A very poignant question, this morning.

My wife and I have a huge group of friends just over the border in Canada, and even some very close friends over in Halifax.

Several people (4 families, 3 other individuals) have relocated to Canada in the last few years. What generally happens is that they settle in to the better way of life there, make local friends, and fade away from the Americans. They just get on with living a productive life, and disconnect from the chaos and myopia of America entirely.

My wife and I will look closely at it again, of course.

But Vancouver - the easy choice - is INSANELY expensive. Like "Hey Silicon Valley, hold my beer" kind of expensive.

Vancouver Island - or any of the network of little islands along its eastern short - is another place where we could easily go. Lots of friends there. But you are committing to the "Island Life", which is largely cut off from the rest of the world... which is an oddly reassuring thought right now. It's over $100 to travel via ferry across the water to the mainland, so once on the island, you pretty much stay on the island.

As I have mentioned before, I'm tied to Seattle by my family (Mom, Dad, and Sister), and habit. I used to have a huge number of friends here, but COVID had put the kibosh on that, mostly.

My wife and I are super social. And could easily make a home anywhere we wanted to go.

I could literally do my job from anywhere in the world. (Except for visa issues, and employment issues.... my company can't employ people overseas. But, I thought I'd set up a consultancy, do the same job for them as a consultant, and then they could get around that issue.)

So.

....I've also got friends in NZ and Australia and Sweden, too. And we really liked Scotland... especially Inverness and Islay...