I moved to Galveston on January 4th 2000. I had never been to Galveston before and, literally, had picked it off the map.
I was remodeling houses in western North Carolina in the fall of 1999. We had an early winter roll through and, added to that, I was working on top of a house on the very top of a mountain on top of a mountain range in Highlands, NC. I recall getting to work one day and through thermal underwear, jeans, and a ski suit, I was freezing. I remember thinking "there has to be a better way" and right then and there I decided that I was moving within 2 months. I had 60 days to figure out where I was going.
Within a week, my list was down these 5 cities: St. Augustine, Savannah, Charleston, Galveston, and Tuscon. Notice an odd man out? Tuscon made the list b/c it is out west and at that time, it had a good housing market. The others are seaside communities that have a very good historic housing stock upon which to work.
I had friends in Charleston at the time and a room briefly became available. For two weeks, I was moving to Charleston only to find out that the roomate who was going to move, was now going to stay. Back to the drawing board.
In a weird way, I think I chose Galveston BECAUSE it was the one city on my list which I had never visited. I think it is fair to say that, after telling my family of my plans, they thought i had totally lost it. People were placing bets on how long this move would last. My cousin and good friend, to my face, gave me 4 months. Friends and family were telling me to move to Austin and Atlanta, and Ft. Lauderdale. My sister-in-law's dad lived in Pasedena, TX and told me that if i'm moving to the area, I would like Clear Lake much better than Galveston. But I had decided and I'd be damned if anyone was going to change my mind.
I can say that, 10 years later, moving to Galveston is among the best decisions of my life. I met my wife here, started a business here, and began a life here. There may come a time when we will call another place home. Until then, I'm an Islander By Choice.
