Five excellent restaurants, one mediocre, a coffee shop, a biker bar (the upscale dentists on Harleys kind) and an ice cream shop that makes sandwiches; the post office; a branch library; a local history museum; three lakes; a playground; the elementary school; an arts center; my mechanic; a photographer’s studio; a tourist trap cute things shop that my daughter calls the International House of Ceramic Chickens; the national forest; town hall; the volunteer fire dept., the police dept., two Bed and Breakfasts; three hairdressers; a baseball diamond; a riding stable; a gas station with an ATM and a general store
The beach.
That’s it.
I can walk to:
The beach
A major but shitty grocery store.
An awesome latino grocery store.
4 killer burrito joints.
An awesome community college.
A killer sushi joint.
About a jillion bars, but the closest one is pretty great.
Two brew pubs.
Head shop.
A pretty great Chinese restaurant.
3 dry cleaners.
The farmer’s market.
The fisherman’s market.
Big box grocery store.
2 humongous office supply stores.
Cute and rustic strip joint.
2 boating supply stores (All now owned by the craptastic Boater’s World).
3 pretty great seafood restaurants.
Medicinal marijuana store.
A super expensive hippy grocery store where you will occasionally see a celebrity.
Three Thai restaurants.
About 50 other types of restaurants.
I’m calling 1.5 miles walking distance. Yeah, I love this town! I don’t walk much, but all this stuff is a quick bike ride away.
Around ten years ago I lived in Interlochen, Michigan, which is out in the middle of nowhere (as far as being near anything convenient.) However, less than a mile from me was the Interlochen Arts Academy and pretty much any night of the week during the winter and any time of the day during the music camps of the summer, I could walk over and listen to a number of concerts and recitals by the students. They were very good (most of the time.)
Lots and lots and lots of trees and water and more trees and a creek and trees and a lake or two.
What he said (hello there, neighbor!).
Also: a small conventional grocery store practically across the street. It’s our auxiliary pantry.
Several video rental places.
A Starbucks, and an independent coffeeshop.
An authentic Italian deli attached to a more upscale version of itself.
2 art supply shops.
A barbershop.
Several ethnic restaurants.
If I want a good, stiff walk, an Irish style pub.
If I want a REALLY good stiff walk, Santa Monica 3rd Street Promenade, and the Pier.
I can walk to the shopping center sort of across the street and up from where I live. About eight minutes’ walk, at the most.
It has an outstanding bakery, a great neighborhood bar, a dry cleaner and a cheap liquor store AND a High’s convenience store in it. And a cafe that makes great deli sandwiches and b’fast items.
Baby, what more could I want? 
I can walk to:
The grocery store
Several banks
Drug stores
A hardware store
Some lovely coffee shops (not starbucks)
Various restaurants, including a good vegetarian one, an ok Chinese one, and an Indian one that has good food but horrid service.
Within a 25 minute walk:
The Rosicrucian Museum
Rose Garden
Trader Joe’s
Whole Foods
Rasputin Records
Streetlight Records
Camera 7 Theaters
“Bollywood” Theater
Drum Store
8 Auto repair shops
5 used car lots
Enterprise Rent-a-car
Penske truck rental
Hollywood Video
2 Blockbusters
Great Used Book Store
Barnes and Nobel
Longs, Rite Aid, Walgreens
2 Safeways
Dozens of places to eat
3 Sporting Goods Stores
Head Shop
Hardware store
Credit Union
Hospital
7 Dentists
2 Gyms
2 Light Rail stops
7-11
Peets and Starbucks
5 Consignment/Antique Shops
3 Bakeries
2 Branch libraries
Goodwill Store
Shoe Repair
8 Liquor stores
Recycling center
2 Post Offices
2 UPS Stores
Hobby store
4 Dry Cleaners
1 Vet
Carpet store
2 Camera stores
Cleaning/lighting supply store
etc…
Well, it’s two miles to the paved road where my mailbox is and I have walked there and back on a nice afternoon. The closest store is a country gas station and that’s eight miles away, a bit far for a casual stroll. I’ve got a horse I can get to the store on without much trouble, but that’s the horse walking, not me walking, so no, there’s nothing cool I can walk to just for the hell of it.
On the other hand, I like it this way!
One place I haven’t heard mentioned yet is:
our dog park 
Also,
huge equestiran center
several tennis courts
several baseball fields
community pool
Ferrari dealership
Whole Foods - yum!
North Fulton Regional Hospital
From our new house (close this week):
Lake Lanier
that’s it.
And the community pool, playground and tennis courts.
An Italian restaurant - just across the street
A martini bar - next door to the Italian restaurant; it’s the bane of my existence, due to the drunks who wander out at midnight to talk LOUDLY on their cell phones, or hold long conversations in the parking lot before they finally go the fuck home
A pretty good liquor store - on the other side of the Italian restaurant
A pretty good Chicago hot dog stand
A little shopping district, featuring a neighborhood grocery store, a CVS, another Italian restaurant, a hardware store, a flower shop, and a bank
A public library
I sorta like where we’re living; it’s nice and quiet most of the time. Things that we live near enough that I’d contemplate walking
to it:
Cattle farm (across the street from our front door)
Watusi cattle farm (a little way down the road)
Horses, goats, etc. (same direction as the Watusi cattle)
One Middle School
One Elementary School
Three or four other communities with near-identical houses
A gas station (coming soon!)
A creepy church that puts blood on their crosses for Easter (no, seriously. WTF?)
We could bike to the following without a large problem:
Publix
Two Chinese restaurants
A baked potato shop (I kid you not)
Two pizza restaurants
A “pet shop” (never seen anyone buy anything from there, mostly puppies there)
An ice cream shop (never been in)
A dollar store (independent)
A salon with tanning booths (kinda small)
A payday loan shop
Three gas stations
A martial arts studio
The Home Despot
A smelly fish shop (smells like rotten fish)
A crappy produce shop (smells like rotting fruits/vegetables)
A broken-down gas station
A mini post office (open for very few hours during day)
A thrift store
Some little storefronts that we haven’t investigated much, but haven’t yielded anything valuable at this point.
The Saturday farmers’ market
a couple of banks
grocery store
Long’s drug
Art museum
Bavarian bakery
A bunch of restaurants and bars
3 parks along the river
Within a 15-minute walk:
The Carter Center
Jane Fonda’s Atlanta condo (sometimes I borrow a cup of sugar)
8 pizza places, 5 Thai restaurants, 4 Mexican restaurants, and the homes of the three best hamburgers in Atlanta
Atlanta’s two coolest record stores (Wax ‘n’ Fax and Criminal Records)
Manuel’s Tavern, Atlanta’s most storied bar (whose name only locals pronounce correctly)
The most hotly-contested ground in the Battle of Atlanta (as depicted in the Atlanta Cyclorama)
The birthplace of Martin Luther King, Jr.
Inman Park, one of the nation’s first suburbs
The Woodruff House, built in 1912 for Coca-Cola magnate Robert W. Woodruff, and now a bed and breakfast
A trolley barn
A former Ford Model T factory (now lofts)
Atlanta’s legendary, weirdly esoteric strip club, the Clermont Lounge
The Plaza Theater, an art deco movie theater in continuous operation since 1939.
A former bank vault converted into a shrine to Elvis Presley (in The Star Bar)
Well. I can theoretically walk to Mexico City, but that’s a bit far.
Five minutes’ walk away is a plaza with a grocery store, 2 convenience stores (one a little dodgy, the other with post office and hardware selections; oddly, the dodgy one is the name brand), a drug store, a community health centre, a laundromat, a service station, a deli, and a storefront church.
Ten minutes away are two schools (one public, one separate).
Fifteen minutes away is a big-box plaza with a huge grocery store, a video store, a clinic, a drug store, a bank, and various other stores that I never remember because I mostly only go there for food if I’m coming home from downtown on the streetcar. Nearby are a number of restaurants and doctors’ offices.
In the neighbourhood, but not particularly close (15-20 minutes walk), are a third school, a major bikeway, the river, a Catholic church, an Anglican church, a library, a Jainist temple, two gas stations, several more old-fashioned convenience stores, a Knights of Columbus hall, some small industries, and the Ontario Food Terminal.
Let’s see. Off the top of my head, within easy walking distance:
- a tea house
- an independent café
- two ice cream stores
- a Tim Horton’s
- a Turkish restaurant
- a Vietnamese restaurant
- a Peruvian restaurant
- two post offices
- four drug stores
- two supermarkets
- a dry cleaner and tailor
- a big pet store
- a florist
- an ethnic/organic/alternative food store
- a photo finisher’s
- a hardware store
- a Goodwill
- a Belle Province
- numerous banks, including mine
- any number of clothing stores, depanneurs, and small restaurants
- three metro stations
- two bicycle paths
- the St. Lawrence River
I’m definitely heading to the Clermont Lounge if I ever make it to Atlanta.
Fields and trees and a few houses. That’s about it. If I walked about 20 minutes I could get to a laundromat and very small Chrysler dealership, or 20 minutes the other way a greenhouse and small grocery store.
I can walk to the strip mall across the street, which has the following:
- Kroger
- Liquor store
- Hot dog stand
- Soup and sandwich joint
- Cici’s Shit-Tastic AYCE Tastic Hunks o’ Cardboard n’ Fermented Ketchup (colloquially known as Cici’s Pizza)
- Cell phone store
- Sports bar/pool hall
- Japanese takeout (mmm, cheap yakisoba)
- Chinese takeout (mmm, cheap General Tso’s)
- Hair place
- Nail place with perpetually lit “Open” sign that closes at 8:00 p.m., not that I care, since you’d more likely catch me at Cici’s than getting my nails done, and that’s saying something
Aside from that, there’s:
- An “Armoury”, which sells swords, bows, crossbows, maces, chain and plate mail, and a small selection of handguns
- A dog groomer (shares a building with the Armoury)
- A community college, which I wouldn’t care about, except it has a secluded little arboretum area that’s wonderful for picnics
- Harkrader Park. Want to see it? Here’s the sign, and here’s the park. No, really…that’s it. That thing to the left is a busy local road that enters/exits onto the interstate, and immediately to the right of what’s visible in the second picture is the interstate. Here’s the full view. The city decided that that should be a park. I love this town.
