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Comment by nightski | Hacker News Reader

Hah! Minnesota has 10,000+ lakes and tons of natural beauty. We have a lake cabin/home that we visit year round.

I LOVE winter here, couldn't live without it. Yes, I love the cold. Dress properly and it is quite enjoyable.

I'm by no means "rich" but I make well into six figures in software and I love this area and would find it hard to move anywhere else.

Occasionally I visit one of my clients that is in Silicon Valley. While California is absolutely gorgeous in certain areas I find the highways and dreary brown awful for the most part. The only time I really enjoy it is in very early spring (Feb-Apr) when it is green for a short period of time.

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Before I moved to Minnesota (from Europe)I was very skeptical about this. But my first trip to BWCA and North Shore, changed all that. Crystal clear lakes, beautiful forests and prairies changed me for ever. If you are into bicycling, Minnesota has one of the most robust biking trail systems.

Minnesota seems to be almost Scandinavian in some aspects and I do find it absolutely beautiful.

Minnesota is of Scandinavian heritage. Not sure if that's what you were alluding to, but thought I'd mention in case you weren't aware!

I think they mean the nature seems that way, not the people that migrated there. But, there's a reason those folks migrated there in the first place.

I don't know why people keep bringing up the weather. I moved from OK to CA because there was nothing to do in Oklahoma, especially for someone with a family. There is an endless amount of things to do in California. I can drive a couple hours and ski, or 20 minutes and surf. Plus all the amusement parks, museums, amazing national parks, Mexico close by, and just what not. The weather was an unexpected bonus for me.

All true, but for me the most unexpected surprised about living here (specifically the Bay Area) is the relative lack of mosquitos. Coming from Ontario, that is a huge change!

In general, not a ton of bugs on the west coast. I'm in SV now but grew up in the northwest, and every time I go elsewhere, there's a new unpleasant surprise. The last one was the northeast.. yeah, I know it's gonna be humid, but random downpour on an otherwise nice summer day, bugs everywhere, blah!

I always forget about what the mosquitos are like in Ontario until I visit my parents' house in the boonies up there in the summer time.

I think that within a 10 km radius of my parents', there are at least 4 streets that are named "mosquito [lane,street,road]" and by god are they aptly named (in the summertime).

I feel the same way, only about western Oregon/Washington. There really are places that it is possible to make six figures while being surrounded on all sides by tons of natural beauty, but SV isn't one of those places.

Same with Northern Wisconsin. The beauty is hard to beat.

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