Could you start with a list of 6 to 10 towns/cities that you would consider and spend 4-5 days in each?
How would you feel not living within an hour of an ocean?
Most of Arizona is quite hot in the summer.

Seattle, Washington or Portland, Oregon

Another vote for Portland- its a great city, close to coast,mountains- Oregon seems to have a lot of people who could be described as health conscious and interested in healthy life styles

A bit confusing . . . You tagged this for Arizona, but would like to live on the coast if possible.

Are you seeking recommendations for anyplace in the States, or on the West coast, or in Arizona??

I was thinking Sedona Arizona or New Mexico...with the Tag...

visitsantafe.com
nice mix of everything you want and quite pretty

visitsedona.com beautiful sort of small touristy

Austin Texas Hill Country
Skads of upwardly mobile young folks pretty great hiking

orangebeach.com near PensaCola FL best beach vibe
property values for coastal location

Sarasota FL longboat key area more $$$ super nice

TX FL AL gets humid and hot in summer AC a must

Happy Hunting!

forgot,lajolla.com best climate of all but at a price.
Very pretty my west coast fav. Pacific NW beautiful green
too rainy and water too cold expensive to live there for me.
Best values on Gulf Coast picked up a cute seaside village property appraised at $600K for $40K at villagetannin.com recently.Lived a lot of different places worldwide best value/deals/prices for me in the US currently. zillow.com
best real estate site for me.

Good luck!

qwovadis: Which airport is closest to Village Tannin? Their website needs a little work but the place looks interesting.

You are getting good suggestions, so I will ask you some different questions.

Unless you have a trust fund or other kind of financial settlement, the tough issue today will be finding a source of income that allows you to move forward with your life. Any of these places would allow you to have jobs similar to the kind of jobs you would have on the Cape: enough to live with roommates, not enough probably to save up for anything better, whether housing or your own business, without working a second job at least part of the time.

Related to this is your skill set. If you want to be a vet, you will need a veterinary degree. Sick kitties or sick cows? Very different. If you want to work in the "veterinary industry", resign yourself to low pay. Even vets don't make big bucks, at least according to my cousin.

If you want to work in holistic health or nutrition, how will you get the credentials to practice? If you just want to work in the "health/nutrition industry" does that mean working in a health food store or Whole Foods or on an organic farm? None of this is to discourage you but just to help you work through some practical issues.

If you are pulled toward helping people be healthy, would you be willing to get an RN and maybe BSN? Have you ever worked with a physician's assistant (not someone who takes temperatures in a doctor's office but a qualified professional who focuses on patient care as much as diagnoses)? Nurse practitioners do many similar things, and I have found both professions to be excellent help in managing my own health issues.

Do you have a command of a foreign language? A lot of people on the Cape speak some or a lot of Portugese. Could you be a translator in a hospital or court? Health qualifications and a foreign language are often a killer combination.

Anything that involves taking care of older people is a growth industry, not just health care but helping them deal with all sorts of issues. Any attraction to social work?

First figure out what you want to do -- or at least try out, no career is permanent -- then figure out how much you need to earn, then find out what qualifications you need to do it, and then find the place that will best meet your goals for getting and using your qualifications.

I second tomfuller's suggestion of narrowing down and then visiting places.

You might like to check out the Mount Airy/Chestnut Hill area of Philadelphia. It's within city limits but you don't feel like you're in the city; you can live walking distance to beautiful, big parks where again you can't believe you're within city limits; many health conscious people, such that there are two food co-op locations, many yoga and massage practices, etc.; easy commuter rail into center city for all kinds of other activities; plenty of people your age to meet; wonderful live music venues in the city and some smaller ones in the neighborhoods themselves as well; 90 minute drive to the Jersey shore, easily done in a day trip.

I'm not sure of the job market there but Asheville, NC might be a great place for you

You need to consider what makes you employable, or how you are going to fund a course of study. Only you can research what schools are available for the type of veterinary you are interested in. That is going to eliminate many potential places.

Sedona is also a tourist town and chock full of alternative health and spa-type practitioners. An expensive and isolated place. New Mexico may not have the opportunities, either.

Start with a couple of years in Ithaca New York.
http://www.vet.cornell.edu/
Their vet school is top notch and you have plenty of recreational opportunities and plenty of very smart people in your search for a spouse.

From the range of careers you have listeed it sounds like you arent; really qualified fr anything yet. I thnk your first ste is to determine which you are really interested in and how long the training will be (some seems to be farily quick - but others are 6 year degree progrms). Then what locations have openings in those fields and what kind of salary they pay.

(If you want to be a vet you can make a deent living. If you're talking about working in a vet's office - most of the staff - unless traind nurses - make little more than working a counter at Mickey D's - and it's really not a viable career unles you are in a muti-income household.)

If Cape winters are making the OP nuts, then an Ithaca, N.Y. winter will send him screaming down Interstate 90, tomfuller!

(It is now more difficult to be accepted into Any vet school than it is to get into Medical school.)

Yet again a Portland OR. vote.
1 1/2 hr to Ocean, 1hr to mountains, Warm in summer, yes rain in winter but not as much as Seattle. ( 2 episodes of snow this year melted 1-2 hrs.) A very "green"approach to lifestyle. City has developed many bike trails. Nice suburbs.
I live near San Francisco but would not want to live there...housing very expensive, traffic getting worse---although I love the ambiance and the weather--lots of fog !!
Good Luck
PS Across the River from Portland is Vancouver WA. less crowded and housing more reasonable

You may have the cold winters but the south has brutal summers. You better visit during the middle of the summer before making that decision. The rest of the year is pretty delightful compared to where you are from.

I've lived in the south my whole life and you don't get acclimated to it. You just stay indoors for 2-3 months.

Bowsprit,

Did you get your answer about airports?

I think Pensacola (PNS) is a half-hour or so closer than Mobile (MOB).


LapisStar,

I'm not sure the upper Gulf Coast is what you are looking for. Good for families, but maybe not as exciting for singles. Definitely lacking in metro-type "things to do". Also, as others have said, hot and humid many months of the year (but not as humid as the inland South!).

Thanks!

Well, LapisStar_14, you seem to be discontented with life. I don't think it is the weather or the people. As for weather, compare this winter with last in New England if you will. So sometimes it snows and sometimes it doesn't.

You are getting some geographically related ideas (well this is basically a travel forum) but you should be looking at career, friendship, lifestyle issues. Ackislander does have career thoughts to mull over. It is however a matter of finding yourself not finding some place. Where did you grow up and where is family? You can be equally happy or miserable in Cape Cod or Concord or Cleveland or Charlestown or Casablanca or Copenhagen.

Bill in Boston (moving from Missouri two years ago)

You certainly won't escape winter by moving to the Pacific Northwest.

You will also learn to complain about the incessant rain.

I also see myself living in a community that is health conscious, has a good mix of nature and plenty of activities that more metro places would offer. I am not into major hustle and bustle, although it would be nice to live within reasonable proximity of 'Things to do'. I also like living near the coast, but its not a deal breaker for me if i were to be inland.

The DC Metro area:

HIGH education levels

LOTS of single straight MEN

130 miles from the ocean

PLENTY of things to do

I'm certain you are going to hear the same things about LOTs of Metro areas...Good Luck

Boulder, CO

Austin, TX, but two drawbacks for you:
1) Very hot and long summers.
2) Not near the ocean (Galveston is about 4 hours away)

But this part you can have in spades: "outdoors, working out, art, music, yoga"

However, I think the most important part is focusing in on a job that provides sufficient income. Where can you get that? If you don't have that, it's hard for the rest to fall into place.

One problem . . Most places (not exclusively, but in general) where you can make a decent living and have options in Holistic fields will have very expensive cost of living.

No place will you earn a decent livelihood in animal care/veterinary services unless you are a vet or have some special skills. Just working in a vet's office will basically rate near minimum wages.

And as far as health/nutrition -- you need advanced education and usually licensing.

I may be wrong, but from your post it doesn't sound like you are in any specific career path/field and don't have any special qualifications. You need to look a the job markets before you consider the things on your wish list.

Another vote for DC. I lived there in my thirties. It is very easy to make single friends there, easy to find a job there and more to do than you can imagine. If you find it too expensive, it is also easy to find a roommate.

I also vote for the PAcific NW. Not everyone minds the rain : )

Thank you to all who replied! Very useful info and feed back
Ackislander,traveler24,Dukey1,Placename,qwovadis, Bowsprit, Ozarksbill,nytraveler,janisj ETC.

One poster above, speaking about living in the south vs New England said: "The rest of the year is pretty delightful compared to where you are from. I've lived in the south my whole life and you don't get acclimated to it. You just stay indoors for 2-3 months." Well as I'm sure Lapis knows, New England is EXTREMELY delightful all but 2-3 months when we just stay indoors, it's just the months are switched. We stay inside in the winter, southerns do it in the summer.

I think the gist of what is being said here is very accurate - that a NON professional job in health or animal care does not pay well as a career - anywhere be it New England, Arizona , California, etc. So working in a health food store, a vet's office, etc is going to be tough to support yourself unless you have a second income (trust fund, boyfried/husband, etc). So if that is your situation you should probably find some place with a lower cost of living. In other words, you won't make much more in a health food store in San Francisco than you will in rural Alabama, but the cost of living will be very different. But of course the type of people and ambiance won't be what you want either. So many trade offs.

So the one suggestion I'd make is consider nursing school. In two years you can be an RN and make very decent money and the job market is excellent all over the country (with a few temporary areas at the moment that aren't great). You can then move anywhere in the country and support yourself. If you like it you can continue on with your education to an even better career and if you don't like it you will have only spent two years (as opposed to six for a vet, etc). You can be an LPN in only one year, with just as good job prospects, although not in hospitals.

Thank you for your feed back (WillTravel, janisj, kit & Isabel) I am currently serching my options for starting a health science program at some local colleges. Thank you also for your thoughful suggestions on the various locations.

My BIL lives in Corvallis Oregon. It is a great place to live.
Oregon State University has a veterinary program.
http://oregonstate.edu/vetmed/
Check it out. It might be the town you are looking for.

I live in Arlington, VA, and the summers here are much more brutal than they are along or near the coast in my condo area (South Florida) so not everywhere are they "brutal" in the South.

Arizona, if you can stand the dry heat, is sometimes described as having brutal Summers, too.

Portland, OR, and western Oregon in general, what's not to like?

Well since you mentioned being in the veterinary field- and since its so difficult to get into vet school- I will suggest equine dentistry. The grand-daughter of a friend is going to be going to school for this- don't have to be a vet and apparently it pays well and its a field where I would imagine you would meet men and women.

Going to nursing school has been suggested but new nurses have a hard time finding jobs- even though there are many discussions about the shortage of nurses, they mean experienced nurses- not new grads.

I believe there is a school of equine dentistry in Texas which is likely not your first choice of places to live but might be OK while going to school.

You mentioned Sedona yet say you don't like tourists on Cape Cod..You'd getmore of the same.

A degree in any veterinary or dentistry field will take years and require substantial academic accomplishment and financial resources.

In your early 30's it would be prudent to be very realistic about your academic abilities, and how you would finance 8+ years of university and/or vet school.

The OP never came back after Apr 17 -- the thread was topped by an advertiser . . .

I hate it when that happens

Denver, CO.

Boulder is tres cher, and no jobs.