It takes place in mid- to late September. Even then, it's hot. One year, it hit climbed into the 100s. Many friends from other parts of the U.S. won't go watch the bands during the day because they can't take the heat. They wait til the sun goes down (thereby missing most of the bands as only a few headliners play in the evenings).
As for Austin being the new New Orleans, I can't imagine that's going to happen. I grew up in New Orleans. It is a town seeped in history. The music that developed there is an integral party of musical history. There is a cultural richness, a texture, to New Orleans that Austin doesn't have. I think people forget that Austin is a new city. Even during the sixties, it was tiny!
I don't mind the heat.
And it's true that New Orleans has a lot of history. It's a shame that a lot of people look down upon New Orleans and don't realize this (at least where I live).
Scenery...you mean 100 year old houses covered in vinyl siding? Because that's what makes up a large majority of homes in eastern Mass. Yes Mass has beautiful beaches on the Cape as I mentioned, and I've never made it to the Cape (from Lexington) in less than 90 minutes...unless you leave your house before 6:00AM to beat traffic and drive 90 MPH. Hell it took me almost 30 minutes to find parking last time I went to the Cape.
Mass has great foliage for about three weeks, and then you have sticks for the next 6 months. Some scenic coastline around Marblehead and not to mention the rest of nothern New England like the White Mountains and Maine, but those things are not what you'll be experiencing in your everyday work-a-day life. Once the honeymoon is over in a few months you are faced with the daily grind, which can be a lot harder to cope with when you are homesick in the dead of winter. I would offer this advice regardless if they were talking about Boston, NYC, or Seattle. Just trying to get her to think of the things we often overlook when considering a change of scenery. Overall I think New England is a great place to raise a family and plant roots for yourself, but there are harsh realities in every region of the country people should be aware of.
It doesn't sound as though you have been out of New England. Vinyl sided homes are the norm in most other parts of the country. New England probably has the fewest.
Besides I didn't mean actual scenery, it was an expression. I'd be interested to know what roads you are taking to the Cape that you see many vinyl sided homes. I usually just see the trees on Rte 3.
Do you think that people in Austin are seeing the wonderful countryside in their everyday lives?
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Because that's what makes up a large majority of homes in eastern Mass. Yes Mass has beautiful beaches on the Cape as I mentioned, and I've never made it to the Cape (from Lexington) in less than 90 minutes...unless you leave your house before 6:00AM to beat traffic and drive 90 MPH. Hell it took me almost 30 minutes to find parking last time I went to the Cape. 
