Oh I suppose I’ve been a Grand Forks resident for going-on two weeks, ya, and you betcha I just love the place.

(A quick phone pic from the Greenway Trail. Grand Forks was originally a port for steamboats until trains proved more profitable.)

Actually, overall, it has made a very good first impression with me. Here’s some bullets on what I’ve taken in so far.

Wows:

• love the wide streets; it’s the antithesis of driving in Scotland and you just feel safer and calmer while driving
• related to above, I love the (mostly) grid pattern of the streets. Streets run North/South and Avenues run East/West. Most roads hit at right angles (only complicated by the river, at points.) It’s bliss.
• The Greenway is amazing! The miles of trails along the river, wide path, friendly people. Just beautiful — and just blocks from our place.
• I do enjoy the university feel of the town. Students are everywhere, and this is often a good thing.
• Relatively low prices abound.
• Everything is close. I have yet to have a trip over 15 minutes. Not bad at all, especially coming from Atlanta most recently.
• No real lines anywhere — got my Drivers License in six minutes, most of which were spent chatting with the clerk.

Pows:

• Not meaning to be a snob, but I haven’t found a ton of real tasty locally-owned restaurants. Nothing against Applebees and Space Aliens but…
• Our mail is delivered, on average, at about 5:45 p.m. If I could only pretend it was the next day’s mail early…
• The movie selection is far from stellar; I do like the occasional art house or indie film. I guess it may be time to bump-up our Netflix account.
• There are plenty of coffee shops, several locally-owned so that’s great! But I do miss a local book store option. Maybe it’s out there, but I haven’t stumbled on it yet.
• There seems to be a supermarket monopoly. Now there’s a Hugo’s on every other corner, but I do wonder what else would crop up if Hugo’s didn’t have the market saturated.
• Ok, I’ll be honest here though I’m not proud of it: I really miss Banana Republic. There’s nothing like seeing that clearance rack in person.

Well, I better stop there before I get myself in trouble. Oh, but I almost forgot to mention the best thing of all: It’s not snowing yet!