4.5 Years in San Diego

I've now lived longer in San Diego than I did in either Ann Arbor or Washington State. I'm pretty well settled in here, with a house, family and job I enjoy. I now own enough stuff that moving to a new place doesn't sound fun, and I've spent so much time getting our house the way we want it. Plus, it's hard to think of a better place to live.

There is a map of the USA that hangs above our table at home. It's a map I used to look at for hours at a time as a kid. A few years ago my wife took it from my parents house and had it framed for me as a gift. Sometimes I look at it and think of all the interesting places there must be to live, and how that might change depending on the phase of your life.

Most of the people I work with are in the Navy and move around every 2-3 years. It would be fun to live in Hawaii, Key West, Guam, Japan or Italy for a few years, but maybe not a place I'd want to homestead.

Growing up in the Midwest I always wanted to live by mountains and water. I always envied the small town that my Dad grew up in but I wouldn't want to be more than a few hours from a major city. Having an decent sized airport close-by seems important. It would be nice to live in a town with some charm, or better yet, a college town. I don't want to live in a place that gets too hot and humid, or that has a long and cold winter. It can't be too expensive either.

San Diego does pretty well by those standards, although the traffic and cost-of-living aren't great. My former town of Poulsbo, WA also checks many of the boxes, as does Ann Arbor. Davis, CA and San Luis Obispo, CA where my wife has lived are both pretty good too. It's likely that the perfect place isn't one of the places my wife or I have ever lived.

My parents have spent the last 10 years halfheartedly looking for a place to retire to. Their criteria is quite different from mine, but I think they enjoy checking different places out in their quest to find the right one. I think it's a fun thing to think about, even if you like where you live. I like looking at the map and thinking about it.

NFL City Trips

I was sitting on a flight home from a Thanksgiving trip to San Diego and I started thinking about how many major cities I've been to in the past year. It's been quite a few, but I also started thinking about all the cities I haven't been to in a number of years. So I decided to see how long it's been since I've visited each city with an NFL team. I consider visiting the city as at least spending enough time in the city to enjoy a meal. An airport layover or driving by on the interstate doesn't count. I drive by Baltimore almost annually, but rarely actually visit Baltimore.

The results are presented here for your viewing pleasure:

It's pretty good that I've been to 11 of the 32 NFL cities within the past year, but it is disheartening that past that I haven't really been to many other NFL cities in the past few years. I'm a little embarrassed about San Francisco and Boston. I feel like I've been to each of these cities within the past 5 years, but I cannot recall when. They are high on my list of places to go again soon.

As a side note, it would also be an interesting list to do NBA teams, as I have been to Oklahoma City, Portland and LA recently, but have never visited Memphis, Toronto or San Antonio. 

Baseball Cities

I've always lived in cities with AL baseball teams. I prefer AL baseball and there are some great cities with AL teams. I've been thinking the past couple of days about which division in baseball has the best cities in it. If for some reason I had to choose one division in baseball and I had a random chance of living in any of the cities within that division, what would be at the top of my list? I went through and ranked them all based on my perceptions of each city as a place to live not considering being a fan of baseball.

6th - AL Central (Detroit, Cleveland, Kansas City, Chicago, Minneapolis)

The AL Central is hard to rank last growing up a Tigers fan, but straight up there are a few cities in the AL Central that I really wouldn't want to live in. Kansas City is lifeless, Cleveland is Cleveland, Minneapolis in nice when it's not 10 degrees outside. I grew up near Detroit but it's still not a city that I would be excited to live in. The only great city in the AL Central is Chicago.

5th - NL Central (Milwaukee, St Louis, Cincinnati, Pittsburgh, Houston, Chicago)

With 6 teams the NL Cental is nice if you like manufacturing cities located on rivers. None of these cities would be horrible to live in but most of them lack the glamour of a great city. The only cities I'd be excited to move to are Houston and Chicago.

4th - AL West (Dallas, Seattle, Oakland, LA)

In contrast to the NL Central, the AL West only has 4 cities making it a bit easier to rank. It seems like nothing good ever happens in Oakland. Dallas still strikes me as a city stuck in the 1990's. LA is LA, and as much as I hate to admit it would be a really cool city to live in. I live in Seattle so I know that it's a fine place but I honestly feel that it's lacking the character of some of the better cities in the US.

3rd - AL East (NYC, Boston, Toronto, Tampa Bay, Baltimore)

The AL East has 4 cities that I would totally jump at living in. NYC, Boston and Toronto are amazing cities and Tampa is really nice too. But the AL East also has Baltimore. Baltimore really drags it down the list. Maybe I've watched too much of The Wire, but no one wants to live in Baltimore.

2nd - NL West (San Francisco, San Diego, LA, Phoenix, Denver)

There are some great cities in the NL West and I like all of them. The last time I was in Denver I didn't really get a chance to appreciate the city but what I hear/read about Denver is that it's pretty decent. All the other cities I really love. Beautiful cities with great weather and lots of fun things about them.

1st - NL East (Washington, Philly, Atlanta, NYC, Miami)

The NL East really has it all. Each of these cities have been great places every time I've been. I've driven around Philly, but I haven't ever spent the weekend there. The other 4 cities I've been to a fair amount and they are all terrific. There isn't one city on this list that I would be unhappy living in.

I guess I hate on the midwest but with the exception of Chicago most of the cities are depressingly banal. From the view of a 24 year old LA and NYC beat out Milwaukee and Cleveland. Another note, whilst compiling this list I realized that the only MLB City I haven't been to is Toronto.

What do my readers think? Agree, disagree? Just a reminder to keep the comments reasonable. With all the comments on my last few posts I guess I need to remind you guys to not go overboard.