Believe me, I understand: many years ago, my dad (then an AF Colonel), facing similar choices, took the "academic option" because he saw certain opportunities that appealed to him in that direction at that point in his life--but he knew and ACCEPTED the fact that it meant his eventually being phased out of the Force. It had its risks (and btw, it DIDN'T really change the "moving every 18-24 months"-thing that is a steady feature of growing up in a military family--and in many academic ones the first 5-to-10 yrs. or so, it turns out), but though he had a family, I now understand in retrospect (as an adult with my own life experience) that there was family money behind him that must have tempered any concerns he might have had in that regard...Not taking anything away from his sense of pride, courage or integrity, all of which I was raised by word and example to put at the top of my own list-of-priorities, but it must have been there as a factor in the back of his mind. Regardless, as I say, when you "do things for the right reasons", life has a strange "persistence", a way of bringing certain opportunities around again, albeit in oddly different (changed, even "improved") form...Meanwhile, the one thing (besides a great climate) I DEFINITELY miss here in Austin, indeed everywhere BUT S. Cal., is the ocean: try to find reasons to go, ways of enjoying/taking advantage of its proximity. It is your current location's "saving grace"--DON'T let either yourself or your family take it for granted while you're there, if at all possible. I know all the best swimming, surfing, fishing, camping and general-recreation areas , from Isla Vista down to Mission Beach and most everything in between, if you ever have any Qs (actually, just about everything up past SF and Marin County, too, including Big Sur, Santa Clara, and so on if y'all get a hankering to take longer trips up that way). It may well be the "cultural wasteland" that Woody Allen-types deride ("...where one of the few signs of advanced civilization is that you can make a right-turn-on-red" is one of his better lines, from "Annie Hall"), but the scenery (both natural and human) is amazing, and accompanying outdoor-opportunities make the whole area a physical experience unto itself.
