Thanks. We saw the northern panhandle years ago- beautiful! My cobcegns are the cold and all that population growth in Boise- that’s what is destroying Nevada ( Vegas) with left wing Californication refugees ( same thing that destroyed Oregon and wash state politically). So? Maybe will try to learn more about Wyoming and possibly Montana.. all cold tho. We checked Texas but it’s hot everywhere there. All 100 counties we checked. We may need to adapt a lot - these states all have so many attractions!! But can older folks adapt to harsh weather conditions? We need to think this over. (Not prone to sunbird moving much) Cour d Alene and surroundings also the parts of Montana and Wyoming we saw, really looked wonderful. But that was in springtime. We may need to try visiting in winter!!
I moved to Meridian, ID 3 years ago. Meridian is right next to Boise. People in my area are well aware of the influx of Californians. There is concern they will turn ID into a s***hole like California.
We went round and round on the weather problem for years. Fortunately, the San Fran Bay Area where we’ve lived for 45 years is quite mild in the winter, so we will return here where we’ve had all of our friends for winters. The unbelievable beauty and thousands of miles of trails here is hard to beat. It does get cold — the mountains east of us are snow-covered this week, but 20s low 30s is not bad and that usually happens only in Nov and Dec.
We thought about going south, but the southwest gets you into desert quickly and neither of us were thrilled about that. Lots of people like desert living - it just wasn’t for us.
The area we selected has a very strong year-round community. We last visited during Labor Day and my wife took a stroll down one of the lanes. She struck up a conversation with a woman working in her yard and next thing we know we are over at her house at 5 pm for wine and cheese!
Going far north seems nuts for people in their 60s, but we are in the very fortunate position of being able to own a second home. If it doesn’t work out, we can always sell (assuming the housing bubble doesn’t collapse). With inflation picking up, real estate might be a wise investment decision, too.