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The pros and cons

For those of you who read my Lake Tahoe blogs, you know that me and Nick are hoping to move there in about 2 years. You never know if a place is truly going to fit you unless you go for it, so that is what we'll do! All we know right now is that Tahoe seems to be perfect for us. There is the risk of feeling quite lonely up there but we are hoping to make friends of course. My family is already really far away so that won't change. And Nick's family won't be more than four hours away so we can see each other every summer and sometimes on Christmas. Doesn't a Christmas by the lake, green forest and snowy mountains sound amazing? Not to mention the gorgeous houses that look like cabins. We do realize that this place isn't perfect, but there are pros and cons wherever you live. It's just about the positive things outweighing the negative. And for now, they do :) So I thought it would be fun to share those with you guys!

Cons

1. Wood fired stoves. Apparently a lot of stoves in Tahoe are like this so you have to stack wood to use it. This comes to use during a power outage but also means more work to get wood.

2. Snow tires and snow chains - unless you have the right kind of car!

3. Few schools to choose from for our kids.

4. The elevation. Driving in and out of the city gives you the worst dizziness and feeling like your head weighs a hundred pounds and your ears get clogged from the pressure.

5. Bears. They are so freaking fluffy and cute. And they usually leave people alone. But still, scary.

6. Everyone knows everyone. Good thing to have a strong community that help each other out, but making enemies in a small city would not be fun. Especially not for our future kids who might be stuck at one school with whoever they don't get along with. Bullying is not rare among children, so I hope we won't have to deal with that.

7. You can’t go ice skating on the lake because it never completely freezes over. That is something that I enjoyed doing as a child. It was such a scary thrill to skate across a big lake, hoping it wouldn’t crack xD even though the risk of that was very small. But they have an ice skating area in Heavenly village which looks so pretty.

8. During forest fires, Tahoe gets very smoky. But that is the case here too.

9. The beaches cost money to visit. 8 dollars. But with the ticket you can visit several beaches in one day… not sure why anyone would go from one beach to another in the same day, but okay.

10. Certain roads get closed off during winter time because they are too dangerous to drive on.

11. We’ll be much further away from fun places like Las Vegas and Yosemite.

12. Flying to Sweden or anywhere else in Europe will most likely take one extra hour since we’ll have to switch flights in San Francisco/Oakland and go to Reno.

13. We’ll be far away from the beautiful ocean and whales.

14. The drive to visit San Jose is long and boring as soon as you get out of Tahoe’s cool mountain roads.

15. It’s rare that artists come to Tahoe, so if we want to attend a concert in San Francisco for example, we need to plan it in advance and stay in a hotel that night. But we rarely go to concerts these days so that shouldn't be a huge problem.

16. In the winter time you can of course travel outside of the city if you want to. But because of snow, ice and mountains it’s quite a pain in the ass. So we will probably be isolated there most of the winter, except for Christmas.

17. We are in the risk of getting snowed in for a week or two. Better stack up on canned food!

18. We will live far away from family who could help us babysit when we have kids, but at that point we hopefully have friends who can help us out once in a while.

19. It's so far away so it will be difficult to go up there to look at apartments when it's time to move. But luckily we know some people there who might be able to help us out.

20. I have read that the mail service is horrible so most people have PO boxes instead.

21. If it’s anything like Sweden, then I expect to wake up at 4 am with big lights beaming in my face and loud scraping noises from the snowplow… NOT FUN!

22. Power outage. Just gotta be ready for em!

23. Bigger appliance stores and our favorite place Target is 40-60 minutes away. Luckily the most important stuff that we would need is close by.

24. Buying generators, expensive winter clothes and a snow plow for the long winters.

Pros

1. The small cities around the lake are not overcrowded by cars and people. We are over the crazy traffic here in the Bay area.

2. Tourism livens up the place on weekends and holidays. I have heard that Tahoe locals tend to stay at home more during those seasons, but social people like us love that!

3. Everything you need is pretty much on one street, but there’s not just one option. You can choose between a bunch of places that fits your needs.

4. They have all four seasons. This is a major plus for me personally since I thrive when the weather changes.

5. It's much more affordable than San Jose.

6. We would be close to nature and stargazing. I need nature to feel alive and well. Here in San Jose you can't see the stars as good because of the city lights, but in Tahoe there is a bigger chance of that.

7. It's wonderful to be close to a huge lake that warms up in the summer time. Compared to the ocean that stays ice cold all year around... I haven't even gone swimming in The Bay because it's freezing!

8. People go above and beyond to be friendly. We got a very good impression of that during our visit and everyone who has been there tells us the same thing. Perhaps Tahoe locals aren't that scared of strangers after all ;)

9. There are outdoor activities for every season.

10. Gorgeous mountains and mountain roads.

11. Calmer nightlife. Since we are not as interested in partying anymore, not having the temptation of going out when we should be home with the kids instead would be helpful. I have seen too many parents getting drunk around their kids in San Jose, for me to want to move. 12. You kind of have to create your own entertainment, but we are already experts at that and prefer friends coming over to our house instead of going out anyways. Inviting people over for dinner or game night is more fun.

13. It will be much easier for us to buy a newly built home at a decent price, that we can retire in. Here that would literally never happen.

14. It might be hard to find a rental apartment/house that accepts four cats, but it would probably be even harder in San Jose.

15. Close to lots of ski resorts. We don’t ski but just seeing people do it is fun and perhaps our kids can go to ski school one day and become lil’ pros ;)

16. Lots of gorgeous sand beaches by the lake. Perfect to visit all year around and our friends can go camping there when they visit us.

17. It’s right on the Nevada stateline, so we have close access to another state.

18. Technically we are also closer to northern states too, which I think will motivate us to visit Oregon, Washington and my bucket list place… Montana!

19. Few natural disasters happen here.

20. We would be paid less for working there, because it’s a cheaper place to live. But compared to San Jose, we would do so much better and not have to live paycheck to paycheck. At least not after a few years.

21. The thick and oh so green forests.

22. Very family friendly. It's a great place to raise kids because there are lots of things to do, they get to see all kinds of weather, play in the snow, play on the beaches, not too much stressful traffic around them, so cozy and magical especially during Christmas.

23. They have fireworks and parades which I looove! I was worried that a small place like that might not have enough resources for that, but they do.

24. Snow days. In Sweden we don’t have those. We had to get our butts to school and work in snowstorms, which I liked in a way because it taught me persistence. But let’s face it. If someone tells me to stay home and drink hot chocolate in front of a cozy fire instead of going to work… I’m down! The only down side is that we might not get paid, that depends on who we work for.

25. 300 sunny days per year. Say no more. Sweden never had enough sunny days during winter. My childhood memories are full of those and I want them back!

26. Cozy, dark, winter breakfasts with lit candles and something warm to eat and drink with Christmas music playing softly in the background.

27. Actual Christmas. With snow. Sledding. A big Christmas tree.

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