rpjs

Eastern CT, past New Haven, or as my wife likes to call it, "temporarily occupied Western Rhode Island" (see if you can guess which state she's from) is really nice and even has commuter rail to central/western CT (and with connections, and it takes an age, to NYC). Southern RI, OH's home turf, is really nice, and whilst the bits right near the ocean are $$$ you don't have to go very far inland to find nice places that aren't too expensive.

zargof

Slowvannah except around St Patrick's Day.

SultanOfSwing

That celebration of a Welsh cleric really ****s it up for everyone, doesn't it?

WEBlue

Yes, we don't consider Stamford to have the kind of walkable town center we'd like, and Bridgeport is definately to be avoided. We're about halfway up the coast in Milford right now, which has a decent (though small) town center. We're comfortable for now here, but the husband doesn't like the Post Road ticky-tacky shopping strips everywhere & he hates the Milford Mall, which snarls traffic for a mile around when it's busy. He wants a quieter town, although we love the proximity to New Haven for cultural events, music, etc.

Ah yes, we've explored the whole CT coast & RI's coast as well. I like Branford (CT) but the OH finds it still too ticky-tacky, yet the towns east of that get very small & we'd prefer not have to depend on the Shoreline East trains, which seem too infrequent & unreliable.

The husband loves RI! He'd kill to live there, and the house price & property tax situation is so much less expensive than the CT shore. We've made many trips to RI & even went round with a realtor (found a possible fixer-upper too) but the family ties are in southern CT & northern PA, so we decided we can't live that far north, at least not before more thoroughly looking at CT, & perhaps the Hudson Valley (NY).

rpjs

We live in the Hudson Valley but it's still very expensive to buy and the property taxes are high. Ossining seems a bit cheaper, probably because of the prison, and some of the towns and villages north of Croton are cheaper too, but the rail commute into NYC is a lot lot longer.

bostonbound

I love living in Concord but make sure you soon remember to bring your own water bottle when you visit as you wont be able to buy any in the shops!

Bob

Oh really? That's weird

We hardly ever buy them anyway, seems like such a waste...but at least there's recycling bins out there, unlike my town which only has a few tiny bins attached to the street lamps that don't even have bags in them so you can't throw out lollipop sticks or they go right through, well annoying

WEBlue

Yeah, very true. But we'd be looking well north of Croton, more like Poughkeepsie's western burbs or Beacon area. We don't need a commuter-fast train connection, but we'd like it not to be ridiculously slow and not have to wait for connections that can be erratic (like the Shoreline East east of us here).

Grand Central to Beacon, NY, takes about the same time as GC to Milford, CT, about an hour 20 mins. Since the husband's working from home most days, that'll work. But we haven't finished with CT yet & haven't looked much into NY taxes. Property taxes can be killer here on the CT shore, even in the (few) towns where housing is pretty low-priced.

kins

Great thread - I've already got ideas for places I'd like to visit now.

I'm not sure how many cities there are in Maine, but I'm a huge fan of Portland and Cape Elizabeth which is right next door.

Bob

Yeah, great list of places to check out if ever out in a new state, which is pretty cool.

As for Maine, there's 22 I think, but Portland is the largest with about 60K and then Bangor and Lewiston are the only other two that top 30K, the rest are lucky to have 10K

Never been to Cape Elizabeth, even though we've gone to Portland a fair bit in the past and drive through it quite a lot. Any particular fun spot to stop off in the evening? We normally stop off in Freeport to grab dinner if we're heading up to the folks, but if it's not that out of the way, might be fun to try some where new

kins

If it's not too late and it's a nice day then the Lobster Shack is fun - it's very touristy and the food is nothing to write home about but the location is great, and it's overlooked by a lighthouse, and you can climb on the rocks and admire the waves.

There's also The Good Table for reasonable food, or Rudy's Diner if it hasn't been closed for refurb.

The main places to go in Cape are the beaches - Crescent Beach (classic golden sandy beach), Kettle Cove (sand plus lots of rocks to climb on). Near both of them is the Kettle Cove Ice Cream place http://www.kettlecoveicecream.com/

There's also Fort Williams Park which has Portland Head lighthouse and is a great place to visit - loads of crumbling old fort buildings from WWII, a playpark, and a lot of space to run around.

Jan Alaska

Out of the 3 I have to choose from I'd have to go with Anchorage, a city surrounded by mountains but sadly lacking a real night-time vibe unless you are into stripper clubs. Today we were lucky enough to witness the 'cleanup' crew shovelling a couple of drunks into the meat wagon so people could enjoy the downtown Saturday market.
Juneau is wet ... cut off from the road system and full of tourists and did i mention very wet ?
Fairbanks is menopausal, it varies between very hot and very very bloody cold.

rpjs

You should have a look around Cold Spring - pretty little town in a beautiful setting across from West Point and it even has a little shop run by a Welsh lady that sells a small selection of British groceries.

Beaverstate

Are the women going to stripper bars? There must be some places where women go. If not it would be a tremendous business opportunity. I look forward to visiting Alaska some day, probably not Fairbanks. Did you invent the menopause quip? Or is it common usage?

Cuthbert Rizla

St Petersburg,Fl.
If I turn left and drive for 10 minutes I reach one of the best beaches in the United States; if I turn right and drive 10 minutes I hit downtown St Pete, a re-generated hidden gem with cracking bars and restaurants, a nice waterfront, great museums and interesting architecture.
Sorted.