In finalizing this “Lessons Learned” arc of blog posts, I wanted to end where I grew up:  Ohio.  Blame it on time, as well as changing perspectives and needs in life, but these five were a lot harder for me to come up with than the ones for Oregon and Colorado.  Don’t get me wrong, though–I loved the surroundings I grew up in, and have a lot of family who love living in Ohio still.

So, without further ado, here are the five lessons learned from living in (and growing up in) Ohio.

LESSON 1:  Lake Erie is pretty impressive

I did live in a lot of different places in Ohio, usually near farms.  My Dad and Mom (OK, stepmom, just so you don’t get confused) always lived near Lake Erie, though.  As one of the five Great Lakes, it’s obviously a huge body of water with a large shoreline.  As a kid, I loved going across the bridge that takes you over Sandusky Bay, which is off Lake Erie, out to Marblehead.  When you’re in Marblehead, you can check out the lighthouse there and just get this really

Following up on my previous post (Five Lessons Learned from Living in Oregon), I thought I’d continue in that vein by looking at where I previously lived–Colorado.  For three of those years, I lived with the wife there, but for the other five, I was on my own.

There are some great things that you can find in both Colorado and Oregon–a general friendliness from a lot of people, lots of places to go enjoy nature (hiking and biking especially), and even Voodoo Doughnut (their bright pink boxes are HIGHLY visible in the airport).  We’ve enjoyed living in both states, and I’ve talked to multiple other people who have enjoyed or would enjoy living in both places too.

As a clarification before you read any further, these “lessons” aren’t anything like, “Things I’ve learned about life from living in location X.”  They are, instead, the lessons of what is good and unique in the different places that I’ve lived.  There are, of course, many more than I could list here, but these are my biggies.

With that explanation done, here are my five lessons learned from living in Colorado.

LESSON 1:  There are fantastic views

I grew up in Ohio, where there really aren’t mountains.  Sure, we’ve got some hills, but the highest elevation there is 1,550 feet.  Colorado, in comparison, has fifty-eight (!) mountains

Author’s Note:  I originally included projects in my previous posts as an incentive to keep me writing on this blog.  It’s felt like these are starting to distract from the post content, so the projects will now be included BELOW the main post content.

The wife and I moved here five years ago from Colorado.  Yes, five years ago, we lived in a state with bigger mountains, higher altitude, and more sunny days.  Of course, it also didn’t have quick access to the ocean, as many deciduous trees, or Blue Star Donuts.

Those differences show the blessing of living in multiple places over a lifetime:  You get to experience what the pluses and minuses are of each place.  What better way to share this with you all than to write a list of five lessons learned from living here in the Pacific Northwest?  Sounds good to me.

So to jump right in:

LESSON 1:  It rains here.  A lot.

People tend to picture Seattle as an extremely rainy city, but it and Portland are pretty darned close in how much rain each gets per year.  Within the five years we’ve been here,