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August 26, 2008
List of things that are great about Georgetown
I won't even miss most things about Howell, because they are actually replicated in Georgetown. Ha ha!
1. Great historic downtown buildings. Bonus: Both the Courthouse and City Hall are historic buildings in Georgetown!
2. A local Renaissance Festival. Yup, within an hour's drive of Georgetown! So we won't even have to miss the Ren Fest!
3. A local Balloon festival. According to my friend, Cheryl, there is a balloon festival in Frankfort, about half an hour from Georgetown. So we don't have to miss Balloonfest!
4. Howell gets Melonfest, Georgetown gets the Festival of the Horse. I think Georgetown wins, hands down!
5. A Barnes and Noble bookstore. A short drive away, in Lexington.
6. You can get a license plate with horse on it in Kentucky!
7. People actually work in Georgetown, there are jobs there!
Posted by Jessica at 03:49 PM | Comments (0)
August 25, 2008
Kentucky, here we come!
Well, we had another trip to a job interview last Tuesday, this time to Kentucky. I already knew that I liked Kentucky a whole lot better than Kansas (having been there many times over the past couple of decades.) But I had never been to Georgetown. Turns out it was exactly what we were looking for!
Brian's interview on Wednesday went very well. Derek and I played in a park while Brian was occupied. The town looks very much like downtown Howell, with an historic Courthouse and Victorian shop fronts. It all looks very prosperous and well-maintained.
Land prices never saw a boom in this area of Kentucky, despite the healthy economy there. Housing remains affordable for middle class people. There is even a chance of us being able to get a small farm so that I can keep Kai at home.
Anyway, Brian had taken a leap of faith in turning down the generous offer that the firm in Kansas City had made. Just a few days later, he received a comparable offer from Georgetown. So we are all very happy to be moving to an area that we actually like.
Georgetown even has a Festival of the Horse every year. How could it get any better?
Posted by Jessica at 01:54 PM | Comments (0)
August 18, 2008
Kansas City marathon journey
Last week, Brian had an interview in Kansas City, Kansas. We drove down on Sunday, he had the interview on Monday, we drove around the entire area the rest of Monday, and headed home on Tuesday. It was the longest marathon drive of my life.
It took 13 hours just to travel there, much of it through flat Illinois cornfields that went on and on until I thought I'd fall asleep.
Kansas City had a few nice things: the Plaza was very nice, with beautiful outdoor sculptures, gorgeous historic architecture, and fountains, as well as the upper-end stores it's known for. (Brooks Brothers had a storefront there.)
Brookside on the Missouri side of the river was beautiful, it's an historic neighborhood in Kansas City with its own historic schools and pretty shopfronts.
Then, we found delicious barbeque at a restaurant called Jack Stack. Yummy! I never thought I liked barbeque until I tried Jack Stack.
Anyway, those were the three things we liked about Kansas City. We drove around in vain, trying to find a lovely, historic small town to relocate to, if the job were offered to Brian. All we found was ugly architecture from the 60's and 70's, sprawl, and decimated, uglified downtowns devoid of character. One downtown had even replaced part of its historic structures with a 1960's strip mall, complete with a large expanse of front parking lot. It left an unattractive hole in the middle of their downtown.
Overland Park was a sea of recent big box retailers and upscale chain restaurants, and parking lots. Oh, and McMansions and upscale apartments.
Brian did receive a very attractive offer from the company he interviewed with, but after a weekend-long deliberation, we chose to turn the offer down. Kansas City just didn't have what it took to make us uproot our whole lives to relocate there.
But the barbeque was really tasty!
Posted by Jessica at 11:43 AM | Comments (0)