07.06.06

We Made It!

Posted in California Life at 2:12 am by mathagat

Move to California – Follow the link for more photos

We made it! On Wednesday June 28th at 9:00 pm Matt, I, and his parents (Carla & Ron) set out to make the drive across country to our new home in California. We drove through Texas, which we have all seen before (not that there was anything to see being that we were driving through the night. We stopped just outside Amarillo, TX for breakfast at the Waffle House and then made our way on into New Mexico from there.

Now, I’m all about traveling and seeing the country but if you like variety, you can cross northern New Mexico and Arizona off your list. There is nothing to see there, really…nothing. Matt might disagree some, but it’s just brown, dry and hot. I think Matt would like to spend some time climbing in the endless hills and mountains throughout.

We stopped driving at 7:00 pm on Thursday, June 29th in Flagstaff, Arizona. We were all so tired we didn’t really care where we were or what we were doing; we just wanted to eat and sleep. However, we were blessed with spending our night in a splendidly beautiful town. Flagstaff has a very rustic alpine feel that makes it a really neat place to be. During the winter months when the snow covers the mountains there, the place is filled with snow sport seekers. They have several large ski resorts located around the town. We got a couple of rooms at the Hampton Inn which were very nice and comfortable.

Once we were settled in at the inn, we set out for some grub. On the advice of the teenaged staff member behind the reception desk, we headed for a favorite steakhouse in the area. Our dinner turned out to be a wonderful meal at a fun and homely restaurant, The Horsemen Lodge. We had a few well deserved drinks in the lounge while we waited for our table. The décor was made up of local cowboys’ actual hats and chaps hanging on the walls. There were plaques hanging below with the name and date of the cowboy who had given their gear to the restaurant. There were also countless numbers of huge paintings adorning the walls of scenes from western life on the range. I tell ya, it makes you really hungry for a steak! This place served wonderful steaks, trout and veal. Matt said it had to be one of the best ribeyes he’s ever enjoyed. No A-1 sauce for that boy! I had a bite and it was perfect! We were all in heaven and very full when we left. It was the perfect end to our first 24 hours of traveling.

We had 10 hours of driving left when we woke up the next morning. I couldn’t believe that we had so much further to go; I thought we had already come so far. Matt felt differently, he kept saying, “we’re only 10, 8, 5 hours away! We’re almost there!” For the second leg of our trip we experienced 111 degree temperatures as we drove through the desert followed by the 64 degree temps of the Bay Area much further north in the state. I am very thankful we are living in the Bay Area instead of southern California. They may claim that it is a dry heat but I’m telling you it is still HOT! It truly is the land of extremes. To the credit of the west, they were having some out-of-the-ordinary hot weather for this time of year. Can anyone say global warming?

We arrived at our new home on Palm Avenue at 6:45 pm on Friday June 30th. I stepped out of the car only to get back in and grab my sweatshirt – it was chilly! After signing our lease and getting acquainted with our apartment building we began to unpack. Our new place was everything we could have ever wanted. It has plenty of space, new carpet and paint and a large kitchen. We have a view of a large palm tree right outside our living room window, and we are two blocks from beautiful Lake Merritt. How much more California can you get? Well, I guess we could live on a beach bungalow in Santa Monica next to a surf shop…

We’ve spent the last three days unpacking, cleaning and getting our home set up. Matt and I are very thankful that we had the help of Ronny and Carla during this move. They worked so hard to make sure that our apartment is now a home. Matt and I have a few more boxes to unpack but we feel very settled in California ready to begin this new season of our lives. Matt will start back at school soon and I’ll set out to find a job. There are tons of cute little shops and restaurants where I could work part-time until the school year starts. I’m looking forward to seeing what the Bay Area has to offer. Until next time…

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