In the morning when I was out at the lake, I could hear distant noises of cars and trucks crossing a bridge over the nearby river. But near a city that kind of hum was much more louder and non-stop.

I don't remember if I have told this already, but when I was living in the city, I once got a survey asking about preferences. And one of the question was: "Which services you'd like to have located less than 100m from your apartment?", and it gave a list of things like "supermarket, pharmacy, bus-stop, kindergarten" etc. I didn't tick any of the pre-defined alternatives, but instead I wrote "A Forest" =) Nowadays I'm so happy to have my tiny yard all surrounded by nice woodlands.

Ah, but yes - in my world there aren't "expiration dates" =) People are welcome to visit any year which happens to suit their personal lives.