Moving on Up to the Bay Area

Hi friends, long time no talk. We have a lot to catch up on!

Life has been, shall we say, chaotic the past week… and I’m now officially a Bay Area resident! Between setting up the move, working, finding time to enjoy my last few days in San Diego and the friends I’ve made there, exercising, and packing,  I was going nonstop. I felt like there weren’t enough hours in the day!

One of the many things I had to prepare for during the move was driving up to Nor Cal with Harley. My dog is quite possibly the worst canine to be in a car with. She continuously whines a very high-pitched screech, insists on putting the window down with her paw (regardless of the temperature), and then when I lock it, freaks out until I put it down for her. She also likes to jump from the front to backseat about every 15 seconds, forcing me to close her leash in the backseat car door to prevent her from doing that, knocking into me, and causing an accident. Unfortunately, this results in her constantly getting tangled in her leash, which is always fun and results in yet more whining. Because of all of this, I decided to call my vet to get a prescription for a sedative. I felt kind of bad thinking that I was going to be drugging my dog, until we took her to Coronado Beach one of the last days we were in San Diego… and she was whining as if someone was slamming her paw in the car door the entire 20 minutes. I was reminded that it was either I knock my dog out a little or lose my sanity!

Here are some shots from our last beach trip in San Diego, at least for awhile:

After packing Friday afternoon late into the night, waking up early and packing more, loading everything into the Uhaul in the afternoon, and cleaning my apartment, the last thing I wanted to do was drive up to the Bay Area on Saturday evening by myself with Harley. What would have been around a 7-hour drive took over 9 hours due to horrendous LA traffic. Luckily, the meds helped to calm my puppy in the car and keep her anxiety levels somewhat low. She did do some whining, but it wasn’t constant, and she alternated between that, looking out of the window quietly, sleeping, and putting her paws on the center console while pressing her face against mine (not sure what her deal is!). We had folded the front passenger seat up and put her bed in the back so she could stretch up, but she obviously laid like this the whole time instead:

She’s so funny, I can’t help but love her!

We safely arrived into the San Jose area late on Saturday night, and since then, I’ve been busy getting settled into our new place. Instead of living in the middle of the city, we elected to get a place a bit more in the country that is WAY bigger than our place in San Diego. It’s so nice to have more space, and it’s something I really can appreciate after living in smaller apartments these last bunch of years.  A big garage is something very exciting to my hubby and me! We’ve also had the chance to start exploring the area a bit.

Yesterday Adam, Harley, and I found a nearby park to hike around, and it was pretty interesting. Between walking around deserted horse stalls, listening to Adam go back and forth with a random turkey hanging out at the park, and seeing not another soul during our entire 4 mile excursion, I turned to my dog and said, ”Harley, I don’t think we’re in San Diego anymore!” 😉 It’s certainly different than anywhere I’ve lived, and boy, is it beautiful here!

Today after I worked through the morning and afternoon, Adam and I took a motorcycle ride around our area. I knew there were wineries near us, but I pretty much had my mind blown when we pulled up at Clos LaChance Winery,  a stunning winery not even THREE MILES AWAY! I was so excited to find out that they do a lot of live music events, allow you to picnic on the property while enjoying their wine, and have a wine club. Sign me up!! We each did a tasting, then drove around in the crisp evening checking out the wineries, farms and rolling hills of our new town. It’s a Tuesday evening, why not enjoy it right?!

I’m positive that we’ll be frequenting Clos LaChance often:

 

How ridiculously gorgeous right!

In our new home, I’m particularly excited about a few things: my extra large closet, which I have already filled with what Adam refers to as an unbelievable amount of clothing (can’t say I disagree!); our spacious living room where I can do at-home workouts without moving all of the furniture around (score!); and my newer, nicer kitchen, where I am psyched to create recipes and whip up delicious meals in. With these couple of crazy weeks, I’m looking forward to getting back to more normalcy — including long regular workouts once I find a gym and time to cook. I’ve so missed blogging the past week, and it reminded me how much I love it. I’m looking forward to exploring the Bay Area and sharing my adventures with you!