When we moved to South Dakota, our city was a regional hub. It was the second-largest city in the state and the largest city within 350 miles in any direction. Our regional hospital served an area with a radius of roughly 250 miles. We were well aware of the impact of our city before moving there because we had previously lived in a small North Dakota town that was 175 miles from Rapid City and we used to drive those 175 miles each way for orthopedic care for our son and to shop for certain items that weren’t available in our town. Population centers are few and far between in the Dakotas.

Our situation here is very different. Here we live in a small unincorporated settlement with a population of under 10,000 people. Our community has a lot of vacationers and second-home owners during the summer, but we don’t feel very crowded at all. Our location, however is close to two very large cities. Seattle is about 100 miles south of us. The Seattle metro area is home to over 4 million people. And just 35 miles in the other direction is Vancouver, British Columbia with a metro area housing over 2 1/2 million people. Living in a vacation area so close to major metro areas means that some of those people come to our town when they are on vacation.

When we first moved to this area, the Canadian border was closed to nonessential travel. That meant that the usual tourists from Vancouver weren’t coming to our community. Many of the vacation homes and rental properties were vacant. Some of the area restaurants were struggling and had decreased hours of operation. Some of the small shops weren’t open every day. Last summer, however, the border was open and we really noticed the influx of tourists. It seemed to us that about half of the cars parked alongside the beach sported British Columbia license plates.

It has been quite a bit calmer over the winter. We like the empty beaches and the lack of traffic. Our South Dakota home was near tourist attractions and we were used to the gigantic influx of non-natives during the annual motorcycle rally when there were more guests than local residents for a week each August. But the variation in the number of people is even more dramatic here.

The last few days we have noticed a slight uptick in the number of people on the beach. Part of that is probably natural due to a few warmer days. But we have spoken with enough tourists to know that some of the public schools in British Columbia have spring break this week. Families have rented some of the mobile homes and cottages in our town. We spoke with a teacher and her son yesterday who were sitting on the beach despite the cloudy day. The 3 or 4 year old was not affected by the weather at all. He was having a good time digging in the sand and playing with his toys. His shoes and jacket had been shed as he played.

I suppose that we might learn to take advantage of the nearby cities as time passes. There are some wonderful attractions in the cities including zoos, aquariums, museums, art displays, orchestras, ballet companies, and much more. We aren’t much for shopping and the thought of putting up with urban traffic to find a store doesn’t appeal to us, but there are some places in the cities that we would like to visit. Part of the reason we haven’t done too much exploring is that it took quite a bit of energy to get moved and become settled in our new location. Part of the reason is that we are busy with our part-time jobs and our grandchildren. We have found ourselves saying, “When this job is finished,” about our current interim positions. We don’t really know what we will be doing next. There is a bit of an urge to look for a job after we finish our service to our current church, but there is also a sense that we can afford to be selective and that some of the most interesting positions seem to appear without an extensive search. Our two-year employment at First Congregational Church of Bellingham turned up without us going through a search at all. We just happened to be in the right place at the right time. That is part of the ministry: being able to respond to a call when it comes.

We do plan, however, to drive to Seattle tomorrow. It is one of the first trips to Seattle since we moved that doesn’t involve going to Sea-Tac International Airport. The regional hub airport is on the south side of the city and it takes a bit over two hours to get there and can take considerably more time in peak traffic because there is no way to get there without driving through the city. The closest route goes right through downtown Seattle.

Like other things in life, doing something once makes it easier to do it again later. Perhaps we will find a few more reasons to make the journey into Seattle in the months to come.

The more practical urban experience for us might be to visit Vancouver, British Columbia. The wait at the border can be up to a half hour at times, but most of the time it is 15 minutes or less. We could speed that time by obtaining NEXUS permits, which involve a pre-check and allow one to use the express lanes to cross the border. Folks who have reason to cross the border frequently recommend getting the cards. It seems that a lot of Canadians obtain the cards to come to the US for shopping and vacations. Since we aren’t that interested in shopping the exchange rate doesn’t make much of a difference to us unless we were to need to purchase gasoline in Canada, where the price is higher right now.

It has been nearly three years since we moved from South Dakota and there is still much to learn about living in this new home. Adventures await us and we’re the kind of folks who enjoy adventure.