Rochester, NY

• I loved living in the Park Ave area. I enjoyed being within walking distance to some good restaurants (Aladdin's, Alexi's, Doni's, and the Raj Mahal), great bookstores (Brown Bag Used Books, Village Green), and great movies (the Little Theater shows foreign/independent movies, the Dryden theater at the Eastman House does the Shoestring film festival and "classics", the Curtis theater at the Eastman does silents). Plus, I just loved the side streets and houses in the neighborhood, each with its own personality, especially with fall leaves on the sidewalks.
• A bit further in towards downtown on East Ave is the wonderful grouping of the Eastman Theater and Kilbourne Hall for outstanding musical and other performances, the Rochester Club (excellent restaurant), Java Joe's (good coffee and good music), and the Rabbit Hole (bar/restaurant that lends out games and lets patrons bring their own).
• Webster Park, out near where I worked at Xerox, has a hill where you can sit and watch the wind-surfers skimming around on Lake Ontario. Of course, Rochester has a superb system of parks: Durand-Eastman, Highland (home of the Lilac Festival), and Mendon Pond parks each have different terrains and are each beautiful, and those are just the ones I visited the most.
• Rochester has nothing on D.C. for art museums, of course, but they did have a great festival in 1993 in which I was proud to participate (I was a guide for several different components).  The Montage International Festival of Images (multi-media art, virtual reality, and imaging technology exhibits and lectures in Rochester, NY) was spread throughout town, and I was able to see many of the exhibits and lectures.  I still have a poster from the festival, and would have been happy to buy some prints of some of the works, had they been available, though many of the best wouldn't have translated well to a flat print medium.
• Oh, how I love and miss North Coast Radio, the best radio station in the world. Whenever I visit Rochester, I keep it tuned to 105.9 (North Coast) the whole time. One whole side of Joe Jackson's Jumpin' Jive! Christine Lavin! Indigo Girls! BB King! Can't beat that station with a stick. Too bad there's nobody like 'em in the NoVa-DC area.
• The Rochester Curling Club: Where I learned to curl. Curling is played on ice in sneakers & sweats (that's how I play, anyway). A game of strategy, sweeping, and knocking the opposing teams' stones away from the target. You can check out their fine RCC web site, which has some color photos of curling. I curl now at the Potomac Curling Club.