Adjusting

Living on Capitol Hill is like living in a European village. You can't even tell you are in a big city...besides the grandeur of the Capitol Building when you cross East Capitol, or looking at Union Station when driving north on Second.

But - from any of our apartments we had - I could do almost all my errands on foot. Bank, dry cleaner, pick up something at the grocery or small natural foods market, library, the best coffee shop ever, my favorite kitchen store. I love that I could walk to most of my friend's houses and to church.

Alas, that is not how most cities work!

Louisville is great on many levels - but I am getting used to not being able to walk everywhere! We can still get places - the local library, a park with a baby swing (which Rose loves), a coffee and bookshop, and so on. (Happily, there are still nice places to get to on foot to just stroll - or in Bobby's case, ultra-fast power walk -like the resevoir a mile from our house. We went there yesterday on Bobby's lunch break and had fun walking around.)

But it's definitely a car-based city. I'm in the car more but for less amounts of time - it isn't a twenty-thirty minute fight against traffic to get anywhere off the Hill. Bobby was shocked when I went to the grocery store...and was back in less than an hour. I'm enjoying the convenience of this city. It's the smallest one we've lived in as a married couple (LA, DC, Louisville) and we're starting to get used it.

So, we're not in fast-paced international DC anymore. We're in a northernish, midwestern-y, southern city. I'm enjoying it. And I am excited to get to know Louisville (albeit by car) better in the coming two years.