CA Weekend

We just got back from a weekend in CA to scope out the area we will be living in this summer. Although we didn’t come home with an apartment lease signed like I wanted to, we did have a good and productive visit.

Stephen will be working in Redwood City. The city’s known for its perfect climate, which I am REALLY looking forward to. The city’s website says, Redwood City “has an average high temperature of 77° from April through September, and 63° from October through March, with over 160 sunny days per year.” Sounds better than Utah’s HOT and DRY July weather.

From our drives around the town it seems to be a very beautiful and well maintained city. I didn’t see any rundown areas. We looked at quite a few apartment complexes. Of course none were able to tell us if they would have vacancies, since we need it two months from now. We got a good idea about the different areas. We found out that they have a good public transit system, so Stephen will probably be able to get to work without me driving him.

We went to church and really enjoyed the meetings and the folks we met. When I introduced myself in RS and told them we would be moving there in the summer the sisters clapped and cheered. Only to sigh an audible “oh” when I said, “but just for the summer.” It was funny and caught me off guard. The ward seems really nice, but that’s to be expected.

There is a sister in the ward that works for DreamWorks too. It was good making that connection with her. She was the one that told us about the shuttles that take people right to Stephen’s office building. From a map his office looks like it is in the middle of no where in marshy reclaimed land right on the bay. I was a little worried no public transit would drive out there. It’s good to know that’s not the case.

Speaking of driving, we did a lot of that. There and back from Lehi to Sacramento. And there and back from Sacramento to Redwood City (twice).

The girls were good passengers. Especially when they were like this watching movies from our IPods.

The drive through California was BEAUTIFUL! These are pictures traveling through Dublin, CA. Can you see why they named it Dublin? So green, green, GREEN! I couldn’t get enough of it.

Blurry but happy California cows.

We stayed in Sacramento with Stephen’s sister’s family the Suggs. We were there to celebrate Erika’s birthday. The Suggs are a great family. The thought of living in CA is made even sweeter knowing the Suggs are just 2 hours away. In CA time that is relatively close.

We passed through a lot of snow and traffic over the Sierra Nevada Mountain Range. The drive through the mountains getting there was actually worse and scarier but faster than coming home. Coming home we were in better weather, but snow chains were required and traffic was heavy. This made for a slooooow trip. I think we maxed 18 miles per hour. The billboards advertising for Reno were right with their slogan “Reno, the longest little drive on earth.” It took us over 2 hours just to get through the mountains.

We didn’t take any pictures through Nevada because, well, it’s Nevada and ugly. The drive from Wendover to Tooele in the dark nearly killed me from boredom.

The Suggs supplied us with plenty of CA oranges. Seriously, these just grow in people’s yards. I am so amazed at how fertile and green the land is. If/when we move there for good I will need a yard with room for a garden and some fruit trees.

We had a good trip. Can’t wait to go back.