Things I Love About Tallahassee

There are reasons why I live where I do and have lived here for 10 years. So, I decided to focus on the things I love about Tallahassee.

1. Friends: I am fortunate to have a diverse group of friends - horse friends, non-horse friends, friends I have worked with, and those I currently work with.

2. Weather: A big reason I live in Florida is the weather (and no state income tax). While others around the country are freezing and snowed in, I am wearing short sleeves. This is GREAT!

3. Horses: Yes, I can have this in most places, but the horse community I belong to here is important to me as well as the horses I have grown to love.

4. Scenery: Big, beautiful trees, canopy roads, green grass, tiny hills, the Capital, the Park on Park, the countryside, Lake Ella.....

5. The airport: Strange, I know, but where else can you get to the airport in 30 minutes, get a parking space 50 yards from the terminal and get through security in less than 10 minutes? After going through other airports, I love ours!

6. The Black Dog: I don't go there as much these days, but it was a big part of my life early on...remember those days Jenny?

7. My subdivision: I love the house I live in and the subdivision. The neighbors are nice and its a safe place. I feel secure here.

8. Running: The weather here is great for running and the nice wide sidewalks outside my neighborhood are perfect!

9. Shopping: While not the greatest shopping place on earth, I can manage to find most things I need. Now, if Ann Taylor leaves the mall, I am in trouble. We have a good number of book stores, wine shops, clothing stores, and restaurants.

10. Traffic, or lack of: I spend several days a month in Atlanta. Tallahassee has NO traffic.

11. Hangouts: Because I have been here awhile, I have developed "hangouts". Beef O Brady's comes to mind. The manager, Dennis, and the staff there are great. Samarai is another place where the manager knows my name and, on occassion gives me free drinks!

12. Eclectic experiences: The opportunity to have interesting experiences does exist here, but it takes some work. In the last several weeks, I have seen the visual performance band, Of Montreal, listened to some good local musicians at the Warehouse, gone to Market Days, and ate at a soup and sandwich shop in a building that used to be a nursing home. The key is that I have to look for and be open to new things.

While Richard Florida's book makes strong points for finding a location that fits for an individual, a case can be made that if one looks hard enough in our current location we can find most of what we are looking for and if we don't find it, maybe we need to create it.

What do you love about Tallahassee?