Three Amusing Differences About Our Lives in Philadelphia

1.  We walk to church here, one of maybe half a dozen families who can.  It seems like we are right next door at 0.7 miles away. We leave half an hour early.

In Riverton, that 0.5 mile drive seemed like halfway to the end of the world: did we have enough gas in the tank?  And we were still usually late.

2.  We have no automatic dishwasher here and must wash dishes once or twice a day, by hand. Partly because we run out of dishes, and partly so we don't encourage pests. (Interesting sidelight: none of the Riverton Gabe's have dishwashers now: us, Paul & Bethany, Lynne & Kit.)

At home, we couldn't be bothered to load the dishwasher but once a week.

3.  Several times we have gone out to the suburbs for activities or things.  The suburbs around Philadelphia feel similar to the suburbs around any city.  Similar big box stores and malls, similar traffic patterns.  We're just now realizing we could have more closely matched our Riverton lifestyle, by moving further out.

If we had opted for a suburban apartment, we would not have gotten the metropolitan flavor we love so much: a five-minute walk to anything:  stores,

 

restaurants (4-5 dozen),

grocery,

movie theaters.

Plus the nightly sirens going up the street.

We would have missed all that.