Where Should I Move?

Denver?? Portland's seasons tend to tránsition mildly. Fall tends to begin with rain, winter has a lot of rain, spring has less rain, and summer is hot lol. Denver has more distinct season for sure though. They're both great cities. Portland is def more artsy. Great hospitals with what I hope would have great NICUs. Dornbechers and Randall children's in Portland and children's hospital Colorado in Denver metro (aurora). Great outdoors is easily accessible in both cities. Portland is much more green with huge trees as far the eye can see. Denver is more flat and plains but the Rockies are so close.

Here's a link to the best Children's hospitals--grrr, the link isn't working.

Access Denied

Can I just say that my state (Ohio), has FIVE hospitals in the top 50 NICUs in the country!! Obviously, living in the semi-cold winter conditions isn't for everyone, but we have 4 seasons, excellent metro-parks, are a union state, and have a really good cost of living to earned wage ratio. In addition, we have some of the best libraries in the country, plenty of good restaurants, symphonies/operas/plays/concerts in all our major cities, and some really darn good zoos. Columbus is getting more and more direct fly routes every day. We're also a pretty quick drive or plane ride form Chicago with all the perks of a MAJOR metropolis there.

In the end, there's plenty of great places to choose from, but I just wanted to put that out there. Best of luck in finding a place you love to live!

Denver.

Rocky Mountain Hospital for Children and Children's Hospital Colorado both have level IV NICUs that do ECMO, congenital heart repairs, et cetera. There are also a large number of hospitals that have level III NICUs but most feed their sickest patients into one of the two level IV programs.

Both have good parking, DIA is pretty close, and there is no shortage of outdoor activities. Seasons are pretty distinct, the winters are fairly mild in Denver but you can have all the cold/snow you want up in the mountains. Lots of sunshine and the summers don't really get that hot.

RMHC is in downtown Denver, CHCO is farther east (away from the mountains) in Aurora. RMHC in on the same campus as Presbyterian/St. Luke's so you get more high risk OB cases and the NICU nurses attend those deliveries. CHCO is a stand alone hospital so their cases are almost all transported in (they do have a small low risk OB delivery program). CHCO's personality is more about doing research, RMHC is more about treatment. CHCO is more medicine, RMHC is more surgical. The MFM program at CHCO is a transitioned from UCH patients, it is much more seamless at RMHC. Both have Neonatologists or NNPs in house 24/7, both have their own transport teams.

Denver.

Rocky Mountain Hospital for Children and Children's Hospital Colorado both have level IV NICUs that do ECMO, congenital heart repairs, et cetera. There are also a large number of hospitals that have level III NICUs but most feed their sickest patients into one of the two level IV programs.

Both have good parking, DIA is pretty close, and there is no shortage of outdoor activities. Seasons are pretty distinct, the winters are fairly mild in Denver but you can have all the cold/snow you want up in the mountains. Lots of sunshine and the summers don't really get that hot.

RMHC is in downtown Denver, CHCO is farther east (away from the mountains) in Aurora. RMHC in on the same campus as Presbyterian/St. Luke's so you get more high risk OB cases and the NICU nurses attend those deliveries. CHCO is a stand alone hospital so their cases are almost all transported in (they do have a small low risk OB delivery program). CHCO's personality is more about doing research, RMHC is more about treatment. CHCO is more medicine, RMHC is more surgical. The MFM program at CHCO is a transitioned from UCH patients, it is much more seamless at RMHC. Both have Neonatologists or NNPs in house 24/7, both have their own transport teams.

Yeah the "seasons" here are not that bad. The driving and commute sucks though. And the pay is awful.

Yeah the "seasons" here are not that bad. The driving and commute sucks though. And the pay is awful.

I don't hit traffic on my commute but depending on how you are getting to either hospital there can certainly be some traffic (225 is pretty much a parking lot). My pay isn't bad but I make more than most of my coworkers; To be fair the overall cost of living in Colorado isn't really that high, it's just rent/real estate costs that are high.

Saint Louis. Sometimes we even have four distinct seasons in one week.

Minneapolis

Eastern NC. We have several hospitals that fit the bill. Close to beach, close to mountains, cost of living is not bad. Raleigh-Durham has turned into a great foodie place and I see tons of concerts a year. Great symphony, plays, musicals.

I was going to suggest Denver as well.