Hi All! I'll try to keep this brief... My husband works in Santa Clara and we currently live in Oakland. The commute has us thinking about relocating. A bit to avoid this particular drive - - but also to find a place where we feel more at home. We're looking for somewhere pretty and peaceful to live - and we realize that will still involve a commute. We just hope living somewhere we love will make it more worthwhile. The areas we're considering are Santa Cruz, Scotts Valley, (maybe Los Gatos) and the surrounding smaller communities of Boulder Creek, Felton, Bonny Doon... We're both really into outdoors stuff like running, hiking, camping - and we love the proximity of these areas to state parks, beaches, etc.. Just a little more info: we're early 30s, no kids yet - but hope to start a family soon - and we're renting, not buying. Also - my career is flexible.

Any advice you can offer would be very much appreciated. I'm looking for feedback on all aspects of living a bit off the beaten path from isolation, commute times and power outages to a general sense of what's it like to live there. Thanks in advance for any input. We really appreciate it! Searching for Peace and Quiet

Actually, for what you're looking for, it sounds like anyplace in the hills west of Highway 280 would work (from Woodside down to Los Altos to Los Gatos). The commute to Santa Clara would be decent. There are lots of parks in the hills for hiking and outdoorsy stuff. Santa Cruz beaches would be about 45 minutes over highway 17. Or if you take one of the roads going west past Skyline Blvd, you'd get to the beaches around Pescadero.

I spent some time living in Mountain View and did a lot of cycling in the hills. The location was very convenient (commuted to Sunnyvale). The weather is nicer than the East Bay. So check out the hill area there, you probably can find what you like that is a good balance between outdoor access and a reasonable commute.

My husband and I both have jobs that we can do remotely, from home. We are thinking of selling our house in Oakland and moving to Santa Cruz. We have a 4 year-old who will start kindergarten in a year, and a 19-month old. I was hoping to get some recommendations on neighborhoods or areas of Santa Cruz that would be worth looking into. We would like to find a place with good schools, and relitively close to shopping, beaches, etc (not too far up in the mountains). Also, any experience with living in Santa Cruz in general (especially with kids) would be helpful. anon

We live in Aptos, which is about 15 minutes from Santa Cruz. The benefits of living outside of Santa Cruz are many, including a large yard and Nisene Marks State Park in our backyard. The downsides are that you do have to spend more time in your car, and the schools generally get worse as you go south in the county. If you're looking at public schools, don't go further south than Aptos, certainly. To get the statistics on the public schools in the county, go to http:// www.santacruz.k12.ca.us. Some of the schools are in trouble and you should make sure that you are up-to-date about school closure plans before you get set on ones. I'm not completely sure, but I think the ones being discussed for closures are Natural Bridges, Bay View (which I've heard is a poor school), and Branciforte. They are also talking about closing a high school (Santa Cruz, Harbor, and Soquel High Schools all are in one special high school district).

Starting at this end of the county, we do love Aptos but it is unincorporated and has all the joys attached to that. No dependable sidewalks for walking, growth unregulated. Our local school, Mar Vista, is the smallest elementary in the county and apparently people here love it. We're right in the midst of making the decision for our son, and haven't met anyone who has any problem with Mar Vista. Rio del Mar is another area of Aptos which is more towny -- they have a great neighborhood school, the beach, and some shopping. The town of Soquel has a lot of charm and a few nice neighborhoods, but it's not a great place to live where you can walk to things unless you're lucky. Most of the housing is spread up into the hills. But their elementary school is universally beloved and the town is very nice. Capitola is very family-oriented, extremely built-up (it has the mall and all its attendant charms), apparently has good schools. Some of the neighborhoods there are great. I know someone who can walk to the beach and the touristy village as well as to grocery stores, and lives a block from their elementary school (which, now that I remember, they told me might be closed!). If you want anything like Berkeley, though, you'll have to be in Santa Cruz. The rest of the county is more rural or more suburban, not that Santa Cruz is terribly urban! (I find everything just a bit on the provincial side here, both in a good and bad way.) An unincorporated part of SC, Live Oak, is much cheaper and has lots of neighborhoody areas. But see above about unincorporated and the attendant charms. It's a bit on the scruffy side, but if you don't mind that my husband used to live there and liked it a lot. I don't know those schools. The hilly area around Branciforte Elementary is very nice, very pricy in places, near lots of shopping. Be careful about neighborhoods near downtown SC. Although it's great to shop there, the neighborhoods are variable. I don't know the schools well. The westside of SC is very desirable, though generally the houses are closer together. But you get the walk to the beach, walk to shopping combination, as well as good schools and nature nearby. You'll pay a hefty price for going up the hill toward UCSC, but I know people who live up there and have a fabulous place right near the open space, Pogonip. They say their local school is excellent (I'm not sure which one that is).

SC in general has a good quality of living, though I have found that I feel a bit of resentment that it's so expensive but lacks the qualities of SF and the Bay Area that I really treasured: a diverse population, great shopping, and above all, great food. The food here is (generally, not always) overpriced and not great. Don't bother to even try the one Indian restaurant. The Westside has, I guess I'd say, the most varied restaurants and stores in a location in the county. Watsonville is culturally really interesting and has some good food, so we do go there. There's a variety of activities for families -- see http://growing-up.com/ . The proximity to nature is really the greatest thing about it. We're at the beach or in the forest at least several times a week and it's a huge part of my son's life. The most annoying aspect is traffic, which is really horrible. Hwy 1 is the only way to get through here, and it's full of commuters and tourists on the weekend. 17 is the way to get here, and it's full of commuters and tourists as well. If you live on the Westside, you have to deal with the fact that 1 turns into Mission St, the main corridor through that part of town.

Good ways to meet other families include the parks (all the neighborhoods have good ones except for ours! -- we have the beach, though) and programs for kids. I have loved Music Together for that. We have found the typical problem in our neighborhood of families always going somewhere else to entertain their kids, so we don't have a real neighborhood feel here, but I would guess that might be different in the more densely populated areas.

That's off the top of my head -- I hope it helps. Feel free to e-mail me if you have any questions. If you are thinking about a particular neighborhood, I may be able to refer you to someone who lives there. Susana

1. Santa Cruz is beautiful, no doubt. There are few places that can match the beauty of the hills, beach, forest, and so on.

2. The university is great! As a child, though, I remember my parents talking about how they did not like the university students because they move into SC, but are not invested in the long-term care of a small city. Many want to foster the myth that SC is a ''hippy'' town, which it is not. The standard of living there is as high as it is in the Bay Area. the city of SC struggles with large homeless and street-people issues, and in the past, it has caused a lot of tension for everyone involved. I do not think that these issues have been resolved.

3. The public schools are not great. There are some good ones, but there are also some really poor ones. Before you move, check out greatschools.net to see which ones look good to you (however you define ''good'').

4. When I recently attended my high school reunion, I was struck by how many people from my school literally went nowhere. They were still working low-paying, part-time jobs, surfing, and smoking pot. I think that the culture of SC traps a lot of people, and because there is not a lot to do there, a lot of the high school kids from my school smoked pot, surfed, and hung out at the beach all day.

5. If you move there, you must deal with the fact that SC is a tourist town, and summers there are packed with tourists. This is not a bad thing, but it IS a reality. Without tourism, SC could not survive.

6. I would suggest looking a bit south before you move, to one of the smaller towns, such as Soquel or Aptos. They are still part of Santa Cruz County, but offer a more small-town feeling. These areas have less tourists, also, but still offer the beaches and forests.

7. Not a lot of diversity. There is more now, and I think it is becoming more diverse all the time, but as a child, there was one Mexican girl in my school, and no African American students. Of course, I thought nothing of this as a child, but when I moved to Berkeley, I was struck at my own ignorance about all of the -isms: racism, sexism, and so on. I definitely had culture shock.

8. Good luck. Have fun. But, try to look beyond the beauty and decide what it is that you are really after. There are a lot worse places you could end up! Happy to visit at this point

My family and I are considering moving to the Boulder Creek, Felton area from the East Bay. We are interested in hearing from anyone who has lived there or knows the area. If you have knowledge about the schools, public or private (my son is entering kindergarten this Sept.), any of the communities in general, the pros and cons of living there, job opportunities (my husband is a general contractor/real estate agent and I am a licensed clinical social worker) etc. Anything you can offer would be helpful. Thanks m.m

You didn't mention if you're in private practise or work for an organization. Unfortunately, jobs for social workers in the county are low-paid and hard to come by. The best paying jobs for LCSWs are with the county and with the hospitals (Watsonville Community Hospital and Dominican Hospital in Santa Cruz). You might try santacruzjobs.com. Real estate is booming in SC County which is great for real estate agents but if you're looking to buy, you won't get as much for your money as you can in the Bay Area--believe it or not! Amanda