Seeing that life in the Moore household is currently in limbo, I am trying to focus on the positive. So no worrying (or at least trying not to worry) about things like where Daniel will end up working long term, where we should buy a house, how long it will take our current house to sell, or where we will be living week to week.
This past week we rented a small cottage in Hixson, Tennessee. We are testing the waters to see what areas around Chattanooga make the most sense for us to consider moving to sometime in the future. Hixson is about 50 minutes to the plant Daniel is working at and 15 minutes from Downtown Chatt.
I'm pretty sure that Jack and I got the better end of this deal. We shall see what the coming weeks have in store for us!
Things I Have Missed about City Life
1) High-speed internet. This is an important part of my work and social connectivity. Daniel tested the internet speed (Chattanooga has fiber optics) and it was about 5x faster than what we get at home in Alabama. It was ah-ma-zing. I had forgotten how nice it is to have fast internet. No having to wait eons to download images from my clients, or upload finished work to printers.
2) Convenience to a ton of restaurants (without having to drive 50+ minutes). We love our local Mexican restaurant, but in our little town in Alabama we really only have 3 places we enjoy eating at. I love that in the city, you can drive down the street, notice a hole-in-the-wall place, look it up on Urbanspoon and decide to try it out. We ate at New York Pizza Department and were impressed by the a) enormous pizza; b) the taste of the pizza; and c) the music they had streaming the entire time. It was a throwback to all of the music we love from our high school and college days. If you are in Hixson, we would definitely recommend you check out NYPD.
3) Abundance of outdoor activities within a short radius of our house. We have found it odd that living in the country has afforded so little in terms of outdoor activities. Yes, you can go boating, but there are very few trails (dirt or paved) and you really have to drive somewhere to access the type of trails we love. In the city, we loved that there were greenways and dirt trails within minutes of our house. Jack and I took at walk at Chickamauga Lake one morning and one evening the whole family (including Sophie) went to Greenway Farms where we took the trail up above the quarry and had a view of Signal Mountain. One night, on his way home from work, Daniel stopped for a trail run at the Laurel Snow Pocket Wilderness. Have I mentioned that we LOVE East Tennessee?
4) Tons of activities for children. From our current home, I have to drive 50+ minutes to meet friends for play dates or do fun things with Jack. Our local library doesn't even have a story hour! We do have a couple of good parks around here and a wonderfil splash pad, but that is all. In Chattanooga, we spent an entire afternoon with friends, including a visit to the library to see a Magic Show. Another day, Jack and I wandered downtown to play in the fountains by the Aquarium. I really wanted to take him to The Passage, but it was closed due to flooding. No worries -- we were in a city, there is always something to do!
5) YMCA with childcare. I have MISSED going to the Y since we left Charlotte. Spin classes, kickboxing, step aerobics, yoga, swimming. You name it, I have missed it. Over the years, I have been able to find smaller studios to workout in (which I have been incredibly blessed by), but having childcare on site is a big deal to me. I haven't purchased my membership yet, but we made the rounds and visited the Y's in Hixson and downtown so that I could take a look at the childcare centers and speak with the caretakers. I can't wait to get signed up. I need to be working out more frequently and I know that Jack will love having some regular play time with other kids.
Runners up -- these really fit under convenience of restaurants, but the cottage where we stayed was within a 10 minute drive to Chick-fil-a and Starbucks.
I don't need either of these things in my life, but it was a nice treat to have them nearby.
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