Neat-o for both of you!
I don't have a very good "native" sense of direction, and there are lots of times I find I've gone to two different places from my home or work often and think I know where they are, but then get surprised when they're very nearby each other.
With cognitive effort, I can usually get directions right, but it's based on landmarks and reasoning rather than any type-1 sense.
I have been building a streetmap in my head for the past 15+ years of my life. at some point (before smart-maps) I realised it would be good to have a sense of location. from then on I started "building" the map in my head of where it "feels" like everything is.
Now days when I travel (drive) somewhere I recognise the main arterial roads of my city; and the common traffic conditions of them. I usually set a smart-map to outsource estimating my time of arrival, but I can also look at a map and recognise the nearness of a new place to a place I have been to previously and guide myself via "known routes"
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