I have never lived anywhere but Michigan. Mike has the same story. Although we have both been through the state, I know that I have never personally gone to Iowa just for the sake of visiting. We'll now be calling Cedar Rapids home, which sounds odd to my ears, mostly because it's so similar to "Grand" Rapids.
Grand Rapids Panorama
Like my hometown of Grand Rapids, MI, Cedar Rapids is the 2nd largest city in Iowa. It sits on the banks of the Cedar River and is a manufacturing hub, not only for the state, but the United States in general. While Grand Rapids is known as the "Furniture Capital", Cedar Rapids is the largest corn-processing city in the world. They are also:
- The second largest producer of wind energy in the United States
- One of the leading manufacturing regions in the United States
- One of the leading bio-processing and food ingredient centers in North America
Cedar Rapids, IA
Cedar Rapids is home to Rockwell Collins (one of the largest providers of aviation and information systems & services to governmental agencies and aircraft manufacturers), General Mills, Quaker Oats, Cargill and Nordstroms. They value technology and Midwestern values such as a strong work ethic, quality family time and an honest life. The schools are top notch and their parks and recreation options are pretty great too!
Like Grand Rapids, Cedar Rapids is a city with that small-town feel. And compared to the city of my birth, it is small. In the 2010 Census, the city population of Grand Rapids, MI was 188,040, the metropolitan area had a population of 774,160 and a combined statistical area, (Grand Rapids-Muskegon-Holland) population of 1,321,557. Compare that to Cedar Rapids, IA where the city population was to 126,326 and the Cedar Rapids/Iowa City corridor had an estimated population of 423,353. It's a big difference but not big enough that I feel like I'll be living in the boonies.
Grand Rapids
It will certainly take some getting used to and some major adjustments in my mind, but I think that this new adventure will be good for our family and help us to appreciate what we have now and what could be in the future. I plan on writing here much more frequently to keep everyone updated! Stay tuned!
Cedar Rapids
2 comments:
"Life shrinks or expands in proportion to one's courage." --Anais Nin
Congratulations on a brave new adventure! I am sure you will not regret it. But of course you can always come home again, where we'll all be missing you!
What's the timeline?
My name is Ren. I have no neighborhood.
The house is on the market, of which sadness I cannot even explain. I have had to start the process of detaching from here.
Mike is in Iowa. It breaks my heart. Hopefully we will be able to sell soon and find a new neighborhood in Iowa to call home in the not-so-distant future.
We will be back around. You should know...can't stay away forever! :-)
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