Day 2 NaBloPoMo

Today's NaBloPoMo prompt:  If you could live anywhere, where would it be?

Hmm, tough question.  After MM and I visited Maui for our wedding, we talked about how great it would be to live there.  Beautiful scenery, temperate climate, lots of stuff to do.  But then we thought we might feel a bit isolated living so far from the mainland and from our friends and family, and we realized that, if we lived there and worked for a living, we wouldn't really be able to enjoy it in the same we could when we were there on vacation.

I would love to live in San Diego or other parts of southern California, if cost were no object, for many of the same reasons I'd wanted to stay in Maui, and with the same qualification: only if I didn't have to work for a living.  I've also thought of living in the southern part of Ireland, where my father was born and raised and still has family.  I think Ireland is beautiful, and it has a relatively temperate climate, though it rains a lot.  Times I have been there on visits, I have really enjoyed it, as the people are friendly, and I would be close to my cousins who live there.

I do have to say, though, that in spite of the G-d awful heat in the summers here, I am quite content living in Phoenix.  I dislike cold weather, and we don't experience that here.  Also, we don't have tornadoes, hurricanes, earthquakes or tsunamis to worry about (just dust storms during the summer monsoon).

Of all the regions of the U.S., the Southwest feels the most like home to me.  I love the wide open skies, the 300+ days a year of sunshine, the infrequency of inclement weather, the laidback feel, and the mixing of cultures (lots of Spanish, Mexican and Native American influence).  I love that I can hike on New Year's Day here, and I love the beauty of the desert and the way it smells after a heavy summer rain.

I am grateful for living in the desert Southwest.