While I have no way of knowing if there would be an NHSC-approved FNP job when the time comes, this little town in southwest Colorado seems interesting.

Colorado is good because that’s where Raf and Kim live (in Boulder), where Holly and Dennis will be living in about 6 months (Denver area), and is in the region of Travis and Rachel Brown (SLC). It looks like a beautiful area, high and dry, mountainous with a river and hot spring. It sits in a little valley at 6,512 feet elevation, getting lots of snow in winter, with several ski mountains around, but sunny & dry most of the year.  There seems to be a vital little downtown with restaurants and shops and a fair amount of art/music for the size of community.  It hosts a music festival in the summer and is the home of mountain biking. Rent seems fairly reasonable at maybe around $900-$1200 for a nice 2 bedroom apt, townhouse, or cabin/house in or out of town.

So, for us that would mean we could have a decent home, still eat good and catch a band or a movie now and then, and have awesome camping, mountain biking, and hiking. I’d probably like to check out some snowshoeing, cross-country skiing, and kayaking too.

I know it may seem obvious if you’re into things like beautiful weather and chilling the fuck out, but this option didn’t occur to us until very recently, a good year or 2 into this ‘where to move’ conversation began. In a text conversation with our friend Travis (who, for some reason, lives in SLC. Yeah, exactly, wtf Travis?!?) I asked where in the U.S. he would live if he could live anywhere. His answer wasn’t a place, just a bunch of qualities. One of which was ‘snorkeling and swimming every day.’ Which, of course I also love and wondered why I hadn’t included that, but then realized it’s because it’s stupid and insane because it excludes everyplace in the U.S.

Except Florida. Which kinda sucks in its overpopulated, stripmall, drive everywhere-ishness. And Hawaii.

I’ve done a bit of reading and am convinced I would be at home anywhere in Hawaii except Oahu. In fact, Hawaii is our first choice of a place to move. If I can get a job there, we will be moving there next year.

We just don’t know much about the nuts & bolts of living there. We would definitely initially rent, not buy a home. And I suppose we would need a car. And we would have to take our cats.

Does anyone know: How much is rent for a clean, nice 2 bedroom? Utilities? Is food cost similar? What other costs do you have to consider?

My partner is an IT whiz kid. His career is booming here.  Any ideas of what he might do in Hawaii?

I do know that these things varies from island to island and by area, but ANY comments of first hand experience of cost-of-living and such would be appreciated.

Mahalo