Exploring

Growing up in a small town, we were allowed to explore and discover all kinds of details about the place we lived. I knew the names of all of the neighbors cats and dogs. I had climbed trees all around our town and looked at it from all different angles. We had walked up and down all of the alleys and peered into all of the garages and learned how to find our way around even on dark nights. As paper boys, we were up before many of our town’s residents and rode our bikes from one end of the town to another, discovering every shortcut possible. Our town was a safe place for kids and we knew that there were almost always adults watching us and that any infractions would be reported to our parents quickly, but we had a great deal of freedom to explore and discover all kinds of things about our town.

I don’t think that I’ve been as familiar with any other place that I have lived. In college and graduate school, we changed apartments with the school year. I got to know some of the buildings on campus and learned how to navigate to the places I needed to go, but I didn’t have the free time to just wander around and explore. After graduation, we lived in a small town, and got to know the people and place very well, but it seemed like I was always rushing from one place to another with little time to pause and explore.

Retirement is giving us an opportunity to explore our surroundings in a new way. We go walking every day. Sometimes we walk in familiar places. There are walking paths and trails near our home that we’ve been on dozens of times. Other days we discover new short cuts or wander through the neighborhood. Because we have time we will walk around a cul de sac and look at the houses or walk down a street just to see where it goes. We don’t know the names of the neighborhood dogs and cats, but we’ve greeted many of them and have identified some yards where the dog always is out and others where it is only out at certain times of the day. We know some apartments where there is usually a cat at the window.

Even though we have only lived in this house for about three months I feel like I am getting to know the neighborhood better than I have know some of the places where we have previously lived. The interesting thing to me is that we probably aren’t going to live here long term. We have rented a home with a one year lease so that we will have time to shop for our next home. So far, we haven’t found any great leads. Housing is expensive here and the inventory of homes for sale is small. We’re not feeling any pressure to act quickly, so we are taking our time and we are exploring a wide area. It is possible, but unlikely, that we will find a more permanent home in this neighborhood.

It is, however, a wonderful neighborhood. Unlike the subdivision where we lived in Rapid City, there are many different kinds of housing within a very close area. Within a mile of our house, there are single family homes, duplexes, apartments, mobile home parks, assisted living facilities, care centers, and many different kinds of housing. We can easily walk to a dozen different churches, to the hospital, to a grocery store with a pharmacy, to parks and to elementary, middle and high schools. There is a college that is just over a mile from our home. Being close to the hospital, there are many medical offices and other professional buildings within a close space. Despite all of this diversity, the neighborhood doesn’t feel crowded. The yard of our house is much smaller and the neighbors are much closer than was the case in our South Dakota home, but there is plenty of open space in our neighborhood. It doesn’t feel closed in and crowded the way our Chicago apartments felt to me.

The pacific northwest has long been an attractive place to live. The mild climate and abundant salmon runs attracted several different indigenous tribal groups thousands of years ago. When European explorers came to visit, settlers soon followed. Volcanic soils and abundant rainfall produced lots of crops. Dutch settlers found their skills at building dikes and stopping saltwater intrusion made many farming areas productive. Loggers found abundant resources for their trade. Miners discovered rich ores in the nearby mountains. For hundreds of years this region has been home to speakers of dozens of different languages. English and Spanish are the two most common languages in our immediate area, but we notice highway signs with place names in the languages of pacific tribes and neighbors with names that reflect a Chinese heritage. As we drive from our home to our son’s farm, we cross three different reservations: Samish, Lumi and Nooksak.

There is a lot to explore in the region. State and national parks are within less than an hour’s drive. We have easy access to the seashore and the mountains. The large city of Seattle is close enough for a day trip. And we have flown to international destinations from both the Seattle and Vancouver airports.

But for now walking around our neighborhood gives us plenty of interesting adventures. I don’t think that I have taken notice of the details of my surroundings as carefully since I was a child, exploring my hometown first by walking and then by bicycle. I’m rediscovering the joys of noticing who has painted their fence and who has trimmed their trees, paying attention to the pets and other animals, and walking down a narrow street just to find out what is at the end of it.

The pandemic has limited where we go and what we can do. We don’t know the restaurants of this place and haven’t explored the shops. We haven’t gotten to know the people in our church or sat in the library watching people. Still, there is much to see and do and discover and so far there has been adventure around every corner. I’m not bored yet.

Made in RapidWeaver