Friday Five Favorite Locations

This post is about locations. My husband has lived at 64 addresses in his life so far (16 with me) and he suggested the topic since we have moving trucks on our minds.

Therefore, tell us about the five favorite places you have lived in your lifetime. What did you like? What kind of place was it? Anything special happen there?

Here are my five favorite (I think) places I have lived listed in no particular order...

Nome, AK
I did my internship there. It is one of the few places I've lived where I had friends I could just drop in on and visit with and have no further expectations. I got to co-host a morning radio show and experienced a number of different adventures including skijoring. I watched, and broadcast, the finish of the Iditarod Sled Dog Race. Mostly, I made some really good friendships.

Portland, OR
I did CPE (Clinical Pastoral Education...kind of a chaplaincy requirement of seminary), which was a great experience for me. Portland allowed for a lot of fun outdoor adventures. The hiking and camping around the area was pretty awesome. I also got to spend the summer with a good friend from high school and his wife, which was pretty cool as well.

Visalia, CA
This is the first place I lived after college. It is located in the Central Valley of CA so there were adventures to be had in LA, San Fran, in the mountains and on the coast. I learned a lot there about doing ministry and the importance of great parents to the "success" of youth ministry. I made some pretty wonderful friends that supported me through a lot of growing experiences. I was really validated in my call to ordained ministry there... it just took a few more years to explore that call.

Gypsum, CO
How can you really argue with living in the mountains? I spent a summer preaching in a Lutheran congregation there. Really, all I did was preach on Sunday so I had the week to run and play in the mountains. I learned to whitewater kayak that summer, which was totally awesome. I got to get on the river every Thursday evening. I also got work as a water at a cool 50's style malt shop just three blocks away from where they were hosting the Kobe Bryant trial (what a zoo that was). It was interesting getting to know the "regulars" there and building relationships in that sort of setting. I also got to spend some good time with a friend from high school, including hiking two 14ers.

Minocqua, WI
I stayed with one of the greatest families for a summer in Minocqua. I preached at three campgrounds every Sunday. I spent the rest of the week reading, napping, and water skiing. That was also the summer I discovered Culver's frozen custard and their flavor of the day, which was great for my taste buds but not so good for the waist line.

The common thread I see flowing through each of these and the number of others I could add to the list as well is the people. What made each location great that I've lived in is the people. What is great, and comforting, is that these locations represent a variety of different geographic locations really, which tells me that there are good people wherever you go. So as we take on new adventures in life we can be happy wherever we end up because there are likely to be good people there, even if the terrain and weather looks different than what we're used to.