Cheryl-Anne Millsap: From here, the view looks pretty amazing

When my children were small, we had a book they all loved to sit and read. Well, read isn’t really the right word. It was mostly a picture book.

The book was about two children who went for a walk downtown in the city where they lived.

It was a bustling, busy city. The sidewalks were crowded with pedestrians. The traffic policeman stood in the middle of the intersection. There was a bakery with a window piled high with cakes and cookies. A woman carried shopping bags and walked her dogs.

It was a pretty city full of interesting people. But the most intriguing thing about the pictures on each page was what was going on in the background. We would look for people and things we hadn’t noticed before; women leaning out of apartment windows to call to neighbors, sign painters working on the windows of a new shop, a man in a suit chasing his hat down the street.

I don’t know whatever happened to that book. I suppose it was lost in a move or finally fell apart. But lately, when I walk through the doors of the newspaper building and out onto the street, I think about it.

In some ways, the scene just beyond my desk is always the same. The same buildings line the street. The same traffic noises hit you when you step outside. I take a walk each day and I can usually count on seeing a few familiar faces.

I frequently see Betsy, who is working to bring the beautiful Fox Theater back to life. I recognize her because of the wonderful chartreuse green that is her signature color. She almost always wears a touch of that green; a scarf or a jacket. Betsy waves and I wave back.

I stop to talk to Terilyn over a rack full of skirts and blouses in her department at Nordstrom.

Ashleigh takes my order at the deli.

One day I might see my children’s pediatrician at the top of the escalator at River Park Square and the next day I say hello to a favorite local musician in the coffee shop.

Like the children in the picture book making their way around town, I see policemen, firefighters, doctors, lawyers and even the symphony conductor as I go. And the background is full of interesting scenes; new buildings that grow a little higher each day, men using jackhammers to break up cement in an old building that is going to be new condominiums, ladies who lunch laughing as they walk down the sidewalk, tourists in town to do a little shopping, children walking to the library.

Occasionally, a bona fide celebrity strolls through the wide front doors of the Davenport Hotel.

A walk around the block in Spokane tells the story of a city that is full of energy. Just like the book my children and I used to enjoy. There is constantly something new to see. Something I’ve never noticed before.

Every city has its flaws. What you can’t see isn’t always so nice. But most of the time, especially when the sun is shining and the faces of the busy people walking up and down the street are smiling and familiar, this feels like a picture-perfect place to live.