After living all over the country– seriously all over– the Northeast, the West Coast, the South, the middle-of-nowhere Oklahoma– it’s official. We love California the best!
About 5 years ago, the first time I ever visited California, I decided then and there that someday I would live here. Never did I ever imagine this would have been the path that led me back, but I did finally make it! We bought our house in California about 2 months ago, and since then we’ve been loving living here.
Since I’m a big foodie and love to cook, one of the best things about California for me is the food! We live in the San Joaquin Valley, which is a huge agricultural area. There is fresh food, literally, everywhere you look. I used to think I didn’t like strawberries. But apparently that’s because I was eating unripe supermarket strawberries that were picked who knows when from who knows where. Here where we live, you can’t drive a mile without passing a strawberry field with a hut out front selling huge beautiful strawberries that were picked 10 minutes ago (for a lot less than the supermarket sells their flavorless ones, too!).
Just this week, I came home from one friend’s house with a bag of huge lemons from the tree in her backyard, then picked a ridiculous amount of grapefruits and oranges from someone else’s yard! Seriously, I’m in heaven. Everything grows fresh here, and next week the farmer’s market starts up, which I’ve heard is amazing.
Besides the amazing food, we love how much there is to do in California! Some of the places we’ve lived didn’t offer much to do on the weekends (I know you’ve all heard the complaints!), but here it’s a quick drive to the mountains, the beach, big cities, and lots of WINE!
We’ve already been out to the coast…
Hiking…
And obviously, wine tasting…
I can’t list things I love about living in California without mentioning the weather. Yes, it will be hot in the summer here, but I’m okay with that. I’ll take hot over cold any day. One of the major reasons I left my home state of Massachusetts to begin with was the cold and snow! Of course, since I grew up with snow and sledding and skiing, I do have a nostalgic soft spot for it. But I always thought it should snow for one week in February, and be sunny the rest of the year. Well guess what? If you live in California, you can drive an hour or two to the mountains for one week in February, get your skiing in, then take the quick drive home and go back to your lovely sun. Does it really get better than that?
Sounds like CA is a great fit for you guys! Hopefully you’ll be there for a long while so you can enjoy it!