Houston Texas

[angel]

whats it like to live there? is Houston by the coast?
my husbands Dad moved from Texas about 5 years ago to live in Oregon close to our family.

NOW! My husband and his father keep trying to convince me to make the BIG move..... because work for both of them here is not looking good..

I was born in California... I love the beaches in cali tho its been a while since I've gone about 16 years lol

what are the schools like? high schools I wonder if they are anything like cali schools or even the schools in Vegas! scary thought....

love
angel

[RobinN]

My sister has lived in Dallas/Ft Worth for her entire married life, born and raised in CA.
She likes it there very much. The people of TX are very gracious. The southern hospitality is noticable. The cost of living in TX is certainly better than in CA. Granted you are not on the West Coast, but if you haven't been to a beach in 16 yrs you could plan a vacation to visit occasionally.

I think like with any area, schools will vary from town to town. One needs to do some research. But then again you can have kids going to the very best schools available and they still might not be motivated to do their best. Needs to come from within most of the time.

Putting food on the table is very important so sometimes one needs to sacrifice a bit.

Good to see you back Lorrie

[speber]

Houston is 'HUGE'-ston....sprawl-town deluxe. I don't know where you're looking at moving to...but 'Houston' encompasses about 100 square miles I think at this point.

Lots of 'burbs that are in Houston (towns within the city) and some are pretty nice.

There's coast, but not (IMHO) anything like the California coastline. It is different. The waves in the gulf coast are usually hard to surf (much smaller)...but the water IS warmer! As far as sheer beauty?...California would get my vote there (I know I've blasphemed my beautiful state...sigh).

But wait a second!....There's Padre Island!...Spring Break central and very nice.

Happy house hunting!

[Bernard]

Houston has its good parts and its bad ones. You can pretty much find a spot matching any point on the spectrum.

The cost of living is low and the economy is good (ie lots of good jobs generally available). METRO is OK if you live near a route. Inside the loop housing is expensive though. Most people live in one of the suburbs outside the loop where housing is cheaper - but the commute is longer.

Schools in vary in quality/safety along with the region/area.

Galveston beaches are not too far from Houston (depending upon whether you move to the northwest side or southeast it can be a 1-2 hour drive).

There is a world famous medical district with numerous hospitals near Rice University.

[speber]

...I forgot all about my trip to Herman Memorial Hospital for a week long video EEG a few years ago!

Very nice staff...clean hospital.

[brain]

Hi Angel!

A lot of my High School Classmates
reside in Houston Metro Area and they
enjoy it very much, and several of them
are employed with NASA. But their complaints
were mainly this (while I've never been there)
that there were a lot of one way roads??

I guess you can Google that part or ask
around - but they've resided there for a
pretty long time and have been quite happy
over there. The area is very similar in climate
to where I live, but more Hurricane prone
however, so it would be wise to stay far
from the beaches and stay as high (in
elevation) off the ground as possible is what
they all have remarked, but they've all stated
it was no difference than living here and living
there except the Steaks tastes better over
there (in Texas) - LOL!

[TexasTravel]

I am not sure where they got the one way roads thing. The medical district, and it is huge, there are some one way roads but once you learn to operate it, it becomes very useful because the exits out of the hospital parking garages are always on the side you need to go. No crossing packed lanes. I go to the medical district ALL THE TIME for my hydrocephalus and epilepsy and it is a pretty nice clean area.

There have been very few hurricanes, of any worth, hit houston, or any close cities in probably 20 years and that one was not that bad. A hurricane here produces some high water but relatively light winds. In my vicinity, 5 miles from the coast, after 42 years, have never had even 1 of my houses come close to flooding and absolutely no wind damage whatsoever. Most hurricanes threats here are hyped way out of proportion.

I live about 45 miles South of Houston and only 5 miles or so from the beach. It does get hot here but I am going to guess that it gets hot there also. Also, just as was pointed out, Houston is pretty much like most other big cities, it has its good and bad parts. The North and West sides, in general, have large nice areas. There are alot of other good areas sprawled around Houston also.

[Bernard]

But their complaints
were mainly this (while I've never been there)
that there were a lot of one way roads??

Only in the downtown area. Most of those streets are straight and parallel/perpendicular, so it's really easy to navigate.

[angel]

Thank you,

I'm feeling a little better about moving to Texas I called my father in law he said we would be moving to clear lake over by the space center... I cant stay online long my husbands trying to sleep and the kids are being loud hehe

[Shelley]

Close to Friendswood (at least according to the hi-way sign). South of Houston. Has a boating dock and is accessable to the bay. (A co-worker has a brother that lives there.) The humidity during the summer can be high, feeling like a sauna with the heat. Because of the proximity to water, some of Houston needs to have water pumped out regularly. The toll roads are a nuisance (a booth every couple of miles. On the road, no less as opposed to on or off ramp plazas.) Some parts are nice, but some places are slums. Good luck.
(Any chance for Austin, its way better. Still not California, but acceptable.)

[Bernard]

I grew up in Clear Lake. It's a pretty nice area. We live about 10 minutes away on the other side of the freeway from Clear Lake right now.

[angel]

I was looking on google maps last night and found clear lake city! friendswood is like right nextdoor haha cool I've been living in oregon for a long time its actually still snowing off and on here it snowed a little last night and we are going to be having really light snow all through the weekend brrrr... its pretty cold to! when it hits 60 it feels hot to me.. so the heat id really have to adjust to its not humid here eather... when we were in lasvegas i stayed inside OMG it was so hot id wait until about 9pm to 10pm just to use the swimming pool... our house also had a gas fire place im not sure why haha!

Shelly,
I think my husband and his father want to move back to clear lake city because he knows people and did live in the area a long time.....my husbands grandma moved here after his dad she isnt doing very well and is to old to make the trip back so we are waiting so we can be close to her for now unless she decides she feels up to moving back.. shes 83 years old..

so ill have sometime to check out schools for the kids online and the area i asked my husband if when we have the money id like to fly to Texas just to check it out mostly because ill be so far away from my family and i get home sick ....

hey, do they charge you to ride a bike through a toll booth? hehe

love angel

[Shelley]

hey, do they charge you to ride a bike through a toll booth? hehe


I wouldn't be surprised

[Bernard]

Toll Booth in Blazing Saddles - YouTube

Toll Booth in Blazing Saddles - YouTube

[Shelley]