12 Things That Happen When You Move from Northern California to Southern California

It's funny how different two ends of one state can be. Even thought I grew up in Southern California, the ten years in NorCal really made me forget some of the perks and downsides of the SoCal lifestyle. It started dawning on me though, that these differences would make an awesome list!!!

1. You will have bathing suits and towels hanging everywhere

This is actually what started this list. I was trying to hang up my bath towel and I noticed every hook in the bathroom had different bikini pieces hanging from it and the guest bathroom had Dan's swimwear hanging. I was like "this is new." I realized that we've been going to the pool so much that some bathing suit is usually wet and hanging out to dry.

2. Sandals are usually acceptable footwear and more comfortable than you remember

I've always owned lots of sandals but it was never nice enough to walk around in flip flops in SF. I always wore boots or athletic shoes and maybe a dress sandal or heel for something nice. For St. Patrick's Day, I was looking for some shoes to match my spring dress and decided to wear my Rainbows. It felt so weird wearing something so casual and bare to go out but they looked perfect with my outfit and were comfortable. People here are so casual that flip flops are a great option for going out. This goes for shorts too.

3. Tan lines

Dan and I take the dog for walks a lot and generally try to get outside when we can. I usually wear a tank top and sports bra... and I started noticing how awful my tan lines were. I've been trying to go to the pool a bit more to even them out. We went on a big hike the day after though and the tan lines got worse than ever. The only thing worse than the tan lines though? Dan's are darker and stand out more... because he's more tan than I am. My white boyfriend from Ohio is tanner than Brazilian me... how?

4. Nice days in SF are cold days for San Diego

When we first moved here, the days were about 60-65 degrees. It was January so this wasn't anything crazy and was actually kind of like a day in SF. We needed light jackets but it definitely wasn't freezing by any means. Everyone we met told us how sorry they were about the bad weather. The next week it was 80 every day. Generally, its low 70s here but it really does make the 60 degree days feel cold.

5. Public Transit stops being a form of transportation

That's not to say that San Diego doesn't have public transit. There's a train, there are buses, there's light rail. They all look pretty clean too. We just live in a spot where the places that we'd want to transit to (because we are drinking so we wouldn't drive), we can walk to or if it's too far to walk, it's a ten minute drive. It seems like more of a hassle than a convenience and driving is so easy.

6. But it takes less time to drive short distances

I remember our first day here when we made the ceremonial new apartment trip to Target. I looked up the distance and it said "10 miles." In San Francisco, this is forever away. It was a stressful day so I sighed and just didn't want to go even though we badly needed household items... then I looked again and realized it was 10 minutes to go 10 miles. Now that we've been here a few months, it's our little joke - everything (in Central SD at least) is 10 minutes away. It also means (to my brother's disdain) that we are very late to any place further than 10 minutes away.

7. You miss out on Beta ideas from tech companies

A lot of services I subscribe to actually email based on where you live. It's pretty hard to change email lists so I'm constantly getting emails about special deals or promotions or new products for Uber or Lyft or other companies that are only for San Francisco residents. Moving from the center of innovation to a smaller big city definitely means missing out on new breakthroughs until they go a little more mainstream.... although we do seem to be the test market for fitness and nerdy events which is cool.

8. Hipsters are traded in for Beach Bros

I feel like every city has their crowd of people that are extra annoying to deal with. In SF, it's the hipsters who loudly talk about how picky they are about their coffee or how outrageous it was they got a ticket for running a red light on their bike. In SD, they are beach bros. When I'm at the pool, I can hear them from a mile away. They are the ones who ruin the pool for everyone else by doing that kind of destructive behavior that makes the apartment crew check in every 5 minutes and tighten the rules - things like trashing the pool area or blasting terrible music.

9. You accidentally bring your jacket with you on warm nights

I feel like the unspoken rule of living in San Francisco is that no matter how nice the weather is, you always bring a light jacket. Always. In San Diego, if it's a nice day, you are really going to regret bringing a light jacket. You are going to be stuck carrying that thing or maybe forgetting it in a bar. It will just make things terrible for you. Leave the jacket at home. I mean - it's April summer - the weather is perfect!

10. You find plastic bags really confusing. 

In the Bay Area, plastic bags were banned years ago. More recently, stores started charging for any bag in order to encourage people to bring their own. Dan and I were entrenched into this habit so it's always weird to us when people just start bagging our things at the store while we are standing there trying to hand them one of our re-useable bags. It's even weirder to me when I'm just getting 1 or 2 items that I can easily carry or put in my purse, and they instantly bag it. I'm so used to bags not being a thing that it's hard to understand how much they are used here.

There are alsosome stores we've been to where they'll put one item in a bag and then grab a new bag for the next thing and I have to tell them they can put everything in one bag. I'm just really hoping that San Diego outlaws plastic bags soon as well so I can go back to a world I understand.

11. You start shopping at places like Walmart and Target all the time

I couldn't even tell you where Walmart was in the Bay Area. I know I went once in college but I can't remember where it was for the life of me. In San Diego though, since driving is so easy, big box stores are everywhere and we take advantage of it. I recently went to Walmart for the second time in years. You get used to hating them for all the bad press you hear but it is really nice to find everything you need in one place for good prices.

12. .... And you really do need some new stuff

I thought we were set moving in with a boogey board and some beach towels. That's not nearly enough to really have a beach day. We needed chairs and an umbrella and a cooler. We  actually need to stay stocked up on sun screen.

Quarterfinals - Brazilian BBQ and Argentinian Wine

For quarterfinals, I had an interesting situation on my hands. If Germany, the Netherlands, and Argentina all moved on then I could make meals for those countries during the semifinals, finals, and third place game. Since these teams were all favored to win their games, and I was on vacation while they were on, I thought I'd take the opportunity to go a little easy on the food challenge in order to really be able to make some special things for the following week.

What my 4th of July looks like on World Cup years

I knew that for Friday, I was going to do Brazil. When I started this challenge, it was mostly just tying in with my love of my Brazilian culture and desire to make Brazilian cuisine whenever they played. The idea for the challenge sprung from there as I realized that food is a big part of all cultures and it would be fun to celebrate that. However, that pushed around my eating schedule a bit... I knew that if Germany won, I could save Germany for the semifinals and I had done all of the other teams playing Friday. This meant that I would finally be able to do one of the Brazilian recipes I was excited for from Day 1 - CHURRASCO!!!

Churrasco may seem like a big scary word and it's definitely got a tough pronunciation but simply it's just barbecue. Brazilian barbecue is done "rodizo" style which means on skewers. It can range from little toothpick churrsquinhos to the fancy Churrascarias that use giant rotisserie skewers. Mine were somewhere in between.

 The skewers themselves are really straight forward. My mom suggested steak and bacon. Obviously, I thought this was a great idea. Since I was at a rental property and didn't have a lot of seasoning, I really wanted high quality meat. I was happy that the super market had a special on grass fed top sirloin. I seasoned them with some salt and pepper and then made my bacon and steak skewers. I also had some shrimp so there were a few of those too.

The grill got super hot really quickly so the skewers cooked super fast once we threw them on.  

The skewers cooked really quickly once we threw them on and it wasn't long before we were snacking on some surf and turf.  

They tasted amazing. For something so simple we honestly could not get enough of them. We weren't even super hungry but definitely ate a ton of them. 

Our fire had the added benefit of keeping us warm on the super chilly Santa Cruz beach after the sun went down. 

It turns out our view of fireworks was a little more "front row" than we were expecting. We were pretty bummed that Santa Cruz doesn't put on an aerial show. Strangers lighting off illegal fireworks a few feet away from us wasn't too fun. There wasn't a lot of respect for the safety of people around them and we quickly picked up our stuff and got out of there.

For Saturday, I really wasn't feeling like cooking and I knew that with our last day in Santa Cruz, the long drive home, and the little sleep from the fireworks going off all night - I needed something easy. I decided that if the Netherlands won than I would be able to spotlight the last 4 teams during semifinals and finals. That meant I didn't need to do anything crazy. I popped into a wine store and just picked up a nice Malbec. Being away, even for a couple of days, definitely makes little things like a glass of wine at home with kitties even better. 

Week of July 3rd 2011: Ocean Jet Skiing

Jet skiing is probably my favorite thing that I don't do nearly as much as I wish I did. I can count on one hand each time that I've gone and each memory is so vivid. I've always wanted to live somewhere where owning a jet ski was practical and it's always been a short term goal for me. Since I can' justify the jet ski yet, I was at least able to come close to the feeling and get a scooter. While riding through the streets has similar thrills, pavement and traffic just don't compare to feeling of waves splashing on you as you zip through the water.

While in Santa Barbara, I was so close to the beach that I knew I would regret it if I didn't find some time to kayak (another love of mine) or jet ski. However, this was supposed to be a bit more of a budget trip and I wasn't sure if I wanted to drop the heavy price tag for jet skiing yet kayaking by myself didn't seem too fun either.

After getting a little lost in the Santa Barbara hills, I finally found my way to the beach and at the risk of being too late to the family 4th of July barbecue, I pulled into the first parking spot I saw. I pulled up Google Maps and looked up exactly where this jet ski place was and by sheer coincidence, I'd parked about 100 yards away from it. I'm superstitious enough to know that I had to do this. While I was still concerned about the cost, I knew I had to bite the bullet. Looking back, I know that there is no way that small savings would have made me as happy as jet skiing did.

It's funny how easy it is to rent something like a jet ski. Pay some money, sign your life away, hand over proof that you know how to drive something and you're off!

Riding a Jet ski is just so much fun. If you haven't tried it, I highly suggest it. My ride in Santa Barbara was so amazing. There were tons of seals sitting on the buoys and I even saw a few dolphins jumping in the water. I didn't have a waterproof camera at the time and I am really kicking myself for not thinking to buy one before. I will definitely try to get some photos next time.

Week of June 27th 2011: Butterfly Beach

The first stop on my road trip was Santa Barbara. My closest Aunt and Godmother lives there and I try to visit her every so often. I hadn't been to stay with her in some time though so I was long overdue.

Visiting my Aunt is always one of my favorite things. My parents used to ship me away to Santa Barbara for about a week every summer and my Aunt had a huge hand in shaping who I am today. She used to take me to book stores, show me how to paint, teach me ceramics, and show me the beauty of the outdoors. It's no wonder that reading, painting, sculpting and exploring nature are still very important to me. As I've become an adult, we've also just realized we really get along so I definitely owed her a visit, especially after she had been up to see me earlier that year.

My Aunt and Uncle always roll out the red carpet for me. I arrived to a beautiful plate full of dried meats, smoked salmon and cheeses. So what did I do? I pulled out one of my many bottles of wine and we discussed what I wanted to see while I was there. We through around a few ideas but thought that going to see Butterfly Beach would be a good way to spend the next afternoon. 

Butterfly beach is located near Montecito and in a very nice part of the city (not that there are any bad parts in Santa Barbara) full of ritzy hotels and amazing houses. The tide was rather high while we were there so my Aunt stayed behind to take pictures (she later makes beautiful paintings based on her snapshots) while my Uncle, my cousin, and I roamed down the beach, picking out which houses we would buy when we were billionaires. 

Although we only stopped by the beach in order to have short stroll through the waves, there were many people there with their families so it's also a great place to go and spend the day.