Consider yourself openly invited to visit!! We could so do a vacation swap too. I'd love to visit your neck of the woods :)

Consider yourself openly invited to visit!! We could so do a vacation swap too. I'd love to visit your neck of the woods :)

That Houston is a huge diverse melting pot.

That I can find excellent Pho or a Ramen noodle bar not too far from my house.

Numerous interesting items about Chicago I like and love. Since I spend around 50% or a bit more time in Chicago a month, I have slowly learned what makes this city such a world class place to visit, work.

First, the 'noises', the hustle and bustle of the people on the sidewalk, the honking of the Uber, Lyft and cabbies hurriedly making their way to their destinations with their fares. Oh the smells, the thousands of restaurants offering up any dish from anywhere within walking distance.

https://briansphotographs.files.word...f-57.jpg?w=529

The architecture, if you take a water vessel through the canals you can see the back side of the old buildings with the original stone, marble and steel. So ornate compared to the false fronts that many buildings have.

http://guideimg.alibaba.com/images/s..._13350435.jpeg

The fireworks the city offers at no charge every Wednesday and Saturday nights off of the Navy Pier.

http://photos4.meetupstatic.com/phot...382619232.jpeg

The arts, museums, theater, amazing street entertainment

https://thumbs.dreamstime.com/x/chic...r-26697057.jpg

*This woman does a fantastic Tina Turner!

Dang... what's the real estate situation!? I think I need to live there! :koolaid:

Chicago is on my MUST SEE list. You've just reaffirmed that! It looks like a fantastic place! :goodscore:

Oh! I like this idea!! Like a BFP Air BNB?? :cowboy:

I love all those things you've mention PLUS so much more of where you live too! CHICAGO......it's my kind of town!!!!!

When I went to Chicago for job training, I loved visiting Geno's East Pizzaeria and Navy Pier!

Zimmeh

I also loved living in Arlington Heights, Massachusetts. I lived about ten minutes outside of Harvard Square. I also lived in Franklin, Massachusetts. I miss living up North.

Zimmeh

Just watched 7 deer come off my creek, cross the dirt road and slowly make their way along the tree line and back into the woods. Yeah, that's what I love about my neighborhood

I miss Chicago. Even more so now that my beloved Cubbies have won the World Series. I've never missed a chance to go back to Wrigley field to catch a game each time I've visited since I moved in 2000.

I miss Chicago. My yearly jazz festival was a "can't miss" weekend of music, ambience and memories. It was a beautiful landscape of all walks of life as far as the eye could see, sitting on blankets and foldable chairs with a picnic basket at Grant Park, enjoying some of the best free jazz music in the world. The lights of Chicago as they come on at dusk, and Navy Pier and their fireworks. I miss the Chicago Bulls when Michael Jordan was helping win championship rings...

I miss catching concerts, musicals and conferences at the Rosemont Horizon, now the Alstate Arena (unless it's name has been changed to something else). I miss concerts at the Ravinia...I miss the House of Blues...I guess I miss the music...

I miss and regret not finishing my degree at Elmhurst. There is no other school like it. Anywhere. I followed my co-dependent heart back here and I know what a huge mistake that was--now.

I miss my Italian ice in watermelon, cantaloupe and other flavors at Freddy's pizzeria in Cicero, which is actually Berwyn at the corner where the lil mom and pop store/eatery sit. Now THAT pizza is incredible! I miss all things Italian...

I prefer Home Run Inn pizza to Giordano's, Connie's or Gino's East, but they are ALL very good eatin. I do NOT miss the prolonged commute anywhere due to the snow. That I do NOT. Lol

I miss going to Soldier Field and watching the Bears play in freezing sub zero temps, and freezing my ass off with many other die hard fans who were doing the same.

I miss the museum of Science and Industry, the Field Museum the Aquarium and the museum of Art with some of the finest creations known to the world... The "adventures" we'd have when I'd take a "skip day" with my children and the moments spent there with them.

I miss my children being that young and even how much I worked and went to school and how even though my support team was so small, we made it work together. I miss rides through O'hare in the evenings, after traffic to take in the lights and soothe my little girl to sleep.

I miss shopping in the lil grocery stores in little village to buy things I could only get there for my tex-mex cuisine. Speaking Spanish there was the only time I was able to do so...I miss that whole experience of little village...I miss riding the L downtown and that horrible curve it takes when passing Cook County hospital. Felt like I was riding a roller coaster...

I miss the fabulous work opportunities and the welcoming of cultural and lifestyle diversity.

I miss my friends, family and the whole experience I've left behind. I'm feeling a tiny bit homesick as I wax nostalgic...maybe more than a tiny bit. There's more but I'll pause right here...

Chicago is a gorgeous place filled with so much culture, architecture, history and charm.

Did I mention how much I miss it?

Thank you A. Spectre for triggering my trip down memory lane...

What I like about the state I live in, is that it's huge and makes for good traveling.

~
 

the ppl respect the pooper scooper law ~:wine: a salute ~

Not a damn thing.

I miss living near some kind of wilderness. Now I'm in suburbia and the closest thing I get in a opossum in my attic. Not a good thing! I love watching videos where the deer come up to someone's back door looking for food, attention or to play the owner's dog or cat. So cute!

We share the same state! :) Suggestions on day trips?? I'm not much into shopping... I like sightseeing... what's out here?? :fastdraq:

Heard this on NPR... lol

This Spanish Town Is Using Doggie DNA to Find Poop Offenders

Dog owners in a Spanish municipality who don’t clean up after their animal may be traced through the DNA in their pet’s feces, to try and keep the roads clear of unsightly dog mess.

A statement on the City of Mislata’s council website explains that dog owners must enrol their pet in a mandatory canine registry by taking them to a veterinary center to give a quick, free blood sample, before Dec. 31 this year.

Then, if their dog leaves a mess on the pavement that their owner fails to clean up, street cleaners can collect a sample of the feces and take it to a laboratory, to be analyzed. Thanks to the council’s new DNA analysis system, the dog will then be identified and linked to its owner, who will be contacted and given a fine of up to €200 ($220)

“Remember to always carry a plastic or paper bag when you go out for a walk with your dog,” the council’s statement concludes.

This is not the first instance of DNA dog poop testing. There’s even a doggie DNA lab in Knoxville, Tenn., called Poo Prints, which helps condo and apartment managers identify the dogs who leave a mess on premises across 30 states.

http://time.com/4552903/mislata-spain-dog-feces/

People pretty much leave me alone..There are more decent neighbors than those morons who like to hassle me tho,so I'm a fortunate one.

I so enjoy ...

this quiet home in the middle of 2.19 acres in the woods

absence of traffic ... I am the next to the last home on a long dead end road ... homes are spaced far apart ... the only traffic is the woman in the very last place ... there are not any homes across the road, it is hunting land but I have yet to see any hunting activity ... though I do hear shots in the far distance once in a while from over that way, plus my own shots during warm weather - copperhead snakes are not sparse ... now that it is cooler, snakes are not out but the coyotes are very vocal in the evenings ...

lack of crime

value the privacy a great deal, that was the deal-maker

seeing deer occasionally in my backyard

seeing this one goat in a pasture driving in from work ... he always grazes on his knees, he folds his front legs under ... just seeing him cracks me up every time

as soon as I get home from work, I let Kevie and Jennifer out to play in the backyard, sit and watch them from my favorite outdoor chair, they are so funny, watching them relaxes me

neighbors have been friendly ... thank goodness they have finally quit inviting me to church and I am no longer receiving various church fliers in the mail (whew) ... I think they realized I am one of the ones who moved here for privacy, plus, I put a No Tresspassing sign at the entrance of my driveway