We love Decatur.  It’s newish city motto is, “Clean, Green, Active, and Attractive.”  Who doesn’t want to be all four?  What follows is just a sample, then, of what Decatur has to offer.

At 9:00 am today I ran in a 5K run “Beat the Street for Little Feet” to sponsor Oakhurst Cooperative Preschool.  We rode our bikes to the race start, ran in to a Columbia professor at the wee festival following the race, and then rode back.  The race t-shirts were designed by local children’s book author James Dean of Pete the Cat. We could have taken in a cool Oakhurst Coffee shop Kavarna, eaten brunch outside at great local pub U-Joint, or just enjoyed the scene in Harmony Park.

Later this afternoon, we road our bikes into Decatur proper enjoying a super-tasty meal at Taqueria del Sol.  We took in Decatur square and the Saturday night Bluegrass concert, stopped in at the best local bookstore in Decatur, Little Shop of Stories, and got Dairy Queen on the way home (Decatur knows what few chains to let in:).  

Decatur is clean because all the buses run on natural gas–a reason it’s green as well–but I also appreciated the many large recycling bins in Harmony Park at the run.  It’s certainly active because over 600 runners raced with me, many pushing strollers.  And, well, I’ll let you judge whether and how it’s attractive.  

Who knows where we’ll end up next year, but if it’s not Decatur, we’ll sure miss it.