KHC and I took a Duck Tour this morning. It was the first time for us both. We had a marvelous time. The weather could not have been better, and it was amazing how much we saw (by land and by river!) in a little less than an hour and a half.

It also reminded me of how great it feels to be a tourist in my own town. When the Bun and I moved here three years ago, I spent a number of days exploring the city in the couple of weeks I had free before law school started. It was fun at first to be taking in the sights of my new home. But it had had honestly started to get a little old as the Bun and I found ourselves bringing our visitors to the same attractions again and again.

Today, however, I felt that jolt of excitement again as we rolled through the city streets and motored up and down the river. The sights were familiar, but whether it was the sunlight gleaming off everything or just seeing it all from a slightly elevated perspective, the city just looked new and different somehow. And I felt something that I’ve never felt before on my sightseeing jaunts: pride. People had come from all over the country, indeed the world, to see my city. It made me proud of everything it had to offer these visitors and genuinely lucky to live here.

On a sad note, though, today was my last visit with KHC. She’s spending the fall in another east coast city, and then she’ll be moving to the west coast. She is one of the few truly great law school friends I made from outside of my section, and I will miss her terribly.