Gas prices force local family fun/vacations. What's good in your home town?

[BrianR]

El Paso has a few small museums, an "arts center", the Sun Bowl, a few "haunted sites" and Ciudad Juarez just a few miles south.

Simply put, it's the asshole of Texas. I'm forced to live here out of love for my wife. Her arthritis is bad and she is in too much pain to live outside a hot, dry climate.

I want to live in Knoxville, Tenn. Or around there. Lots to see and do in that area. Music, art, theatre, tourist-y things, history, nature, fishing, swimming, boating, camping. Too much to list. And few if any tornados because the Smoky and Bald Mountains tend to block them.

There are all four seasons, all mild. Rarely is a winter harsh or a summer brutal. Here it's already climbing up into the 90s and will be hitting over a hundred degrees daily by the end of the month.

And we're just about to move into a house without air conditioning. I can only open three windows so far and they require a pry bar.

I REALLY love this woman, right? Right?

She wants to move to Phoenix someday. Or The Mojave desert. She will be alone there as I'll be in Heaven on Earth, otherwise known as Tennessee.

[binky]

Originally Posted by BrianR

El Paso has a few small museums, an "arts center", the Sun Bowl, a few "haunted sites" and Ciudad Juarez just a few miles south.

Simply put, it's the asshole of Texas. I'm forced to live here out of love for my wife. Her arthritis is bad and she is in too much pain to live outside a hot, dry climate.

I want to live in Knoxville, Tenn. Or around there. Lots to see and do in that area. Music, art, theatre, tourist-y things, history, nature, fishing, swimming, boating, camping. Too much to list. And few if any tornados because the Smoky and Bald Mountains tend to block them.

There are all four seasons, all mild. Rarely is a winter harsh or a summer brutal. Here it's already climbing up into the 90s and will be hitting over a hundred degrees daily by the end of the month.

And we're just about to move into a house without air conditioning. I can only open three windows so far and they require a pry bar.

I REALLY love this woman, right? Right?

She wants to move to Phoenix someday. Or The Mojave desert. She will be alone there as I'll be in Heaven on Earth, otherwise known as Tennessee.

Brian,

I live near the Mojave desert, Indian wells valley. AC is not the economical answer for a dry hot climate, an evaporative cooler is, as long is humidity is low (and here, 3 miles from the sun, it is). Dealing with the heat takes an adjustment, but the crime rate is low, schools are good, and housing prices are among the best in California, so here we are. That being said, there is not much to do here, and when our kids are grown, and we retire, we are off to the Oregon coast with all the rain and fog.

[lookout123]

Flagstaff for the cooler mountain air and camping - 1.5 hour drive
Lake Pleasant for the quick boating, fishing, whatever days - 15 minute drive
Rocky Point for a weekend at the beach -3 hour drive

In town, lots of swimming pools and water parks, nice ballparks, mediocre theater, science center, museums, and heat to bake your braincells in.

[jinx]

The Brandywine River for one...