There's no place like home...

To all of our faithful friends here in KC who continued to visit us despite crappy parking and scary elevators and possible steppage into seemingly endless supplies of sidewalk dog poo we thank you for your patience and understanding while we continued to live downtown. Many of you fled in years past...one by one escaping the concrete jungle. Many of you realized enough was enough and decided to brave the burbs. Many of you have gone before us and now, we too, are rejoining the ranks and choosing a bonified neighborhood with a nearby grocery store.

It's been four long years of walking through rain, sleet and snow to find my car, lugging too many grocery bags on one arm and praying the elevator isn't broken, of repeatedly being asked by a well-known and worn face for a down payment on a cheeseburger, sometimes two or three times in the same day, and of course the 3 am fire alarms we seem to have so many of. The 20 minute drive to the nearest supermarket will not be missed, the rude smokers in the elevator will not be missed, paying to do my laundry will definitely not be missed.......but, a few things I will indeed miss: our gym, walks around the city on perfect Spring days, the best library in the world across the street, the view of the memorial, the Christmas lights, walking to the City Market and of course, the bagpiper who played outside of my window on summer evenings....I will really miss that.

So, farewell Downtown Kansas City, we promise to visit, after all we will only be just across the state line. I think I am beginning to understand how Dorothy felt.