What I Miss

There's been a few things I've missed, but after just coming back from the Minneapolis area I was reminded of a lot more.  This is in no particular order....

• Large bodies of water.  There are some lakes here, but none that I see on a daily basis.
• Familiar people.  I of course miss all our friends and family but I also miss recognizing people at the grocery store, gas station, Target-wherever.  After working at the biggest church and one of the few children's entertainment places in a smallish town you get to know a lot of people.
• Stores.  Yes there's a lot of stores here compared to a small town, but I'm used to being less than an hour away from pretty much any store.  I miss the convenience of needing something and being able to just get in your car and drive there without much planning.  
• Business people in business attire.  There are very few professional jobs and therefore it is rare to see people in suits here.  When we rode the train from our hotel to the stadium I saw many people dressed up commuting home from the office.
• Being in my cell network.  We have T-Mobile, Minot does not.  It's not that I think T-Mobile is better than Verizon or AT&T, its that when I get a voice mail I have to call myself and almost hack into my voice mail.  When we were at the hotel I looked at my phone a realized it said "T-Mobile".  I got really excited and kind of hoped someone would leave me a message.  Also roaming really sucks your battery life.
• City driving.  I don't know why but I like driving on free ways with more than 2 lanes and seeing crowds of cars not small groups.  When we were approaching the city Josh goes , "There's traffic here so when you see brake lights it means there's congestion not just people being slow."  "Yes Josh, I have driven in Seattle traffic before, I can handle it".  "Well in Minot when you see brake lights it's because one person is slowing down."  For me it's like riding a bike-you never forget.
• Big nice old houses.  I suppose it hurts this city that there was a flood so wherever we go, even Bismarck I comment on how nice the houses look.  On the train ride from Bloomington to Target Field (about 30 minutes) I saw a lot of older looking residential areas with the big well kept houses. Mostly it reminds me of North Tacoma.
• Being less than an hour drive from a major airport.  Sometimes I feel like I'm on an island, but not a tropical one.  Yes there is an airport in Minot but it's small and costs about $200 more to fly out of here than really anywhere (think Yakima size).  Then there's a slightly bigger airport in Fargo that is a 4 hour drive and you have to weigh the drive over the slightly reduced fare (think Spokane size).  The closest major airport like Sea-Tac is Minneapolis/St. Paul which is an 8 hour drive and by that time the price difference isn't worth it.
• Good ethnic food.  Mexican and Indian food are the two I miss.  I don't care what people here say about how great "Mi Mexico" is, it's not.  A woman from California or Arizona even recommended it to Josh.  After we ate there I said I think she's been here too long because she's forgotten what good Mexican food tastes like.  As for Indian food-there aren't any restaurants, period.  
• Population.  In North Dakota there are a few bigger cities but after you've driven past the 3 exits that's it for 100 miles.  I miss one city connected to another, not knowing where one ends and the other starts.

Still the Mid-West in general isn't a bad place to live.  I will reiterate from my last blogs, everyone is nice here.  On the train ride into the city we met two woman on their way to the game and a family from Georgia that was here to see their daughter get her PhD.  The friendliness apparently doesn't stop in smaller communities, it caries on into the big cities.  I really didn't want to leave Minnesota and told Josh I could "settle down" there.  He reminded me that it may be nice now but it still gets really cold in the winter and Hawaii or Southern California is nice year round.