April 21, 2009

AZ vs MN

I decided to make a list of the pros and cons of moving to Minnesota. I figure that eventually Audia might ask why we moved and I figure it would be nice to be able to give her a past perspective on it.

Things I’ll miss about AZ

- Friends and Family
- Day after day after day of blue skies and sunshine
- Being able to see the horizon from pretty much anywhere in the valley
- Being able to drive 2 hours to see snow, then drive 2 hours back to the warm weather
- The mountains
- Sakana Sushi!!!!
- Durant’s
- Wide, many-laned freeways
- Being able to get anywhere from anywhere in the valley; “the grid” makes driving soooo easy!
- Lost Coast Great White Beer
- Road construction getting done in a timely fashion

Things I’m glad to leave in AZ

- 100+ degree weather
- West coast “aloofness” (aka unfriendly strangers)
- Scorpions, poisonous spiders and snakes
- Dust, dirt, and rocks EVERYWHERE
- Brown brown brown everywhere
- Overall congestion of the city. Too many people!!
- Hearing about shootings and violence on the local news 99% of the time
- AZ schools

Things I’m excited about in MN

- Friends and Family!!
- Green! Green grass, green bushes, green trees, green EVERYWHERE!!!
- LAKES! And “real” fishing!
- Being 2 hours from the cottage
- Minnesota Nice (aka friendly strangers)
- THE STATE FAIR!!!
- MN Schools
- Real thunderstorms
- Seasons!
- Caribou Coffee!
- CULTURE!! Being up to our noses in Museums, theaters, and cultural centers.
- Being walking distance from 6 ponds, one creek, and 2 lakes. WATER! (did I mention lakes??!!)
- Easy gardening
- Leinenkugels and Grain Belt!
- Linden Hills!
- Sebastian Joe’s
- The Mall of America
- Minnehaha creek
- Snuggling by a fire in the wintertime
- The chain of lakes (in the city)
- Creative Kidstuff!
- The St. Paul Winter Festival!

Things I’m not looking forward to about MN

- Rainy, cloudy, drizzly days more than 2 at a time
- Re-figuring out the freeway system
- Shoveling
- Negative degree weather
- Left lane campers
- Mosquitoes
- Needing two sets of tires for our car
- Road construction taking forever to get done
- Feeling claustrophobic cause of all the trees

2 comments:

Sarah Lilly

You forgot only about 3 decent months of good weather in MN on average, seasonal depression disorder, and missing Brian, Emme, and I of course! But then again, I'm alittle partial on getting you not to move so I have alterior motives :) Even though everything I said was true!

Janice

What about adding Dallas to the comparison list? One - and most-important pro - JANICE LIVES THERE!!! Do you need another reason to move to Dallas instead of MN?