Loving this vast, beautiful country

I grew up in the New York suburbs of Long Island. My mom was from Brooklyn, and my dad lived in three of the five boroughs of New York after his family moved here from London.And despite the fact that I grew up in the suburbs, I felt very much a part of New York City. That's not uncommon at all, mind you.So when I first went to college, I was a complete New York snob. I'm pretty sure I was rather obnoxious. I went to school in the suburbs of Chicago, and grew to love the Second City. I later worked in Louisville, Fort Lauderdale, and Mesa, Arizona.After living around the country, I gained a new appreciation for New York, but also a vast appreciation for the rest of the country. We live in a gorgeous nation with amazing natural beauty. I've visited a lot of National Parks, and they're amazing.Funny thing is, I own a home in rural Pennsylvania, where my mother-in-law lives, and we live in a home she owns in the urban suburbs of New York. (Yes, that's a thing.)After New York City, though, everything else is ... smaller. It just is. When I was in Washington, D.C., a few weeks ago, I asked the host at my bed and breakfast how I'd walk to a specific location. She looked surprised that I'd walk there, but when I said I was from New York, she smiled and said it was definitely a walkable distance.We're walkers - it's often faster to walk than to take public transit, even - which is nearly always faster than driving.Now I'm traveling around the country to cities I've never visited before - Sacramento, San Luis Obispo, Kansas City, Fort Worth - and loving it. I love nothing more than visiting a new place and wandering around and getting lost. In fact, getting lost is the way I used to learn my way around a new city. I'd take a turn I wasn't supposed to and force myself to find my way home.Then I go back to New York and love that no matter how far I roam, there's always this dirty, noisy, glorious city that I call home.Photo by Ken Lund via Flickr Creative Commons (until I upload my own photo of the capitol and replace this!)