I'm finding my way into the tunnel of 'pre-retirement' planning!  Living in the Central Sierra Nevada and working in the Bay Area/E.San Francisco Bay, I will be making changes at the end of the next school year/2010, when I plan to retire.  A widow for 6 years, I'm starting to explore what fulltime life in the mountains might be like.  It's exciting and scary!!

My daughter and her husband teach fine arts at the university level.  Mary Elizabeth just completed her doctoral dissertation in performing arts; Rich is a sculptor, teacher, and photographer.  They will be living between Ann Arbor & Detroit; Mary is a professor at Wayne State University, Detroit.  Both are native Californians who are longing to return here, as opportunities become available.  If they were able to "return home", it would be of great comfort to me as well!

My two sisters & brother are in the Southeast (Atlanta, GA. & Chapel Hill, N.C.).  One consideration of mine is whether or not I might want to relocate 'back South'.  I'm presently looking at the area around New Bern, N.C.; the mountains of N.C./Tennessee are attractive as well.