What do you love about where you live?

I was thinking last night about how wonderful it would be to live in a place that gets lots of snow (I dreamed about Canada). There are a number of things I love about the area I live, however. It's within a few hours drive of either the mountains or the beach. My home is near a small airport, and I enjoy plane-watching. I live in a country setting, but am close to shopping and restaurants. We have four distinct seasons. And we do get a little snow, though not nearly enough.

How about you?

The area I am in is developing rather quickly, which I do not like, so I may eventually move a little further out but I love this place. I love that the crime rate isn't overly high, I love that we experience all 4 seasons as they should be, I love the trees, all the lakes and that everything is close by.

Nova Scotia is a boring place, in the sense that there are no amusement parks or big exciting attractions...but a walk along the harbor in the summer is wonderful. Or hiking in the woods. There is just so much to offer, nature wise. So even if I moved away from the hustle and bustle, I will never move away from this province.

I really, really love Des Moines. It's the largest city in Iowa, but it's not nearly as dangerous as the larger cities in the country. You can get practically anywhere in the metro or the suburbs within 20 minutes. We could use more reliable public transit, but the bus system has worked for me so far.

Crime is very low, making it family-friendly. There's a wealth of jobs here. People are moving here from both coasts because of that, and because the cost of living is so cheap. Rent, gas, groceries -- everything is way less expensive than most anywhere else. The state income tax is kind of high (in my opinion), and you get mauled for federal income tax, but who doesn't?

I LOVE downtown. I would live there if I made more money. It's very pedestrian/bicycle friendly, there are LOADS of restaurants, clubs, bars, and live music venues.

Arts and culture are great here, too. We have a phenomenal Civic Center where La Cage au Follies just made a tour stop. For community theater, it doesn't get much better than the Des Moines Playhouse, StageWest, and the Repertory Theater. I was just in a production of "The Producers" at the Playhouse, and it was by far one of the best shows I've ever been a part of. We got some rave reviews. There's also plenty of museums and even a botanical center.

Lots of parks and recreation, too. Lots of places to go walking, jogging, cycling, rollerblading, etc. Gray's Lake is my favorite. It's a two-mile loop around a man-made lake with a 1/4 mile bridge going over it. The bridge lights up at night and it's one of the most brilliant sights.

The weather does get very extreme here at times, though. Winter can be very treacherous. The Winter of 2009 was particularly harsh. Summer can also be dreadfully hot and humid. This summer was pretty darned rough on our crops. Des Moines, being centered around a river, is also pretty prone to flooding. But we definitely have four distinct seasons, if you enjoy that sort of thing.

All in all, I really love it here. There's a great sense of community. I might end up moving to be with my Navy boyfriend, and if I do, I will miss this city very, very much.

Sorry for the lengthy reply.

I like our moderate climate most of the time. I think I could stand to go a little farther south so we'd get less snow; but I'll pass on the extra heat. If driving in the snow didn't bother me then I'd be ok with what snow we get I think. I like that Spring comes sooner here than when I lived in Upstate NY. And I love that Fall comes a little later. I love being close to the coast. I've gone walking on the beach in early winter when we had some warm days. It's peaceful then!!

I love our sunsets! We are pretty flat here; so when the sun sets it can takeover so much of the sky. When you live in a valley; you don't always get to see as much! Also we get some awesome clouds!

I do miss sledding in the winter (no hills to go on!) and the amazing variety of colors we got in the fall in NY. And the food where I'm from is amazing too. Bad for the hips/thighs/waist but good for the taste-buds! But I can get good seafood here easily; so I like that too!

I love the weather here, short winters and long summers. I really don't like the cold. We did have a "blizzard" here in Jan 2011... a whole six inches of snow lol. Everything was closed and schools were cancelled for a week! Needless to say we don't know what to do when it snows here.

I live in Wichita, KS. Don't really like it but I'm stuck for the time being. Summers are hot, brown, dry and ugly here. The fall, brown, gray and ugly besides for the autumn leaves. Winter, gray, dull and miserable. (we don't really get much snow here. When we do, its usually gone in a day or two) Spring seems to only be noticable for maybe a week, depending on how much rain we get. Then the temps get up to the 100s and the rain ends and everything dies lol

I lived 40-some miles east of Cedar Rapids, IA in a small town called Stanwood until I was 8. I LOVED living in Iowa and I always love going back. It has such beautiful country there, its always so green and lush, corn as far as the eye can see and friendly people. The fall there was soo pretty. All the trees turning colors were always amazing. I miss the white christmases there. Well I miss the white winters. period. I'd rather see white all season than gray. I love the spring showers there and how things actually stay green for most if not all of the summer. All the wonderful rolling hills. I dragged my boyfriend there last summer for a family reunion and even he admitted that my ramblings about how beautiful the area was not exaggerated.
I know all year round, the weather can be really crazy. The past few years, there has been a lot of flooding and the winters can be easily dangerous. I remember one winter when I was really little, there was so much snow, and it a drifted so much that my dad had to crawl out a window to get out of the house. Lol my sister and I had no problem with the winters because we didn't have to drive in it lol and more snow just meant more snow days lol. I know, now I would probably hate living there during the winter just because the snow can get real bad and I'd hate driving in it.

Houston has no landscape or scenery to speak of and much of the year its humid and muggy. Still one of my favorite places though as I get to live in the suburbs, go out to the land, but still have the amenities of a big city nearby, and Texas is very liberal with the freedoms you are afforded. Job wise, we're also doing quite well, as is Texas as a whole compared to other states.

Only thing I have learned is that weather-wise it must be awesome to be rich.

Winters in Germany are fantastic for vacation, but living in it everyday is just too much work with the ice on the car and the shoveling and blizzards and so forth.

The tropics are awesome too, except the summers can be too hot and then you have to deal with monsoon season where its raining for months and some rough weather from time to time.

So neways, yeah, when I retire I'll probably get a mobile home and migrate to the best weather heheh!

I'm 2 minutes into the countryside and a 10 minute drive to the nearest beach

Im in central pa and LOVE IT! Especially fall. Its flipping gorgeous, even just looking out my kitchen window is like looking at some random picture of the woods. Its just so pretty. Im only a couple hours from a beach and we get all 4 seasons. Its kinda hard to beat. Id be happier to stay put if dfs family didnt live so close. LOL

Like Tyler, we live in central PA, pretty much right across the river from her. It's simply beautiful. Very rural, but close enough to some neat university towns for lots of different shopping. We have the inevitable WalMarts and Targets and McDs, of course. I'm about 7.5 miles away from my work and Rick drives only a little further than that. But we're not all squashed in against one another and there's a lot of space out here. I like that. We have room to breathe.

We have all four seasons. You all know how I feel about the winter and the snow....I'm not crazy about it, but really? It's quite pretty (and you can remind me of this post in a couple of months when I'm whining about all the snow and ice and the frigid winds! ).

I like having wild animals in our back yard, even if those animals are just raccoons, ground hogs, deer, and the occasional bear. The other night, I was in the kitchen working. I looked out the window and there were three deer standing up in the back yard under a maple tree. I tried to get the camera, but they didn't stay around long enough.

There's a lot to be said about living in the country.

I love where I live because I am living on a portion of my grandfather's farm. I grew up in the old farmhouse that was here. I am really really home.

I was born and raised in the city so I wouldn't know how to live anywhere else. Everything is very close by, I'm about a mile or two near everything you can think of. I love the 4 seasons altho as I'm getting older I don't appreciate the snow and ice and actually never did but I do love the cold weather.

Being around neighbors who are close by makes me feel safe. I wouldn't have to yell very loud for someone to come to my rescue if needed. I love the country type living because it is so beautiful but only for a visit, I need to be back in the action of the city. Of course parts of NJ are very country like but I don't like to be that far away from people and stores, etc.

The place that I live- an old, small town in Montana has two different aspects- the lovely antique town and the natural paradise that the town is set in.

I love my town because it's a safe and peaceful community, where one can walk to the store, library, city park, bank- pretty much everywhere. There's a certain rythym to city life- we all do the same things, see the same people, go to the same events. If there's a picnic and concert in the park, you can bet your buttons that your friends are going to be there too.

The city is beautiful, too- the streets are lined by lush maple trees that turn fiery orange, red and brown in autumn and contrast with the gray streets and Victorian-style white houses. It's awesome to ride your bike down the middle of the street (no worries about cars or traffic) underneath the canopy of trees and breathe in the clean air.

And then, there's the natural aspect of this place. I live just 45 minutes away from one of the best National Parks in the country- Glacier NP. Hiking, sight seeing, animal encounters- all right there for you to see in within an hour's drive.

I can always see the mountains from right out my window and watch as they become covered with snow.

It's really a beautiful, rustic, peaceful place and I wouldn't trade this for the world.

Originally Posted by LuvMyParker

Nova Scotia is a boring place, in the sense that there are no amusement parks or big exciting attractions...but a walk along the harbor in the summer is wonderful. Or hiking in the woods. There is just so much to offer, nature wise. So even if I moved away from the hustle and bustle, I will never move away from this province.

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Can't you go whale watching in Nova Scotia? Or am I getting mixed up with someplace else?

Originally Posted by nurseangel

Can't you go whale watching in Nova Scotia? Or am I getting mixed up with someplace else?

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Oh yeah, forgot about that. Yes, you can. Unfortunately I've never been but you've given me something to think about now.

I'm half a mile from the river and 4 miles from the beach... what's not to love? Okay... besides hurricanes! Lol. I love just being able to spend a nice afternoon having a picnic by the water. Last November my friends and I decided to have a Thanksgiving picnic on the beach at midnight - it was so much fun! We also have a great downtown area on the riverfront with a big battleship, and lots of other historic places. My boyfriend and I went wandering on a trail nearby and found an abandoned chemical plant from World War II that most people don't even know about!

Riverfront by my house


My boyfriend at one of the many pretty beaches we have around here. They make for great photography backdrops lol!

I live in NE Ohio and I absolutely love it here. We have all 4 seasons and we really do get all 4 seasons we range from blizzards and sub-zero temps in the winter to blisteringly hot, supper muggy days in summer. Fall and Spring are fabulous tho I imagine we are a lot like PA, maybe a little less hilly, but we have some gorgeous scenery here. Lots to do in Cleveland: world class museums, Playhouse Square (second largest theatre district after New York), Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, one of the best hospitals in the country (Cleveland Clinic) great schools (The Ohio State University, Case Western, John Carroll), lots of sports (who cares if we don't actually win ) the lake itself, great boating and fishing on Lake Erie, and Cedar Point is only about an hour away.

When you say Cleveland, Ohio, most people think bad things, but the whole Northern Ohio area is pretty darn spiffy

What do you love about where you live?

These days, absolutely nothing! What I use to love about my apartment (back rooftop garden) isn't even worth it any more . Maia and I are being forced to move out by landlord opening new bar downstairs and music so loud that 3 nights a week it is impossible to sleep!
I am desperate to find a new home for us that we both will love.............Life is challenging these days in to many ways

There's not much that I like about this area. If it wasn't for the beautiful house I live in that sits on a lake, I'd be long gone from this area. The 4 seasons here aren't all that pretty (blazing heat in the summer, ice storms in the winter), and while spring likes to show up early, the fall colors aren't all that great compared to other parts of this country. Our Indian summer days of the fall are generally very nice.

We'll be moving in the next few years. Not sure where we will go next - probably further out west.

I love that we are steps away from a beautiful bike path beside the river. We can walk anywhere for anything actually. There are lots of great views around here with the Gatineau Hills etc...

We are moving into the south end now though and there is not as much of the good things listed above, however we needed to make that sacrifice to afford to buy instead of renting here.