True Suburbia

We live in stereotypical suburbia.  Seriously.  You think of the definition of suburbs and we are in it.  I'm not saying that's necessarily a good or bad thing, but it's the truth. 

A little background: I was pretty much raised in suburbia of some form my entire life.  I've never lived in a town smaller than 30,000, and I've always been within 45-60 min of a bigger town (except in college I guess we were more like 90 min). Anyway, I'm comfortable with suburbs.  It is my wheelhouse, but Chesterfield wrote the book on them--especially upper end suburbs--not super high end, just upperish end.

Here's my "proof". 

We see as many luxury cars as American cars out here.  It is no thing to be at a stoplight less than 2 miles from my house and see a Mercedes, an Audi, a beat up Chevy truck, a BMW, a Honda, and a Jaguar all together. 

If you can think of a chain restaurant, we've got it.  Especially mall chain restaurants.  Now we have a lot of great independant places, too, so no worries.  If you can think of most middle-of-the-road stores, we've got it.  I feel like I can get to most anything if I drive 10 minutes--seriously to anything (more culturally inspired) in 20 min. 

We drive everywhere.  I have been racking up the miled on my car b/c so many things are just 20 minutes away--zoo, science center, upscale shopping, small town shopping, museums, etc.

There are awesome bike, running, horse riding trails.  Yep, horse riding.  We live in a suburb that still has tons of horse farms on the outskirts.

When I took C to  YMCA camp, I was dropping off with moms in Range Rovers, Suburban Hybrids, Tahoe, regular Suburbans, fancy mini-vans etc.  Let's just say my 2005 Pilot wasn't turning any heads, at least not in a good way.  All the moms wore their stay-at-home mom uniform of stylish workout clothes (lululemon of course) at drop off.  By pickup most were showered and fancied up in sundresses. 

We live 1.3 miles from a high school C will not attend (our neighborhood practically dumps out across from it, but only a portion of our neighborhood is in that school district). Yet we live 3 miles from where he will attend.  The way these towns and school districts are drawn out here boggles my mind.  You really can't tell where one town or the next begins and the same goes for school districts. 

I'm starting to think the "Joneses" might have hailed from Chesterfield. 

But in all seriousness I do love our new 'hood.  It is a great place for outdoor activities.  We have a huge art community, tons of live music opportunities, great library programs, great schools and so much more.  I find people in St. Louis to be very friendly as well, so it really is a great place to raise a family.