One thing that’s been quite nice about being around my house more (due to being back in school) is the chance to feel more plugged into the community of Ypsilanti. Between bike rides around my neighborhood (with the kids in tow on my recently traded-for bike trialer), strolls through Depot Town (the small enclave of stores, restaraunts and parks near my house), and helping at my son’s preschool (Ypsilanti Cooperative Preschool), I feel like part of this town in a way that I hadn’t quite before. It’s a nice feeling.

One part of Depot Town that I want to mention specifically is Gordon’s Five and Dime. It’s a great little store run by friends of our family, and really a fun place to visit. They sell penny candy (literally! walk in with 1 cent and see what you can buy!), vintage toys, and other good stuff (I scored some great maple sugar candy last time I was there, and they have both maple and cherry syrup right now…should be perfect for late October pancakes).

I took some photos of their store the weekend it opened, and just got around to uploading a few to Flickr, so you can check those out: Gordon’s Five and Dime photos.

I wish my friends the best in the continued operation of their store!

Another nice Ypsilanti-related thing is the Ypsi~Dixit blog, the one Ypsi blog whose RSS feed I subscribe to, which means I read all the posts. There are a number of other Ypsi blogs, but I haven’t made the jump to tracking them via RSS yet…maybe someday.