Hi - I am thinking of relocating to the WS area. Will be visiting in July to do some investigating. Does anyone have any good/bad experiences to share? I currently live in the Bay Area of California - it's beautiful, perfect weather, so much to do, but housing prices are sky high! Just sold a 1 bdrm condo and can pay cash for a house elsewhere but not even make a downpymt here. Not sure I want to leave (I've been here 22 yrs), but may have no other choice. I have a 7 yo daughter so am hoping for a place that will offer lots of activities for her to do. Also, I have family about 75 miles from the WS area in the mountains of NC. All suggestions, praises, downsides to area welcome! Thx!

PINKPANTHER,

My wife & I lived in W/S for 15 years and absolutely loved it. Moved away to live on the beach and change jobs. I think it would be a great place to raise children (we don't have any, but a close friend has three girls, they live in nearby Kernersville and love the area).

W/S is a small city, approx. 150,000 population. Lots of different housing options. We probably liked living in the Ardmore section best--lots of older, restored houses with plenty of charm.

Surprisingly, W/S has a pretty good local arts scene. And it has some great neighborhood restaurants, like West End Cafe and Village Tavern. Also, some pretty decent fine dining, like Nobles.

I hope you enjoy your visit in July (it will probably be hot & humid, so get ready). Summers in the piedmont of NC give you a solid two months of somewhat oppressive heat, then you get rewarded the other 10 months with an awesome Fall (beautiful leaf changes), a fairly mild winter with a couple of snows to make everything look magical (although we slogged through our share of bad ice storms too), and an awesome spring.

Be sure to visit Old Salem for a little history, and maybe an hour road trip to nearby Pilot Mountain (you can drive to the top). Otherwise, just drive & walk around the city to soak up the feeling.

I suspect it's not going to be anything like living in the Bay area, but it has its own charm.

We visit W/S every once in a while & it is, a neat sized smaller city. The Downtown seems to be going through a revitalization right now & there are some good artists & restaurants in the downtown area as well.

Thanks Beach Dweller for your great response! After reading your reply I'm even more hopeful that I will like it and want to make the big move. I will check out the Ardmore area that you mentioned and Kernersville. So far - online - I have been keeping an eye on the Lewisville area. I appreciate your positive insight and suggestions!!

Lewisville is a pretty nice area too--it's still probably a lot more rural than you are used to. It's a little west of W/S, and it is near Tanglewood (a great park).

SAnParis, I'll bet you are referring to the art district (really just a couple of streets) downtown. That was a neat place the last time we were in town, but that's been about 3 or 4 years. We bought quite a bit of folk-art at a gallery called urban artware.

PINK, here's link to the downtown art district association.

http://www.dadaws.org/directory.htm#body

Also, if you're into wine, some surprisingly good wines are being made west of W/S in yadkin county (& probably a few other counties).

Here's a link, there are tons more (just search yadkin & wine):

http://www.allamericanwineries.com/nc/yvwt/

Actually the Yadkin Valley Wine Festival is this weekend I believe.

Yes, the Yadkin Valley Wine Festival is in Elkin this coming Saturday! I'll be there ... it was great last year.

What do you do for a living? Do you have job prospects in mind?

topping for copper

I lived in Winston for two years while getting my MA at Wake Forest and thought it was a lovely place. I lived in an apartment near campus in those days, but I got to house-sit for a few professor who lived in Pfafftown, which I thought was a very nice area. This info is now about 10 year old, however, and things may have changed.

I loved the restaurants in Winston, I loved the Reynolda museum and that whole park-like area. I"m glad to know that Village Tavern is still going strong. Withi my sweet tooth, I also enjoyed a place called The Dessertery. Or at least I think that's what it was called.

ejcrowe,

WFU brought me to W/S too, only we ended up staying another 12 years after I finished.

The Dessertery was expanded and is now Midtown Cafe & Dessertery, across Stratford road from where it started in Thruway Shopping Center.

Hey, didn't you love Rainbow News & Cafe downtown off Broad St IIRC? Unfortunately, it closed. But still lots of great restaurants; great little city.

Hi Gretchen - I work in the finance/accounting area. As of right now I do not have any job prospects. I have scanned Monster and Hot Jobs a bit but haven't done any serious looking. Not yet. I'm going to wait until I make my final decision on moving. We will be visiting in a couple weeks so I should know more then. I appreciate all the posts so far. Everyone makes it sound like a nice play to live so I'm hoping I will like it and feel some connection (especially since I'm looking at a potential layoff from my job in August!)

You might want to consider Charlotte. We have some pretty awesome things for children here. I think Winston is a nice town also however. But you might stay open to other places.

beach_dweller, I had completely forgotten about Rainbow News & Cafe until you brought it up. But yes, I enjoyed it quite a bit. What's the name of the park adjacent to WFU that has the Reynolda museum/house? I spent many happy hours there when I was dogsitting for professors.

The name of the park is . . . Reynolda Gardens. Still absolutely beautiful, as is Graylyn across the street.

Although the Rainbow News & Cafe did close, we have a lot going on in WS right now. Our downtown is exploding with activity. My DH and I spent all Saturday afternoon at a wine festival held downtown. There were approximately 15 local wineries giving tastings. Good food and good music . . . Yes, it's hot in the summer, but we do have inside AC.

A couple of the newer places downtown and our favorites: Mellow Mushroom (the best pizza outside of NYC), Foothills Brewery (microbrewed beers - my husband loves them). A little outside of downtown: Opies, South by Southwest, Village Tavern at Reynolda Gardens and a second one at the Hanes Mall area.

The birthplace of Krispy Kreme doughnuts.

We are about an hour's drive from Charlotte and Raleigh's airports and if you live on the Kernersville side of WS, you can be at the Greensboro airport in less than 15 minutes.

Good public and private schools, and one of the top-rated medical centers in the Southeast - Wake Forest University Baptist Medical Center. The biotech job market is exploding here.

Traffic woes at rush hour like any other city, but much less than Charlotte or Raleigh.

C'mon over. I think you'll like it.

South by Southwest . . . oh man, I can still taste those margaritas.

W/S is a very special place.

And if you're into arts & crafts at all, the Sawtooth Center downtown was a great place to learn/brush up skills when we were there. My wife took classes ranging from metal-working to glass-blowing.

For Emily and Chuck, the owner and chef at Mary's Of Course was the genius in the Rainbow's kitchen. mary's Of Course is not far from Old Salem and just catticorner to an incredible bakery owned by Gordon Sparber who used to be write for the W-S Journal. If you come to town with an appetite try Sweet Potatoes, 1703 or Bernardin's. Winston Salem has some very good restaurants!