Moving back to Pittsburgh was something my husband had always wanted to do. He grew up in Wexford, but his family relocated in the 1980s to Orlando, Fla., where I was born and raised.

I never really knew where else I wanted to live, but I knew I wanted to get out of Orlando. On our vacation to Washington, D.C., in October 2008, my husband decided at the last minute to make a detour to Pittsburgh first.

We drove 17 hours straight from Orlando, taking the mountainous scenic route through West Virginia. We arrived in the city late at night and checked into a hotel in Oakland.

The next morning I drew back the hotel room's curtains and instantly recognized the place where I had always pictured myself. What I saw out that hotel window -- the trees, the mountains, the huge metropolitan area and the dim sky -- was everything I imagined my future home to be. Not with Mickey Mouse in Orlando.

My husband took me on a tour and, surprisingly, he remembered his area around McCandless very well. I saw the ditch he fell in on a snowy day and the bushes where he was stung by a bumblebee one summer. I didn't mind indulging him as my tour guide because I enjoyed the huge smile on his face.

After a few days we left Pittsburgh and continued our travels to Washington. Upon our return to Orlando, I told my husband that I loved Pittsburgh, and we agreed we should definitely move there.

It took roughly 10 months for us to relocate. Timing was perfect: I was laid off from my high-stress, cortisol-inducing job, which helped facilitate "Operation: Pittsburgh or Bust!" In the summer of 2009, my husband secured a home in Robinson. I had to finish closing the office back in Orlando before joining him a month later.

Finally, on a hectic but joyful day in September 2009, I said goodbye to my colleagues and family. I looped my CD player to the song, "This is My Season," and headed for the Orlando International Airport. My father tearfully wished me off, and I boarded the plane with nerves, tears and excitement.

A few hours later, I kept my composure as the plane descended into Pittsburgh. As soon as the plane landed, I immediately texted my friends and family back in Orlando: "Just landed, it's 66 degrees!" It was only September and I was already experiencing weather colder than most winter days in Orlando.

My husband was outside the terminal waiting for me. It was the longest we had ever been apart. We embraced and threw my bag in the trunk of the car. At last, I was finally home.

CHRISTINA SHEAREY

Robinson

We are from St. Louis. Flat and level. We helped sandbag when the mighty Mississippi raised her head in 1993. We thought that was tough. Then we moved to Pittsburgh.

When looking at houses, I would read the map and my husband would drive. When we stopped at King's for lunch, he laughed when I said I was green around the gills. I told him tomorrow he could read the map and I would drive.

Sure enough, the next day, when we stopped at Eat 'n Park (shouldn't it be Park 'n Eat?), he was green and having a Sprite for lunch. We had never seen so many hills. We traveled down McKnight Road four times before we found the mall, which had signs, but we forgot to look "up" to see the mall was yet on another hill.

We pondered how long car brakes lasted in this area. It seemed I had my foot on the brake a lot.

I had my 14-year-old daughter go with me on the first visits to the grocery store, just to get us out of our subdivision (called a "plan" here). I got confused when at the top of a hill I would see what I thought was a "plan" far off, and she would announce that was just two blocks from our house. Yet another hill.

We moved to Pittsburgh in late summer. The winter was colder than St. Louis. Then spring arrived. I had never seen such beauty. I even wrote a poem for my preschool class.

There is nothing quite so serene

as Pittsburgh in the Spring.

With hues of yellow, mauve and green,

three dimensional it seems.

We love Pittsburgh now and want to retire here. Oh, and I found a good place to purchase new brakes.

SANDY MCCONNELL

Franklin Park

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