Demographics: "Visiting" Your Home Town

I live in Kansas City and we if you come right now we have the most beautiful Plaza lights for Christmas. Even in the summer, the Plaza is swarming with people and little shops that you actually WALK to. It's a great way to spend a Saturday afternoon, nice warm weather - great lunch - walking from store to store.

We have several wonderful fountains that are beautifully dyed at different times for different reasons - breast cancer month/pink, start of football/ red, St. Pat's day/green. And speaking of St. Pat's day - who can miss the big St. Patty's day parade downtown (and in outer areas).

Some other reasons to move here:

Lenexa BBQ and fair

Jesse James is not far

Our schools are getting better every year.

And the Royals could be the ones to watch (notice I didn't mention those Chiefs - oh, darn, I just did).

Pam, who can indeed miss seeing a green fountain and a parade on St. Paddy's Day? I will plan a March Trip and hope the sun shines brightly that day. We are snowbound here and as much as I would love the festivity of this season at your Plaza I can only be delighted by your description. And oh yeah, I could sure could use a place close by where I could walk and people watch. Hmmm, maybe I should plan a summer trip too.

Congrats on a good school system!

I can't resist my reply ..BUT ..I promise to write a new one as soon as I move ..

I live in a wonderful very rural community..

It's 60 miles north of Detroit,,Murder City USA #1

It's 35 miles east of Flint ..Murder City USA #3

I have a wonderful summer shack on 7 acres about 150 miles north of the wonderful rural community where I live. With a little luck, I will finish my "re-build project" to make it an upgraded, year round home.

I will move there, permanently.

BadFrog, I am there! Send me a housewarming invitation when you are ready! Ours was a hunting cabin someone did the labor on and made it livable for us. Primitive and natural is what I like.

We live in a very beautiful area of NW MIchigan near the Lake Michigan shoreline. Our homestead is on 14 acres of partly wooded, partly marshy land. We have great neighbors. The small town we live about 5 miles from is charming--an old lumbering town with a pretty interesting history. It is a great place to raise a family. (Unfortunately with our present economy here in MI there is not much opportunity for young people.) People who visit here say it is a bit of paradise and I have to agree. After traveling a bit I can honestly say we live in one of the most beautiful places in the world.

My son and I pretended to be tourists quite a few years ago--we visited the local museum, toured the river on a guided tour boat, walked the riverwalk--and I think it gave him (and me) a greater appreciation of our hometown.

I appreciate your town, neighbor and am up as a bona-fide tourist wannabe. I'll be the one with the walking shoes on my feet and the camera in my hand.

Editor, I think that most rural communities are lovely places to be from. Many of the kids who grew up in our town and moved away because it was so "boring" sometimes come back with their families and raise them here. I should mention that we have a pretty good school system here. I am proud to say that I served on our board of education for 10 years (my term was up this June and I decided to not run again so we could travel a little more). We (our school board) worked very hard to make some positive changes that have made us one of the best schools in the area!!