That was beautiful, knitlove!
We live here because we were born here, went to school here, married here, had babies here, etc. Texas is amazing. The people are really friendly. The cities are diverse and there is always something to do.
We don't really leave Texas because it's too far to drive out of it, but we have 5 large cities within 4 hours of us: San Antonio, Dallas/Fort Worth, Houston, and Corpus Christi (large, but not mega like the rest). All great vacation destinations. But not only that we have a ton of state parks and wildlife opportunities from bass fishing to deep sea fishing, water recreation, desert beauty, dinosaur tracks, pine forests, hill country, so many rivers, tubing, camping, horses, with multiple places to go and see for each of these things to fit any budget!
And some of us like it hot.