[famlife]

You can skip the first couple paragraphs to get to the point lol

Well we were gonna pull the plug on MI after having lived in Flint and near Grand Rapids, especially since it requires flying to work 5 days per month, but then we made a startling discovery lol...

Menominee is basically IN Wisconsin. Close to Green Bay, close to work, close to our church, friends, the lake, and still in MI plus we are more compatible with michigan homeschooling laws and other laws, etc. WI is just a weeee bit conservative in general for our political tastes. Grand Rapids was a mistake lol I told myself we'd never move back to MI and here we are. Menominee on the other hand.........

We've been through the area and it's nice enough for us.. here's some things i was wondering about:

I can't find rentals anywhere for the Menominee area. Not on Craigslist, not Google searching, I donno, is there another way, without going all the way there and getting a newspaper? I'd like to know what rental prices are out there before we put too much stock in this idea. We need a 4+ bedroom for around $1200/mo. Doable?? Are there even any rentals out there??

Is there anything local for kids and teens? i have kids infant to 12 years old, and would like for them to have enough options to stay out of trouble ;-) We'll probably choose something in the Green Bay area, but would like to limit the drive out there to 2 days per week max, and there's already church on sundays so... yeah any ideas on things for kids within 20 min or so would be super excellent.

The drive to Green Bay... How is it? Crowded? Do they clear the roads reasonably well in the wintertime?

How's the community feel? I haven't actually been through the downtown (unless that's the Pizza Hut area) and I haven't seen the neighborhoods.. are there any local festivals or fairs, any parades, community activities? Do people know each other, are they neighborly? Is it safe for kids? How are the schools? We home school, but won't be homeschooling 7th grade and up.

What would you say is the Menominee "type" of people? Boulder has it's hippies, CO Springs has it's conservative 700 Club type, Sedona has it's crystal-toting naturalists, Cheyenne, it's cow-folk.... Would you call Menominee-ans the average blue collar Michiganders, Yoopers like up in the more northeastern part of the UP, or... "what"?

One more thing. TICKS and MOSQUITOS. Are they baaad like up in the Rhinelander/N Wisconsin area? This is just morbid curiosity, not a deal breaker. I hate ticks, and had to endure them for 7 years in Northern WI. HATED them and had to go further south to camp or ANYTHING. Just wondering if they are as bad out there.

Much thanks to anyone who's made it this far. ANY info would be great. We'd be moving in Sep/Oct. Having a 12 year old now, and others close behind him, we'd like to put down roots somewhere that it makes sense. Menominee, geographically, makes sense. Trying to put the other pieces of the puzzle together. If not, we may be headed out to Colorado, but would prefer to stay closer to home due to aging family, established social network, ample water, etc.

Thanks again for any insight.

[zthatzmanz28]

Originally Posted by famlife

You can skip the first couple paragraphs to get to the point lol

Well we were gonna pull the plug on MI after having lived in Flint and near Grand Rapids, especially since it requires flying to work 5 days per month, but then we made a startling discovery lol...

Menominee is basically IN Wisconsin. Close to Green Bay, close to work, close to our church, friends, the lake, and still in MI plus we are more compatible with michigan homeschooling laws and other laws, etc. WI is just a weeee bit conservative in general for our political tastes. Grand Rapids was a mistake lol I told myself we'd never move back to MI and here we are. Menominee on the other hand.........


What would you say is the Menominee "type" of people? Boulder has it's hippies, CO Springs has it's conservative 700 Club type, Sedona has it's crystal-toting naturalists, Cheyenne, it's cow-folk.... Would you call Menominee-ans the average blue collar Michiganders, Yoopers like up in the more northeastern part of the UP, or... "what"?

.

Thanks again for any insight.

WI is Too conservitive and Grand Rapids was a mistake? And you are SERIOUSLY thinking about Menominee?
Think about WI and Grand Rapids...

Last time we were through Menominee area (2004) all I could hear was dualing banjoes paling in my head....

Just ouside the town we stopped for cigarettes (when the wife was smoking) and the owner / clerk looked at us like we were heathens from hell and stated very loudly we don't sell such things in this store!
Yet the entire area behind the old man was lined with various types of whiskey and every liquor known to man...purely for medicinal purposes I am sure..

Hippies, crunchy granola, Focus on the Family? Hmmmm...IMHO I would say the folks there are hard working and well intentioned...tey are extremely independent and really do see themselves as seperate from the land of trolls below. The world does end at the bridge.

[northstar22]

I'm from the SW Lower, so I don't know much about Menominee. I do know that part of the state isn't really "Michigan," it's just Wisconsin or Minnesota with a MI address. It's economically tied to Green Bay and the Twin Cities, and about a 11 hour drive to Detroit. You'll find people go to Green Bay or Minneapolis to do things instead of Detroit or Grand Rapids. It's even in the Central Time Zone.

I do know that the UP tends to be more conservative than the state in general, but it's not Colorado Springs conservative (eek!). It's more pro-union social conservative than anything.

If you want a liberal place in the Upper Midwest, I'd suggest St. Cloud or Duluth, Minnesota. Very liberal, progressive college towns surrounded by forests and lakes. Madison, Wisconsin is also liberal, but it's more Lower Midwest like Grand Rapids and it's in Wisconsin.

[jeeg]

I'm confused by what you're looking for?

Grand Rapids was to conservative? Or to boring? Altho that can't be if you lived near Flint and are considering Menominee.
My wife and I are from the Grand Rapids area. We have family and friends across the broad spectrum from ultra conservatives to flaming liberals and all are very happy there in Grand Rapids and find plenty to do.

So...... as you can see I'm not sure what information you're looking for.
The U.P. as a whole is conservative. The most liberal city is Marquette (where we now live).

I agree that Michigan's homeschool laws are very nice (we homeschool).
I don't know of any place in the U.P. that isn't safe for kids. I know nothing about the schools outside of Marquette.
I would say that Menominee is a fairly laid back blue collar WISCONSIN town (they're Michigan in name only).
I don't know of things for the kids to do there as far as clubs or whatever. We personally are very outdoors oriented and the wilderness, lakes, and rivers are our playgrounds. An occassional festival/faire (all over the U.P.) and movie.... that's all we need. But we also travel a lot.
The yoopers I know don't tend to stay in one town for events. We travel all over the central and western U.P. for our daily fun.
I have found people friendly everyplace we've been in the U.P. ...... then again we're friendly easy going folks ourselves.
We've only been down there a few times for various activities but never had a problem with ticks and very few with mosquitos.

Hopefully a local will be able to fill you in more. Most of my knowledge is the central and northern part of the U.P.

Edit: I just read the other threads you've started the last few weeks. Having also lived in southern Colorado (and have family there)... I would say that sounds like the best fit for y'all from what you've shared on the various threads.
I was amused by the many similiarities in our situations. A little over a year ago we moved to s.w. Michigan to be near extended family again. Almost immediately we realized our mistake. Before 11 months were up, we had moved back here to da U.P. We too have done a lot of agonizing over where we will settle down to raise our children (3 kids so far).

Good luck with whatever direction you choose to go in

Edit for one final note: Pretty much the entire central and western U.P. is predominantly Catholic.

[charley63]

I think you could probably find a 4 bedroom rental house for around $400 a month. I don't think there is much for your kids to do or many groups to join. Even if there were, the "locals" aren't very friendly to newcomers. Signs around town will alert you that "God Rules Over Menominee County." In my opinion, it resembles something from a Stephen King movie.