Best base for fun?!
 

Slight tangent, but after hearing this, how do I transition into the 121 world? Haha

I think you might be surprised, then, to realize that there is an actual city out there beyond the Strip, which has many of the activities and entertainment that any other normal city has.

When I lived there as a young single dude just out of college, I burned out on the "manufactured experience" as you put it after about 6 months...but then I really found out what the rest of the city and southern Nevada was all about.

If you are an outdoorsy type, then it is an absolute playground; hiking, mountain biking, sailing and boating (on Lake Mead), shooting/hunting, mountain climbing, off-roading...you name it, all within a 30-45 minute drive in there in or around the valley, and even more if you drive an hour to the adjoining areas outside the valley.

I have to chime in even though I'm not with SWA. Have you considered DEN? It's one of my favorite places. Year-round seasonal activities (hiking, skiing, boating, camping, you name it), has good cost of living, and the city has plenty to offer as well.

#$%hole... :)

No, Unfortunately this was Humpty's in Dayton on 11-15-12:
http://s3-ec.buzzfed.com/static/enha...9233555-24.jpg

And later that night in the hotel lobby:
http://www.barnorama.com/wp-content/...3/party/02.jpg

HAHAHAHA! That's golden! I'll have to second what everyone else has said. MDW is a party house and has some awesome/fun people. Awesome base. LAS has wild crews (as in loves to have fun), great stuff outside of the strip and then there's the strip....but it gets old after a short while. It's relatively cheap to live and there's a badass zip lining place north of the city. DEN is very nice but expensive to live. It's a very chill place. It doesn't seem as if Denver has much of a party atmosphere like the two previous but it's a great place/base nonetheless. Plenty of skiing, hiking and who can beat the view/landscape. Best of luck to you.

Thanks for the input guys. What about OAK? I know its expensive in the Bay Area, but I like road biking and running, and the moderate temps there would be advantageous to that year round. Plus it's a 3 or 4 hour drive to Tahoe for some good skiing.

Thought that was BMI circa 2004? Just substitute the big air mattresses for a 40 year old couch.

Lots of stuff out in the Bay Area. You have ocean to your west, snow to your east, awesome lakes all around, and wine country an hour away.

I loved being able to water ski until October and then get on the slopes a few months later.

Didn't that guy break his leg or something?