To make a long story short, DH and I will be moving within the next few years. So now we are city hunting and it all starts with planning some vacations to prospective states. I need to know more about North Carolina! I have a cousin and aunt in South Carolina, but I have heard good things about North Carolina and know some women here live there or have lived there.

Tell me anything you can about it! Education, housing, recreation. What cities do you like, how are relations between different ethnic groups in your opinion, things like that. I hope I get some responses

[alicenwonderland]

I don't know a huge amount about it. But I have a friend who lives in southeast North Carolina. The area is beautiful and mountainous. Small town feel with big city all around. Toured Asheville while there. Really cool town.

[~*Bethy*~]

My step MIL is from NC and she has a southern twang that is SOOOO addicting!!! I know nothing about it though LOL

[♥Ashley♥]

OMG im soooooo jealous! I've always wanted to move somewhere nice! And the Carolina's are gorgeous! (Or so i've heard! -and seen in pictures!) Now I want to vacation there!

[szczepanski]

I lived there for 23 years before moving to Rochester, NY.

I can't even begin to respond to this post without getting ridiculously homesick and teary eyed. Ugh.

Do you have a specific part you are interested in? Because the mountains...the piedmont...the coast, all are completely different. I lived almost my entire life in Raleigh (I was born in Goldboro, NC on the air force base and lived there until my Dad was done with the military).

Raleigh isn't really a vacation area but the MOST amazing part about Raleigh is it is pretty much smack dab in the middle so you can literally wake up in the morning and go "Hmm, I'd like to go to the beach!" and be there in 2-3 hours. OR "Hmmm...they are supposed to get snow in the mountains this weekend...let's go skiing" and be THERE in 3-4 hours. Plus the school systems are pretty good, especially if you get into the year round programs which is awesome.

There are lots of small towns right outside of Raleigh still - like I actually lived in a tiny town of less than 3,000 people - which means you can "go into the city" as we called it whenever you want..without having to deal with "the city" itself.

And the food. Ohhhh the food. *cries*

The heat blows. Well, I know you are in Arizona...but more so the HUMIDITY blows - nothing like stepping out of your nice AC car to get gas and instantly being covered in sweat. But...that is what the beach is for!!!! And the winters are mild. Non-existent when you compare it to Rochester, hahaha.

I was thinking about checking out Durham, Raleigh and Charlotte.

I hear the triangle area is very accepting of biracial people, which sounds good. Everyone I have ever known that lived there talks about its beauty and missing it. The humidity doesn't sound all that great though, but I love sunshine and beaches!

[Chelnae6]

I always said that if I were to move to NC, that I'd move to Charlotte. Its still up and coming with a lot of jobs. Most jobs are in business and finance. The only thing about Charlotte for me was that its not a good city for entry level engineers. If you have a technical background you'll have luck getting a job with years of experience. I did not have that at the time.

Housing market is pretty good inside and esp outside of Charlotte. I dont know all that there is to do.

raleigh/durham is a great area but mostly a college town. I went there a lot when my friends went to school there (Shaw, NC Central, etc). I wouldnt personally want to move there but it is closer to the beach than charlotte. I'm from the Virginia Beach area so I love beaches although I moved further away from one lol. I dont know about the job market though.

Whats your and DH occupations?

[szczepanski]

Durham is going through a big growth right now. The crime is really, really, really bad in some areas - but a lot of young people are trying to rejuvenate it and I'd say in another 10 years it would be an AWESOME place to live. They have gone through great strides trying to rebuild and "rehabilitate" their city though. It's just if you hear about a kidnapping, shooting, murder, etc.....95% of the time it happens in Durham. In the "good" areas, it is VERY hip and cool though, haha.

I'm partial to Raleigh myself of course. As any big city, it has it's bad areas but the city itself is very spread out and there is always something to do.

Charlotte is VERY awesome place to live as well. In fact, if I hadn't met my DH and ended up moving to Rochester, I would probably be living in Charlotte right now.

The biracial thing I can't really comment on, simply because I never really notice things like that. Which I guess in a way proves what you have been told, haha.

They only thing that is annoying about Raleigh are the people whose families have lived there forever and ever and ever and act like they are better than the "transplants" that are the ones who made the city grow to what it is now. Hahaha.

ETA - I have to completely disagree with Chelle that Raleigh is a college town. The colleges in Raleigh are all basically in the same vicinity of each other, and while that area is more "college town" (which is really about.....4 roads)...the rest of Raleigh is mostly young professionals and up. The only other thing in that area besides the colleges and a section of downtown that has more bar/restaurants geared towards the college kids is the hockey arena, and even that is a couple miles down the road.

[ShannonMVT]

Are you kidding me? You get your baconass to Texas, pronto!

Oh and what about Chapel Hill?

DH is in the process of completing a master degree program in engineering.

Texas! It gets both psycho hot and humid there, right? I dunno if I could handle that

[midnight_starr]

I hear New Orleans is a great town

I've been to South Carolina twice and I enjoyed it!!! That is about all I know!!! haha!!

What type of engineer is your DH in school for?

[szczepanski]

Originally Posted by MomToJack

Oh and what about Chapel Hill?

DH is in the process of completing a master degree program in engineering.

Very much a college town, and upper-class. Mostly professionals (lawyers, doctors, and people going to school to be a laywer or a doctor).

[ShannonMVT]

Originally Posted by MomToJack

Texas! It gets both psycho hot and humid there, right? I dunno if I could handle that

Whatever! I am here so that makes it worth it! Plus my Dh is an engineer so built in hubby friend! Think about it, Matthew and Jack would make a fearsome duo.

[*vi]

I don't know anything about North Carolina, but British Columbia is lovely perhaps an international move??

[*Amy*]

Heather gave you some great advice. I've only been to Raleigh a couple times but I liked what I saw when I was there.

I live on the coast right now, an hour from Wilmington. I adore Wilmington but it's not nearly as big of a city as Raleigh and I'm not sure how the job market is for engineers.

There's not a ton to do where I live but Myrtle Beach is about 2 1/2 hours from here so about an hour and a half from Wilmington and there's lots to do there. Raleigh is about 2 hours as well. Charlotte took us about 5 hours.

The humidity is killer and probably the one thing I hate about this state but it's tolerable and the nice breeze off the ocean helps. I used to make fun of people that couldn't survive without a/c in the summer and now I am one of those people.

I'm not sure about the race thing, in my particular town it's not bad but that's because it's a military town and there are people from all over, including many biracial couples. I would think in bigger areas like Raleigh and Charlotte you would be fine.

[*krista*]

I only vacationed there once... it was gorgeous! I don't remember exactly where it was we went to... close to Boone I think? I can dig up pics if you like.

[niknok]

Your NC/SC travel agent has arrived!!! I was born and raised in SC (lived there 23 years), and I've been in Charlotte since 2003. There were those 4 months last fall where we moved back to SC, and QUICKLY came back to Charlotte.

I'll be very honest with you- I don't think there is any town in SC where you'd feel normal, welcome, and accepted as a biracial couple. Greenville would probably be your best shot, and even that is a long shot.

Now NC has two good options: Charlotte, and the Triangle. The triangle consists of Raleigh, Durham, and Chapel Hill. And Heather is your expert for those! Charlotte is the largest city in all of the Carolinas, and hardly anyone that lives here is from here. This is an entire city of transplants! We have pro sports (NBA/NFL), a typical downtown with skyscrapers, plus amazing suburban areas surrounding the downtown.
Except for some reason, here they call downtown "uptown". It took me awhile to get used to. Just in my job alone, I work with biracial people, biracial couples, gays and lesbians, and a variety of races/backgrounds. Because it's such a large city, with so many transplants, I think it's very open-minded in general. Kate used to live here too, and loved it as well. There is a great charlotte mommies website, and TONS of family activities. I'm off to go search for some pictures, that I took a couple of years ago in a photography class.

[szczepanski]

Nikki why did I think you were from Western NY?

Lots of times when I see you post I think to myself "ughhh we should trade places!!". Maybe because you live in Charlotte and almost EVERYONE who lives in Charlotte is from Western NY, haha.

yay, I love pictures!

I like what I am reading about NC. And I am such a dummie - my cousin and her hubbie live in Charlotte! They had moved to SC but then like you Nikki, moved right on back to Charlotte. I need to visit like, now!