Sunset in La Jolla, San Diego

Here it is, the new year, and January almost over! Where does the time go?  But time flies when you’re having fun, and have we ever!

There are so many things to do and places to go and great foods to eat, here in San Diego, and of course in Southern California in general.  Each month we explore more of our fair new city and we branch out a bit to see more of SoCal.

After Christmas we zoomed up to L.A. for a quick overnight trip.  This was our first true visit to L.A.  Of course we went Hollywood, Beverly Hills, Rodeo Drive, saw Santa Monica, and hung out in Venice.   L.A. is everything you’ve seen but it’s far more, that was clear from even this briefest of visits.  We’ll be back many times.  What’s especially great is that, if you time it right, it’s only a 2 hour drive from San Diego.  Yet it’s a whole universe to explore.

Kodak Theatre, Hollywood: Home of the Oscars

First impressions:  the mountains behind the city are striking, especially when you consider how many people live in L.A.  Nature is right there, and it’s beautiful.  Also, the 1950s vision of SoCal lives on in L.A.  There are many remnants of the architecture of that time, thank goodness.  I plan on looking for a guide to the best examples up there.  I was amazed at the lovely trees in the city.  It’s obviously more subtropical in L.A., whereas San Diego is semi-arid.  They’re both lovely in different ways.  Anyway, we can’t wait to go back to the ultimate haven of creativity in this part of the world.  It’s a powerful draw and it’s easy to get to.  No excuses for not exploring it from here on out.

Canal in Venice, L.A.

So glad to be here.

It’s that time of year when the world falls in love
Ev’ry song you hear seems to say “Merry Christmas,
“May your New Year dreams come true”
And this song of mine in three-quarter time
Wishes you and yours the same thing, too.

So we moved to San Diego at the end of June, and were thrilled on the trip down by news that my husband was offered a job at a great employer here.  So all seemed just perfectly aligned:  my admission to graduate school, husband’s job offer, new place, new city, great weather.  And most of this remained true.  However it has been a rocky three months, after continued illnesses, hot weather, a huge power blackout, our only contact here being out of the area for nearly two months, starting school for three of us–the youngest for the first time–and juggling all the commutes and such with one vehicle.  And late afternoon classes.  And then some sort of abdominal injury or something with me–not sure what yet.  So ultimately after a very stressful period of time, I made the decision to withdraw from school.  It was the right choice, given the bad luck of bad scheduling and whatnot, and frankly the kids were too young for this sort of upheaval and it made me into a person I didn’t want to be.  I decided to put it all off for the future–if indeed I pursue it then.

I finally have a chance to exhale, settle in, heal, reflect, cook, look around, and accept my surroundings.  And really, such surroundings!  As my husband says about San Diego, “Everything is an upgrade.”  Better weather, more parks, more everything, easier to get around, always something to do, and that’s just in the city!  Not to mention all the beach towns, all the cheaper food and fantastic produce, all the glorious plants, wild parrots flying over all the time.  And LA to the north!  When I think back on Seattle I think, thank goodness we left.  And we all feel this.

I’m grateful for my husband’s job.  My older child is enjoying kindergarten.  My younger child is happy to be back home with me for a bit longer.  It almost feels like my graduate school attempt was just a fancy way to get us down here.  Now we have a whole new region to explore, many friendly, laid-back people to get to know, and a wide-open door to a sunny land full of possibility.  SoCal fits us well.

So:  hubster is flying to San Diego in one week to find a place for us to live.  He does not have employment yet, but thinks his prospects are good once we obtain a California address.  We plan to leave Seattle on June 30.  So hopefully we’ll be watching fireworks in San Diego this year!

We had a hitch installed for a moving trailer.  We plan on trying to sell larger furniture items rather than move everything.  Many things have already been donated.  Boxes are being packed.  The to-do list is growing steadily.  The nerves are starting to fray.

Still, I am excited and hopeful that things work out for us in San Diego.  We have some good resources forming down there, and I am sure we’ll be pleased with the weather there.  Things will be so very busy one school begins.  I am taking a breath and hoping to exhale sometime in late September once we’ve all been established in school and work.

So stay tuned.  We’re visiting our favorite haunts here in Seattle, saying goodbye, and running out of time to do much else than work on the move and do normal everyday “stuff.”  Once we are settled in SD I will resume my food and travel adventures in a new region.  Ciao for now!

We had ONE sunny day above 60 degrees F in Seattle, this past Saturday.  So we zoomed over to a park and soaked up the sun and warmth.  Today it’s 45 and rainy.  What month is this?  I shouldn’t complain too much.  San Diego is in the future after all.

Early April Sunset, Seattle

Well, following the acceptance letter, I got the final admission decision for graduate school (they said yes).  So it’s been a busy time helping hubby look for jobs; start the purge and organization of stuff to sell, donate, or take; research neighborhoods; apply for student loans; sign up for preschool waiting lists; research kindergarten (!); stare at postings of lovely houses with avocado and citrus trees in their backyard; check out scads of library books on southern California; and generally take a few moments to realize that time is galloping along.

We don’t have a move date since hubby must find a job first before we move.  So there’s that anxiety.  But since we’re still here, in what has been a very chilly, very wet “Spring” everything takes on a different slant.  I’m not griping so much about the weather now, since I won’t have to deal with it much longer.  I’m not taking big road trips, since we’ll be taking a REALLY big California road trip one-way soon enough.

So I can take in scenes like the one above and just pause in the craziness.  We won’t have that sunset anymore.  But we’ll have other vistas, very different ones, that we’ll appreciate.  Now it all feels like the long “Life in a Northern Town” is winding down as if it were a very long vacation, a mash-up of Twin Peaks, coffee, tech, rain, ferries, and occasionally nice sunsets.  I’m starting to feel a tad nostalgic.  Starting to feel trepidation in addition to bubbling excitement.

For now, this is still our home, and we’ll enjoy it before the Big Move.

*****

For more Corner Views, please view the comments on Francesca’s Corner View post.

Some months ago I applied to three graduate schools:  one in Pittsburgh, one in Seattle, one in San Diego.  I received rejection letters from the first two, but nothing from San Diego.  I waited and waited, and thought, gee, forget it, they’re just going to send a rejection letter too, and time is getting short for Fall of ’11 admission.

Then I got a letter in the mail yesterday.  From the San Diego School.  I walked to the recycling bin expecting to chuck in a rejection letter.  But wait a minute, the letter feels a bit fat.  It doesn’t feel like a one-sheet rejection letter.  Why would that be?

Because it was an offer of acceptance.

I think I screamed.  I know I jumped up and down.  I certainly wept, and indeed my hands shook.  All the work, all those years with that goal unfulfilled for so long.  And suddenly the door was opening, and on the other side of the door was Oz.  Well, pretty much.

It’s a lot of work to get there.  There needs to be a new job for my husband; preschools need to be worked out for the kids; rentals; all that California red tape related to licensing and whatnot.  And it’s still not totally official, I need to send in my intent to enroll and wait for admissions to give me the final, final say.  Then I need to contact faculty and apply for financial aid.  Etc., etc.  But in five months, I may have textbooks in my arms, and two years of good work ahead in public health.

And an added bonus:  I will still wander and chow, but in the SOUTHwest, not the Northwest.  New adventures await!

Wish us luck!

For whatever reason I seem to have planned several road trips around mid to late April ever since I relocated to the Northwest.  I think most of these have ended up in Oregon and/or Northern California.  Why late April?  Well, something happens up here right about then.  The rain starts to slack, the flowers are bursting out, the days are longer, the temps warm.  This is even more pronounced the further south you go, hence Oregon/California.  It’s a good time to travel because of the weather’s improvement, but also because of cost.  “Summer” rates for hotels and such tend to kick in after the first of May, and now of all times it’s important to keep that in mind.

Recently I had arranged for a big road trip to Southern California:  San Diego, a return through Big Sur…all “driving the dream” so to speak.  However, California has some of the highest gas prices in the country.  And to make the trip work with two little kids we’d need to blast down there on Interstate 5.  There’s no way around it:  it’s a haul.  A big one.  And figuring in gas prices, it could be a painful one.  So we’ve decided, for now, to look at doing this trip in the fall if we do it this year.  Because there’s one perfect season all the time in California, and it’s fall.  No summer fog, mild temps, terrific light, bounty at the farmers markets.  So, maybe a SoCal fall trip.

Meanwhile, Oregon coast.  This is our substitute trip.  And I can tell you from personal experience that there is no such thing as an ugly Oregon coast trip.  It’s one of the most gorgeous places in this country, and nearly all of that coast is public land, remarkable considering how much coastline in California and Washington state is restricted to private owners–a real shame.

So currently I’m brushing up on Oregon.  Reading several books.  These are:

• AAA TourBook for Oregon and Washington
• 100 Hikes/Travel Guide Oregon Coast & Coast Range by William L. Sullivan
• Frommer’s Oregon 2010
• Moon West Coast RV Camping:  The Complete Guide to More Than 2,300 RV Parks and Campgrounds in Washington, Oregon, and California by Tom Stienstra
• Road Trip USA:  Cross-Country Adventures on America’s Two-Lane Highways by Jamie Jensen

All of these books are choice for travel on the Pacific coast.  I might go in depth on some of them later, but for now they are a good place to start for your coast road trip experience.

Here’s to shaking off the raindrops and starting up the travel season!

Many thanks to my husband for beautifully capturing these moments of our little guys.

Maybe that is why I am more excited than ever about an upcoming potential road trip to southern California in April, which will be new territory for us essentially.  I’ve driven hastily through part of it on Interstate 5 when I moved to the northwest years ago, and I visited San Diego as a child.  But that was a very brief visit and I was not old enough to know exactly what I was missing out on.  This time, I know just where to take the kids (having done a lot of research) and on our way back north we will check out LA and PCH (Pacific Coast Highway) a bit, then hopefully visit some friends and family in the Bay Area before the slog northward.

So to get from the gray dread of February to the southwestern sun of April, one needs to keep occupied.  Working in the kitchen has really helped with this.  I have been trying many new recipes and using the oven to combat the chill.  Here is a success:  a pear custard tart.

What are your plans for Spring?For more Corner Views, please see Francesca’s blog.