My wife and I have lived in the Chicago area since we got married over 20 years ago. I absolutely hate, hate, hate, HATE it here, and the thought of living here much longer makes me literally suicidal.

I am a real outdoorsy person. I need to get out into wild country and enjoy some solitude and natural beauty. But within 200 miles of where we live there isn’t even a decent place to go camping or take a hike. (Believe me, I’ve looked very hard to find such a place. There’s nothing!) In fact, nothing but endless subdivisions and malls, surrounded by endless fields of corn and soybeans.

For complicated reasons, I had to work in the San Francisco area for an extended period a few years ago, and I really loved it. (She resented every day I was out there.) Northern California is everything Illinois isn’t. It’s paradise! In fact, any place on the west coast, from Santa Barbara CA to Vancouver BC would be a vast improvement in living conditions.

The problem is, my wife loves it here, and will not consider moving. She says the cost of living on the west coast is too high, we would both have to change jobs (actually, not a problem since we both have highly valuable skills). She says she doesn’t see anything wrong with living here, and, no matter how many times I explain my feelings, she can’t seem to understand why I’m not happy here. I’ve traveled with her to the west coast on vacation to show her how beautiful it is, but she was unmoved by the experience.

At one point, when I threatened to leave her, she agreed to move when our younger child finishes high school in a few years, but now she has made it clear that she has absolutely no intention of ever doing that.

So now I’m out of ideas. What can I do?

Technorati Tags: camping, chicago area, corn, decent place, endless fields, feelings, intention, jobs, malls, natural beauty, northern california, san francisco area, santa barbara ca, solitude, soybeans, vancouver bc, west coast, wild country

My wife and I have lived in the Chicago area since we got married over 20 years ago. I absolutely hate, hate, hate, HATE it here, and the thought of living here much longer makes me literally suicidal.

I am a real outdoorsy person. I need to get out into wild country and enjoy some solitude and natural beauty. But within 200 miles of where we live there isn’t even a decent place to go camping or take a hike. (Believe me, I’ve looked very hard to find such a place. There’s nothing!) In fact, nothing but endless subdivisions and malls, surrounded by endless fields of corn and soybeans.

For complicated reasons, I had to work in the San Francisco area for an extended period a few years ago, and I really loved it. (She resented every day I was out there.) Northern California is everything Illinois isn’t. It’s paradise! In fact, any place on the west coast, from Santa Barbara CA to Vancouver BC would be a vast improvement in living conditions.

The problem is, my wife loves it here, and will not consider moving. She says the cost of living on the west coast is too high, we would both have to change jobs (actually, not a problem since we both have highly valuable skills). She says she doesn’t see anything wrong with living here, and, no matter how many times I explain my feelings, she can’t seem to understand why I’m not happy here. I’ve traveled with her to San Francisco on vacation to show her how beautiful it is, but she was unmoved by the experience.

At one point she agreed to move when our younger child finishes high school in a few years, but now she has made it clear that she has absolutely no intention of ever doing that.

So now I’m out of ideas. What can I do?

Technorati Tags: camping, chicago area, corn, decent place, endless fields, feelings, intention, jobs, malls, natural beauty, northern california, san francisco area, santa barbara ca, solitude, soybeans, vancouver bc, west coast, wild country

I’m starting as a freshman this fall and I’m feeling anxious about the choice I made to attend. What do you think of Humboldt and the area. I’m from LA, and although I do love being in the outdoors and camping etc, it’s still different from the outdoors I’m used to.

Technorati Tags: camping, freshman, humboldt

If I am going on a vacation to the California coast this summer, how much money should I bring, and what should I pack, if I am going camping?
We might travel all over the state also…

Technorati Tags: california coast, camping, how much money

We live in Colorado and will be driving there. So somewhere not too far.. Give me ideas on what to do and see, and where to stay. Also, someone tell me about "beach camping" … please! Can you actually camp out on the beach or what? Sorry, never really been outta Colorado. Thanks

Technorati Tags: camping

We’re not sure if we’ll be camping or get a hotel. Where can we camp? What cities should we look at for a hotel room?

Technorati Tags: camping, hotel room

Hi im planning to go camping but have no idea which one to choose. I don’t know if Redwood national park is open late october, it’s a little more inconvenient to get this one. However, I wanted to know which one is more fun/interesting. I might have to settle for Humboldt.

Technorati Tags: camping, redwood national park

I am going camping for 3-4 nights next thursday with some friends and we were planning on going up to humboldt somewhere, prolly near the redwoods. But then someone told me that it is sketch to camping out there becuase of all the grow operations.

Is it chill? and if so where should i go (i want to be near the ocean)?
Also if humboldt is sketch where else should i go? I live in San Fransisco and am willing to drive up to 5 hours to get there and am trying to be near the ocean.

Technorati Tags: becuase, camping, chill, redwoods, san fransisco, sketch

I live near Los Angeles and don’t want to travel that far. Are there any good vacation spots near Southern California, Nevada, or Arizona? I want to go sometime in August, so no places that need a reservation far in advance, like camping. I want to stay in a hotel and have it be family-friendly. Also, it has to be kinda cheap because we don’t have a lot of money to spend Any suggestions?

Technorati Tags: california nevada, camping, money, southern california, vacation spots