We live just outside DC, but we can be in places that feel worlds away in minutes. Right in the city, there is Rock Creek Park and when we walk there, you can't hear any city noise at all. We can get to the Chesapeake in an hour, the ocean in slightly more, and to the mountains in an hour as well. We love to hike. We have the Blue Ridge Mountains and the Shenandoah Mountains, or we can head to Maryland or West Virgina. We canoe parts of the Potomac that are away from DC and above Great Falls where we may not see another soul for hours. We love getting away on our mini-escapes.

I'm guessing landscapers and leaf blowers aren't what you meant, huh? sigh...... That's the single biggest reason we want to move.

We do have Lake Michigan, can walk to the beach from our house, can hear the waves when the lake is whipped up and we do love it. But boat access to the lake is not easy and seasonal launch fees are a fortune - since we sold our boat we don't use the lake much.

Living on a large freshwater lake in Florida we have amazing sunsets and a continuous wildlife show from our porch. We have lovely unspoilt gulf beaches 10 minutes away. There are fabulous 'Old Florida' rivers close by to kayak, where there are manatees along with all kinds of birds, animals and fish.

I can be in rolling countryside with nothing but me and the cows in 2 miles on my bike . We have a beautiful 100 acre nature preserve where I run about 10 min from us by car. Then there is Tuskegee Nat'l forest about 20 min away and Chewacla St Park with lots of trails for my mt bike and running 15 min away. So lots to do. Pine Mt GA is 45 min away and those are my favorite trails and where I first learned about trailrunning back in 1996. Miles and miles and waterfalls and gorgeous views. No one around for the most part and then only at the close ends of the trails never deeper in the woods. I love it. This is where we go to camp when we want to go somewhere close. We take our road bikes as it is a great place to ride and lots of hills :) I love hills. Father afield is the highest point in AL..Cheaha St Park. it is 90 mi from here..again some of my favorite trails and really really out in the wilds on many of them. I have to take someone if I go there to run any long distance . DH doesn't go that far. Also a great place to ride bikes on the back roads and in the park ,and world class mt bike trail as well as wonderful camping. Oh and I love love Oak Mt. St park great mt bike trails and running and camping. There is also a beautiful lake to canoe/kayak on. It is south of Birmingham so just shy of 2hr from us. So that is what we have near us. Here is a pic of sunset and me on trails at Cheaha. c

sunset :

views from the mt top

yours truly doing what I love !

Great thread !

We live on Cape Cod and it is lovely in a lot of ways. I'm about a mile from the beach. There are also some lovely woodsy walks in our town. The beaches at the National Seashore are very different from here and we used to take a pilgrimage yearly with my sister so the kids could body surf. Now that the seals have sort of taken over down there and the white sharks have moved in, we don't do that field trip anymore. For some reason my DS is a seal MAGNET. He'd get in the water and within minutes there would be three or four of them swimming and popping up around him. All animals seem to be attracted to him, which is odd, as he's the least animal friendly one in the family.

The hard part about living in a resort area is that you have to "make hay when the sun shines". DH is a bartender in a popular summer restaurant. I work in a busy breakfast place and the kids do as well. Because of that we miss out on a lot of the seasonal fun. The shoulder seasons are gold though and we do get to go to the Vineyard for a few days that are like a gift from the Gods.

We also live very close to the Mountains. (3-4 hours) So just to mess with our tidy lives we bought into a ski mountain based franchise. We've got a condo in NH that was vacation world, but now is the base for the new business. I love the White Mountains and would recommend visiting at any time of year. We love to hike in and around Waterville Valley and Franconia Notch. DH grew up hiking up there with his family and it means the world to him to bring the kids.

Our goal for retirement is to spend Summers here on the Cape, winters in NH and I'm negotiating for a month somewhere warm. Now we just have to manage to not kill ourselves working to achieve it!

Beth P.

Oh my goodness, where to start. We live in the foothills of The Sierra Nevada Mountains. Think Tahoe. It's an easy day trip. We are a 45 minute drive to the Sierra Buttes. Think Yosmite, but it's not Yosmite. It has far less people but lots of falls and beautiful, jaggered mountains. Yuba River is the clearest, most beautiful river for swimming I have ever seen. The lakes are turquoise at higher elevations.

Hiking, swimming, camping, biking, canoeing and kayaking are all popular activities here. But the bikers are the ones who race. We are home to one of the most famous bike races. Lance Heron has raced here many times. He was quoted saying this was one of the hardest races because of the heavy duty hills and mountains along the course.

Our house looks over the Buttes and Mt. Lassen. We are famous for outdoor recreation. This is a great time for rafting the Yuba, with it's Class Five rapids. People come from far and wide.

We live in the area just outside of town, called the 'Sunset District'. We have lots of stunning sunsets. Oh, and we get double rainbows frequently. I have seen rainbows end on our property. I've always wanted to name our property 'Rainbows End'. Too pretentious. LOL.

Golddust, I'm wondering if you're in the Grass Valley area? My parents lived there (Penn Valley specifically) for many years having retired there from the Bay Area.

We live in the Rocky Mtns so numerous outdoor activities and gorgeous scenery. We love all four seasons and take advantage of all they have to offer. Right now we're on a tropical vacay, having arrived yesterday, and I'm already having twinges of homesickness!!:)

Like Gold, where do I begin?

We live in a river valley, it's within an ancient trough cut through by icebergs that travelled through millions of years ago, and cut out by volcanos (in fact, we're close to several live volcanos). So it's a very fertile valley. Agriculture is huge here-grass seed capital of the world! haha. And the nursery industry is big also. I love to drive thru the farm fields east of town.

We are surrounded by rivers and craggy mountains to the east and rolling mountains to the west. Two hours or less in any direction will take you to the ocean, the high desert or incredibly dense forested areas (lots of BLM land surrounding)

To the west, at the eastern base of the coastal mountain range, we have the Napa Valley of Oregon-incredible wine country with views that rival Tuscany.

Every kind of outdoor activity can be found here, including biking, hiking, wind surfing, fishing, water & snow skiing, and tons of others. We are about 45 minutes drive from the hippest city in the nation (Portland) and every May it hosts Fleet Week. Due to federal cut backs, the US Navy & Coast Guard aren't bringing in their big ships, but the Canadian Navy is coming in. The Willamette (Will-ah-mitt) river flows into the mighty Columbia river which flows into the Pacific Ocean-so we also have a lot of waterways for big ships.

Waterfalls-Multnomah Falls and Silver Creek Falls State Park (boasts 7 incredible waterfalls with miles of hiking, biking and horseback riding trails).

World class salmon fishing. Fossil beds and gorgeous rock formations. Many, many State parks inland and coastal, and we have lots and lots and lots of green all year round.

Funnygirl, BINGO! We live in Grass Valley, west of town (toward Rough and Ready.)

Penn Valley is the beginning of the valley, flatter and hotter. Penn Valley is only about 20 minutes away from me, on the old HWY.

We spend a week each year in the Sierra Buttes. Here is a link to my photo album of the area.

Here is a link that might be useful: Sierra Buttes

Our natural surroundings are not as spectacular as mountain ranges, but are of a more subtle variety of hills, rocks, woods, and lots of surface water.

We are close to Long Island Sound, but the beaches are far from spectacular (too rocky for my taste and the sound is really salty) but if you want beach, it's there. Thimble Islands

I think what makes it so special though is how accessible it is. We are big on open space and rails to trails and nature preserves that intermix into the communities nicely. There are 2 nature preserves I can walk to from my house. Plus many others within a short 30 min drive. And even more within an hour.

Devil's Den has preserved some of it's "industrial" past in addition to the natural area.

Views of the Hudson River, about an hour from us.

There are trails where you can get pretty high...at least for us along the trap rock ridges that run through the state. That formation in the distance is a rock quarry where much of the brownstone that built NYC came from.

And we have seasons which change our surroundings on a monthly basis so no place is quite the same again. Bantam Lake and the White Memorial Conserve in autumn.

Love everyone's descriptions. Such a wonderful variety. Annie...your pictures are breathtaking. You live in a fantastic area. c

We live in a hilly, subdesert area. When I first moved here (California) from the midwest, I didn't like it- I missed the tall, beautiful trees! There are lots of places to hike nearby, pretty desert-y. I have learned to love it and it definitely has it's own beauty.

We live about a half hour drive from the ocean. Spectacular and beautiful to look at and I love the sound and smell of it.

I live near Annie, the Thimbles are in my neighborhood but only accessible by boat:) We live on the Long Island Sound so we have "beaches" but inaddition to that our town has some lovely hiking and biking trails too.

We are all lucky to live in such a geographically diverse world!

I live in British Columbia, Canada and the entire province has beautiful scenery and many attractions everywhere. There is a long ocean coastline all the way from Washington state to Alaska. There are many mountain ranges and lakes in this province. Plant hardiness zones range from 8 down to 0 so there is a lot of diversity in flora and fauna.

"Barkerville" was a successful gold rush town 150 years ago and is now a restored historic site. It's in the area I live - what I like to call 'the back-of-beyond' which is a rural area with forests, rolling hills, lakes, and mountains so there is no escape from wonderful views. I live very near the highway to Alaska from the coast so there are many people passing thru but not many living here.

Vancouver and Victoria are the most well-known cities in this province altho there are many lesser known wonderful places to visit. There are many hot springs in the south-eastern part of the province which we've often enjoyed. We even have a desert in the southern part of the province. "The Osoyoos area" is the only desert area in Canada. Because much of the province is mountainous there are "many well-know ski resorts here." Whistler Blackcomb Ski Resort is probably the most well-known world-wide because it's fairly near to Vancouver and easy to get to. There is diversity in climate, views, and many things to do in this province.

We live in Austin in the Texas Hill Country-beautiful hills, wildflowers and clear, spring-fed rivers. Our neighborhood is on the Barton Creek Greenbelt, and I can be swimming in spring-fed Barton Creek after a 20 minute hike. Austin itself has lots of trees, green space, and parks. The hike and bike trail winds along Town Lake (the Colorado River) in the middle of the city.

Several state parks are also nearby for camping, hiking, and biking. We love going out to nearby towns in the Hill Country - Fredericksburg, Wimberley, New Braunfels, Mason, Marble Falls, etc. Life doesn't get any better than floating a clear, cold river on a hot summer day!

Another one from British Columbia. A 5 minute walk from my house will bring you to a trail system with great running, hiking and renowned biking trails. I'm in the foothills of the North Shore Mountains that run into the Coastal range that go for probably 400 km before you hit civilization again. Ten minutes to one ski area, ten minutes to another, ten minutes to the ocean, 1 1/2 hr. to Whistler.

I run in the trails 3x a week (with the odd encounter with a bear) along the river and it brings such contentment to know that this is my backyard. I count myself lucky everyday that we bought our house where we did. The river has swimming holes that my DS's spent their summers in with their friends, the trails gave DS2 countless hours of biking on his mountain bike and the kids learned to ski on the local hills that helped to shape DS2's career in tourism.

I'm in a rainforest (if you have any inkling of the PNW climate in Washington and Oregon that's the kind of area I live in) with a very temperate climate. Lots of rain that give us tall majestic trees and like goldust lots of rainbows.

It sounds like so many of us live in beautiful areas and I wish I had the words to describe what my area makes me feel like.

I hope to visit some of your areas one day.

I love reading about everyone's home. I think I could live anywhere! If anyone comes close to me without visiting, I will be very angry.

gold if ever I get out there you can count on a visit !! Your views are amazing but more importantly I have read about the food you cook when you entertain..I will have a hollow leg ready to fill !!

bl..I so regret that I didn't get over to your place when I was in BC. I loved Victoria and riding the whole island day after day to Port Hardy and then taking the boat up the Inside Passage and riding my bike down the Yellowhead through St George and over and down Jasper to Banff...and on and on..it was amazing. BC is a fantastic place !!

lucky..I stopped and camped at the Alaska Hwy intersection as we were crossing BC on our way to Jasper. It was a lovely area. Everything was owned by the tribes but the campground was private. We had great food ! My friend that I was with has ridden the whole Alaska Hwy on his bike in the past. I loved his stories. You are in a beautiful place. Hope you will post pics.

texan...i got to see Austin up close and personal on my bike on 2010 when I rode from St Augustine to San Diego. it is amazing how much you learn about a country when you are going 10 mph ! We camped at McKinney Falls and rode our bikes into town 2x and back out. We toured the capitol and rode all along the paths of the lake . Even got attacked by the swans LOL ! They wanted my socks while I was dipping my toes in the water. We went through Wimberly too. What a fantastic town ! That long hill into town was my fastest speed on the trip...40 mph with my trailer and I flying down ! We were in Texas for 20 days on our trip and I never got tired of it. I love TX !! Oh and Langtry TX was amazing...lots of stories about that town and its pop 50 :)

Wow, color me jealous. Here's a picture of our outdoor natural attractions.

Wow TR! I am impressed, gal. That is one long bike ride!

We live in South Central Kentucky, close to all the caves. The countryside here is beautiful to me, and we are a short drive from the Bluegrass. Not AS natural, but we live close to the Shaker Village, and a wonderful Mennonite community.

Nancy

But red lover your picture brought back memories of my parents growing corn in our urban backyard because us kids wanted it!

We were out driving one day and we thought that the fields of corn, as your picture shows, was just the neatest looking thing ever. Our parents, who were not farmers by any stretch, gladly let us grow some corn and we even grew some well enough to eat. Thanks for the memory.

I come from farmers. Acres of corn grown on flatland reminds me of summer. That's when we went 'back home' to Indiana. Corn, humidity and mean bulls.

blfenton--oh my, I grew up on a farm and drove a tractor before I drove a car! We put out a garden so big I swore I would never do it as an adult. My sister and I dug potatoes in our bikinis to work on our tans. What hillbillys we must have looked like. But, some pretty sweet memories too. Love the song about the "fly over states". You're welcome for the memory :-)

Golddust-another farm girl. Corn, humidity and mean bulls--you got that right. I'm your neighbor in Illinois.

Golddust, my parent's P.V. home is currently being rented. When this tenant leaves (date currently unknown), I'll most likely be going back to oversee improvements and/or sale of the house. I know no one there, and would enjoy someone to talk to! Maybe a cuppa in G.V.?:)

Yes!!!! When are you coming?

Like Texanjana, I'm in the Texas Hill Country - the only part of Texas worth living in IMO. However, we are hundreds of miles from the coast, mountains or deserts.

What we do have are lovely old country roads, an abundance of wildlife, lots of rivers (anybody up for some toobing?), swimming holes and many state parks for all kinds of camping and fishing.

Unfortunately, I'm not much of a camper but DH and I have been talking about giving it a try.

Country Roads:

Deer in my front yard:
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Rivers & Swimming Holes:

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Toobing!
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haha...Annie...In 2010 I had never ridden further than 60 miles in a day. I took of with my trailer and rode with 2 friends from St Augustine to San Diego 3200 miles ! We avg 55 a day. Loved it so much that in 2011 a couple of us rode from Key West FL to Bar Harbor ME ...only 2800 miles !! Had a great time again. In 2012 only 2 of us and we started in Victoria BC...we rode up and over and down and when I was mid Saskatchewan BC I stopped as my DS 2 was ill and so was my cycling partner. Only did 1500 mi that ride. It is amazing what you learn about you and the country and the people on a bike ride. It is a life-changing adventure.

Kelly...I sure do remember the hill country with great fondness. We rode almost exclusively on back roads. I loved the rivers and the "hills" which are pretty darn big ! And the fantastic food and people...and the amazing pecan trees ! All of it was fantastic ! I hope you do decide to take up camping . I camped a different place in Tx every night with my tent for 20 nights. It was amazing. c

Yowzah TR....I wouldn't even want to drive that far, let alone bike it!

kellyeng, those pics are wonderful and certainly not what I envision when I think of TX!

Yes, beautiful photos Kelly, and funny to see flowers growing wild there that I plant in my garden here!

Gold, no def plans, just whenever tenant gives notice. He's a pilot at Beale and coming up on end of his three year assignment but I guess he could get an extension granted. Anyway, I'll be sure and give a shout-out when plans are in progress!

Love seeing everyone's sites!!

Kelly - we tube in the mountains and there is another place here very popular for rafting the rapids - but that is not for me. Love tubing!! We have businesses in the area for tubing.

tina