My older son lives in Portland w/his Mom, stepdad and their family. I love visiting there. It's a cozy little city. Unfortunately, they're moving next summer (when the poor kid only has two years of high school left!) so pretty soon I won't have an excuse to head back up there. Bummer. I haven't explored the surrounding areas of Maine as much as I would like to, yet, and time's running out.
Maine was the only place my four-month 46-state tour of the United States in which I had to pee in an outhouse. That said, I liked Portland, though we didn't spend much time there.
I went to summer camps near Norway, ME and China, ME. Landed at PWM but didn't see Portland itself (the Jetport's in S. Portland, IIRC). I love the pics I've seen though.
Check out Acadia National Park if you can. It's amazing. Water is ice cold though (not that I didn't go in). Some of the small towns around there are in a complete time warp (in a good way).
Hood River and Bend in Oregon are both awesome. I also like Missoula a lot and I'll add Coeur d'Alene since I'm in Idaho.
Quick note..has anyone here lived in Charleston, SC? I am moving there for a job in 3 weeks. I am looking in the West Ashley neighbourhood as a place to live.
I moved here eight years ago, and after living all over the US and the world, I can honestly say I love it. nice beaches, cool city pleanty of outdoors things too do. West Ashley is a pretty good area, same with Mt pleasent. Not sure where you will be working but commute could be an issue if your on the other side of town (not that bad but still there) Not too mention we have a great resturatant scene with many fab. places to eat. Oh yeah and we have the Charelston Battery, a great little team with a nice little stadium complete with a world class pub. where are you moving from? PM if you have any specific questions, Ill be glad to help
The winters suck but the local beers are awesome and the summers are heaven, especially on the water. Pretty rough economy at the moment though, not that it's ever great here. Like Bert & I said: this recession wouldn't be so bad had it not come on the heels of such hard times. I'll second Charleston SC, great town. Great sailing.
We lived in Charleston for a little under two years, and although it didn't work out for us for a number of reasons it is a great little city. West Ashley is nice; we looked into buying a house there, and had we stuck around we almost certainly would have. I'm still a little wistful about one of the houses we looked at; tiny little brick place from the 1940s, small little backyard. Loved it. Plenty to do, great restaurants, the fact that it's a college town means there's a decent nightlife. And the Battery is great, and damn inexpensive to follow as well. Believe it or not, my season ticket was only 50 bucks!
I used to have a great little pic of a downtown block of Moscow on my computer. I think it was off of wiki. Made it look like a very pleasant little town. Great little student radio station there, in KUOI. http://www.kuoi.org
I've lived in London for many years but I returned and have now settled in my hometown, which is looked down on by the Dutch but ironically of course much appreciated by its comparatively large contingent of foreign college and postgraduate students. It's big enough to be anonymous in if you want to, yet small enough to easily get to know people. And it's quaint enough to attract a whacky artist community and be the home of a special footbball club. The small town is perfect! http://www.enschede-stad.nl/gebouwen.php?gebouw=Oude Markt&foto=2&page=2
Our favourite small towns (Top 6) are:- 1. Fredericksburg, Texas 2. Nachitoches, Louisiana 3. Boerne, Texas 4. Madison, Georgia. 5. Taos, New Mexico 6. Hanover, New Hampshire
depending on what we consider Small towns I will say, in no real order: (Small Cities ~20k-150k) Charleston, SC Portland, ME Santa Fe, NM Savannah, Ga Natchitoches, La Natchez, MS Small towns (>20k) Williamsburg, VA Sedona, AZ Taos, NM Bay St Louis, MS (pre-Katrina, from what I hear it was hit hard) Breaux Bridge, La Oxford, MS these are all nice or interesting places, but I can't see myself ever wanting to live in any of them. Too much of a big city person.
Yes, with a 30% suicide rate and a growth rate far below that, Ithaca now has a population hovering near zero. Actually, Ithaca has more than 150 sunny days a year and a below average suicide rate. Ithaca's a great place to live, except that there's no footy pub in town.
Outside the U.S.A. three lovely small towns that come to mind are:- 1. Positano, Amalfi Coast, Italy 2. Salisbury, Wiltshire, England 3. Dingle, Co. Kerry, Ireland.
In typical Central/Western NY fashion, those sunny days are all between June and September. From here on out it will rain every day until it starts to snow. April and May become a sort of season in itself called extended March as spring does not exist in upstate NY.