kimrachell said:

okay friends, have made plans to visit san diego during my sons spring break from school this month. spending the weekend down there looking around. will visit dallas soon as well.

Some areas I would recommend you look at while there: Hillcrest, North Park, South Park, Kensington, and Normal Heights.

Hillcrest is the gay area of town (not that it's exclusively gay or anything). It's a cool "city-like" part of town, tons of good restaurants and close to Balboa Park. The other areas I mentioned are all near Hillcrest. In the '90s, property in Hillcrest got very expensive (because all the gays were there and we make things pretty, which drives market values up), so people started moving into the surrounding areas, which could be very hit or miss in terms of niceness. But big pockets of those places have gotten really fixed up too.

Oh, and all those areas are close to the 15, which takes you right to a fairly nearby Wal-Mart.

Efan said:

Some areas I would recommend you look at while there: Hillcrest, North Park, South Park, Kensington, and Normal Heights.

Hillcrest is the gay area of town (not that it's exclusively gay or anything). It's a cool "city-like" part of town, tons of good restaurants and close to Balboa Park. The other areas I mentioned are all near Hillcrest. In the '90s, property in Hillcrest got very expensive (because all the gays were there and we make things pretty, which drives market values up), so people started moving into the surrounding areas, which could be very hit or miss in terms of niceness. But big pockets of those places have gotten really fixed up too.

Oh, and all those areas are close to the 15, which takes you right to a fairly nearby Wal-Mart.

thanks so much, we will be sure to check out those areas.

just an update: we have ruled florida out, even though it is pretty there, just doesn't seem like it will be the right fit for our family. dallas is in 1st place right now....