There's No Place Like Home

What a great day. That is all I can say about today. It was the first un-official day that spring has arrived. I was able to brave the day in capri's and sandals...yes I said sandals.

I had the pleasure of meeting my mom today, which means a trip to the North end of the city. Considering I reside in the South end of town; it's a bit of a trek. But no matter how long of a drive I still make it, there's something about going back to the old neighbourhood of where you grew up. Don't get me wrong, we didn't live in one house forever...in fact we moved so many times I stopped counting how many schools after 21. But no matter how many times we moved we always seemed to be just down the road from where we started. Funny how that happens eh?

Anyhow, like I was saying going back to your old stomping grounds seems to bring all the memories back. I like that it's familiar and I like that I know all the shortcuts. I also like all the big trees because all the neighbourhoods in the North end are established. It's been around the longest and yes, there are some parts of the North end that are pretty run down...but overall it's pretty great. I lived in the North end practically my whole life and when I decided to move to the West end of the city, it was a very big change. I had to get to know all the neighbourhoods again and find all the shortcuts and basically find all the things that I needed again. I felt like I had moved to a whole new city, even though I was 25 minutes away from home. The West end move only lasted for about 3 years; then I made my way back to the North end for about a year and a half until my brand new condo was completed. Did I mention that the condo was on the South side…the far South side? We're talking 15 minutes away from the airport South side. I had to make the transition of getting to know this side of the city...AGAIN. I wasn't completely upset because there were a lot of new shops for me to discover. Three years later I'm still here and enjoying it, but there is still a soft spot in my heart for the North end. It doesn’t matter how long I've been away from there I always feel so comfortable when I go back.

There have been a lot of changes since I was last there, but they're good changes…new stores, new buildings, new neighbourhoods. It's all nice to see the good changes. Despite all my feelings for the North end, I don't anticipate moving back there anytime soon. It's just nice to get back there every now and again.

Paradise in the Oddest Place

Who would've thought we would discover a small piece of paradise nestled away in the hustle and bustle of the big city? It turns out taking the dog for a nice evening walk can really uncover a lot of hidden gems.

It started out as the usual routine of walking the dog, peering into the backyards of others (purely to get landscaping ideas) and nonchalantly catching up on our days activities. We decided to take the dog to an area that she hadn't been to before and maybe even hit a garage sale or two on the way. As we made our way through the row houses and the cookie cutter houses, we came across a path. Normally a path all by itself wouldn't warrant a change of direction, but it was the mature trees and slight glimpse of a small road that caught our eye. We decided the garage sales could wait and we would take this unknown path to see what lay beyond the trees...

Once we turned the corner, we both knew we weren't in Kansas anymore. At first we were uncertain what lied behind the trees, but we walked a bit further and then we saw them. In the clearing we could make out 3 acreages, yes acreages in the heart of the city. We couldn't believe our eyes, with this discovery we decided to proceed down the tree lined roadway that somehow got us to the 'Twilight Zone'. As we continued on our little excursion, we soon discovered not 10, but 20 acreages hidden away. We're not talking tiny acreages either; from what we could tell some of them were 20-30 acres in size. All I could think was "…This is unbelievable."

Once the shock wore off, we proceeded to do more "investigating" and it turns out from what we can gather, these houses were built in the late 70's, early 80's. We thought back to when the owners initially purchased 20 odd years ago...and wondered who would’ve predicted these out of the way acreages would someday be a part of our ever growing city?

As the night sky started to grow darker we decided to leave what we now call "Our new favourite place in the city", we couldn't help but smile and think to ourselves...what a lovely hidden gem. Then we turned the corner back into the cookie cutter, row houses and reality. I guess paradise really is where you least expect it.