The Big City

So, for 13+ years, we lived in Tyler, Texas. Tyler is what I call a big town/small city. Last I heard, the population was slightly over 100,000. It's a great place to live, and we still have lots of friends there.

For the past 2.83 years, we've lived in the Marietta area, just northwest of Atlanta. It's actually a lot like Tyler. Similar weather, similar mixture of commercial/residential real estate, both near a large metro area. Like I've already said, Marietta is just northwest of Atlanta, and Tyler is near the Dallas/Ft. Worth metroplex.

In fact, one of the things that I always told people when extolling the virtues of Tyler was that it was just 90 minutes from Dallas. Culture, music, fine dining, all close enough to take in during a day trip. The only problem? We never did.

Okay, not never. We took a mini-vacation one time and hit the Dallas Aquarium and the West End. We went to two Ranger games and I took Cheryl to see some figure skating. But for the 13 years, we probably averaged 1 "cultural experience" every 3 years.

Now, after less than 3 years in Marietta/Atlanta, we've been to a Thrasher's games (pro hockey), to the Georgia Aquarium (twice for me, 3 times for Cheryl), the World of Coke, Underground Atlanta, seen two musicals at the Fox Theater, and a half dozen Braves games.

(We've also made a half dozen trips to Stone Mountain and a trip up to the mountains to go apple picking, but those places aren't in Atlanta, per se.)

So what's the difference? Do we have more disposable income? I don't think so. More time on our hands? That's funny. Maybe it's just a matter of accessibility.

So, to sum up:

Living near the big city is awesome, because there's a lot of cool things to do.

Thanks for reading. I think my next post will be called "Atlanta Traffic or a Root Canal...Which Would You Rather Have?"