Today I thought it might be fun to make a list of all the places Jared and I have lived over the past decade, and decide what is the #1 thing about each place we would take to create our perfect dream location, if that were possible. This isn't going to be totally comprehensive because we've got football practice in 20 minutes, but it will be a fun recap of our last decade for me!
#1: Utah Valley, Utah
Some of our favorite parts: Family, Dry Canyon, the mountains, Utah Lake, family-friendly restaurants and parks.
#2: Grenada, West Indies
Some of our favorite parts: Walks, white-sand beaches with calm turquoise water, exotic fresh fruits, apartment with private veranda looking out to our own iguana-filled rainforest, slow pace.
#3: Decatur, Georgia
Some of our favorite parts: Food (the BEST bbq and wings), nicest people, proximity to cool places, gorgeous boardwalks everywhere
#4: Bar Nunn, Wyoming
Some of our favorite parts: Prairie, population size, cost of living, no traffic, extremely family friendly (with lots of great parks), Casper Mountain, best thrift store
#5: Snohomish County, Washington
Some of our favorite parts: Temperature range/distribution of seasons, stunning rivers and lakes (and trees) everywhere, close to Jared's parents, quick access to mountains, lakes, rivers, ocean, and forest.
I'm running out of time but now I'm going to pull one favorite thing from every place that would make the dream location for us if we could mash it all together. We're going to say that "near family" is a given, so I'll choose something else from each catoegory.
From Utah Valley: Dry Canyon (I feel like this also grants a view of Utah Lake since the view is a key part of the Dry Canyon experience)
From Grenada: White sand beaches with warm turquoise water (duh)
From Georgia: The food! (insane southern BBQ and best wings ever in our town)
From Wyoming: I'm torn between prairie and population/city size. I think if I'm getting Dry Canyon from Utah, I'll be ok without my prairie walk. I choose population/city size! (Casper had about 55k people when we lived there. Big enough city for tons of parks and stores and restaurants and even swimming pools, but small enough population that there was never ANY traffic under any circumstance.)
From Washington: Yearly distribution of seasons/temperature range. The season and temperature swings here are perfect. It rarely gets colder than 30 degrees in the winter, but there are a handful of beautiful, full snows. In the summer it rarely gets hotter than the 80s, but you might get a small handful of 100-degree days. The spring and fall are long and amazing.
