Places we've lived

 A little History here. Also, including a few key learnings I hope others can benefit from:

Kevin

Kankakee 

I grew up around Kankakee and came back for a couple short stints afterwards:

* till age 17, then back again for a couple years to help Mike graduate from BBCHS

* Short stint after military 

The good things about Kankakee included a few of the houses we lived in pictured below, the proximity to Chicago, the River and some of the people I knew.

Bad things include an ever increasing crime rate, lack of career opportunities and overall there was a contest on the Letterman show at one point and it was named "worst place in the country". Not sure it's that bad, but I was glad to find opportunity elsewhere in life.

Here's a little unofficial video overview:

Mt. Langham. Best thing about this was the Arabian horse herd across the street that we could watch from the living room window.

Out in the Country - about 10 miles out of town. Great location on the creek next to my Grandpa and Grandma's house. Lot of trees. Big yard to play in. And our dogs Chiquita and Arfie pictured below loved all the room to run.

South Evergreen - 2 separate houses, a couple blocks from a nice park and the river when I was growing up, Unfortunately too dangerous to hang out in those places now

and 1 more on Sibley Ave. Same story unfortunately - unsafe neighborhood now

Bourbonnais Duplex with Mike ready for Prom. 

Air Force Assignments

Denver 

was just here for a few months while in technical school at Lowry AFB. Alicia was born here. Best thing I remember was the view of the Rocky Mountains.

Clovis 

Rough environment, always hot and windy. Scorpions and Rattlesnakes. 

But, fairly close to Santa Fe and Riodoso, which were great places.

Rented the Trailer on the left and Bought trailer on the right (made about $200 profit when sold. ha)

We were all military folks and a lot of us used trailers for our housing. No one stayed at this assignment more than a couple years.

Okinawa 

After Cannon Air Force Base/Clovis, I got orders to Okinawa. My choice - 18 months on my own or 3 years and I could take my family. I took the 3 years, which resulted in having to extend my original enlistment by 18 months.

Okinawa was quite an education on culture, the fight for freedom on WW2, island living, and a lot more. 

Here's an overview of the island:

Ishikawa - lived here for a short time before base housing was available. Small apartment.

<<put in Christina card>>

Aerial view of the Bomb Dump, where I worked

Base Housing

Our back yard. Plenty of room for jumping.

Mike was born here.

Post-Air Force, Pre-Linda

Wilmington/Joliet 

I worked at Joliet Army Ammunition Plant for Honeywell Defense Division for about 5 years after the Air Force. During that time, I lived in both nearby Wilmington and Joliet. Probably the most fun was being room mates with my buddy Tim in Joliet. This is a pic of our cars, which we loved, in the driveway of the house.

Linda

Whitmore Lake 

Linda was raised near Whitmore Lake, Michigan.

Her Maiden name is Madouse and there's a street there named for that.

Here's a video overview.

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Both Linda and I lived in Chicago, but didn't know each other than

Chicago 

Back in the late '80's and 90's, it was great to live in Chicago. Since then, I don't care for the rise in crime, so I'm glad for my time there at that point in time. 

Video Overview:

* Linda lived in Lincoln Park 

* Kevin spend most time in Lincoln Park and Far North Side, by Loyola

A big focus of my time was getting my degree from Loyola, plus I was doing triathlons and races at that point, so these places were perfectly located. 

This is Barry Ave in Lincoln Park. Enjoyed my time there, but honestly the neighborhood was too up for grabs morals wise for me late at night, so I moved up by Loyola to settle it down a little.

One downside of Barry is that my car was robbed 5 times, in this "secure parking" place. Took my T Tops, Stereo, multiple times.

This was far north side, about 4 blocks from Loyola and right on the lake. Best apartment I ever had. Beautiful view, Swimming in the Lake frequently, Campus type culture. 

* Kevin also spent time in near West Side helping friends renovate buildings in emerging neighborhoods, Suburbs Willowbrook, Downers Grove, Cherry Valley and Evanston

Bay Area 

* Linda lived in the Oakland hills before I met her

* We lived together in Walnut Creek, an East Bay city close to our work in Napa, Concord and a BART train ride from San Francisco and Oakland

Walnut Creek Overview

We lived in a townhouse. Nice, but when the landlord wanted to push us to buy it for an outrageous price, we started thinking about moving.

We chose...

Carlsbad 

At this point, we began I guess what you could call our "settling down" period. Between Carlsbad and Brentwood - we've lived in the same place for the last 20 years (as of 2022)

We learned a lot about the value of family in Carlsbad. We had so many nice memories from visits with Guy, Elaine, Sam and Carol. Also, Geoff and Katherine had a place in San Diego and visited Carlsbad a lot, so we enjoyed time with them too.

Carlsbad was warmer than the Bay Area, especially by the water. That was nice. 

We had 2 houses, 1 rent and 1 we owned

Here's a video that gives a flavor of the area:

Our first Carlsbad house - a rental on East Pointe Ave that we really liked

We bought our first house together on Telescope Ave. View of Ocean from corner of the front yard and full view of Mountains from the back. 1 mile to the Ocean.

Brentwood 

We moved to Brentwood in 2010. 

Here's a video that gives you a flavor of our area:

We've been in 1 house the whole time. We have almost 2 acres of wooded lot, feels like a park. It's in a very nice suburb, but still close enough to Nashville when we want to go in.

as of end 2022 - the house is very cozy. We have a lot of exercise equipment to keep us in shape as good as possible as we get a little older - pool, swim spa, sauna, garage converted to gym and bow & arrow range in our back yard. We're thankful for every day and all the steps we've outlined her along the way. 

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