In the end, family comes first.

And with that,we wrap up our absolutely wonderful experience of 4.5+ years living in Ottawa and head South back into the USA... specifically to a home on the northern end of the great city of Burlington, Vermont. (See also tourism info, quick facts/history, chamber of commerce, more stats about VT than you ever care to know, major Burlington newspaper)

The truth is that we absolutely love Ottawa... and if Ottawa were about 3-4 hours closer to our family scattered throughout New England we would probably stay here forever. The city is an amazingly great place to be - especially to raise a family. But our family back in New England is extremely important to us... and we want Chloe to grow up knowing her grandparents, cousins, aunts and uncles... and the very frequent travel back to the region has gradually worn us down.

So now we are going to the city by the lake and the mountains... cutting our distance in half (or more) and making it so that we can actually get to family events without spending the entire weekend (or more than a weekend!) on the road travelling. We will very definitely miss Ottawa... the many friends we have made and the many places in Ottawa that we have come to so enjoy. (We'll miss Timmy's, too.) The good news is that it's not that far for travel in either direction (them to come to VT or us to return to Ottawa).

The other good news is that Burlington is a pretty amazing place in its own right. Granted, it's small compared to Ottawa... heck, Ottawa at 785,000 people (for the new Ottawa borders) has more people than the entire state of Vermont! (Currently estimated around 619,000.) The county surrounding Burlington has about 150,000 and of that, the actual city of Burlington is about 40,000. Yet in that general area, it contains 4 colleges/universities, a vibrant art community, an excellent hospital and medical community, tons of restaurants, great shops, an active waterfront and a chunk of high tech as well. It's been our frequent "stopping-off place" on our journeys back and forth and we have come to love the area. If we couldn't live it Ottawa, Burlington seems to be a darn nice place to be.

What about a job?  Details, details.... the fact is, I'll still be working for Mitel.  You see, a real part of the power of Voice-over-IP truly is that you can have an extension anywhere you want.  We also provide tools that let you work collaboratively from wherever you are. (full disclosure: I'm the product manager for those products listed) So I'll be working remotely and travelling back to Ottawa now and then.

It will be a crazy couple of weeks ahead of us... we close on the house there July 8th and our house here goes later in July (it's already sold).  So all this is happening soon!

It's been a wonderful time in Canada... and now a new chapter begins....

Tags: life
Current Music: Closing Time by Semisonic