Our California Scouting Trip

We spent all last week in CA trying to find a house, as we are leaving the day after Thanksgiving to head out there. Here are a few pictures to document our time there.

First, can I just tell you about the amazing parks out there? Merrick was quite impressed:

Flood Park in Menlo Park:

Cuesta Park in Mountain View - little man LOVES to climb, so he was in heaven. Turns out that we found our home in Mountain View and it's less than 1 mile from this park. So between the playground and the jogging path for me, it will be perfect! More on the house later.

One of the things I really like about the Peninsula is that a lot of the towns have their own downtown area. We spent Saturday in Mountain View downtown on Castro St. Our objective was finding a place to have lunch. When in St. Augustine, we've got about 2-3 choices in terms of places we like, so it's really challenging to figure out which place we're least tired of. Well here, it is just the opposite problem. There are SOOOOO many to choose from that we essentially stood on the sidewalk dumbfounded, drooling over which Zagat-recommended restaurant to choose from. Did we feel like Thai? Indian? Italian? Vietnamese? Chinese? So many choices!!

Merrick quickly brought us out of la-la land and back to earth when he proclaimed "I want chicken nuggeys and ketchup!". So suckers that we are, we spent 45 minutes trying - unsuccessfully - to find a place that served such a delicacy. It was not happening...this city is WAY too cultured for us. Digging into my bag of tricks, the 'divert and conquer' method was used. We knew he would have spaghetti. So we completely diverted him by asking him whether he wanted Spaghetti or a bowl of Toam Kha Gai. Guess what he chose:

Oh dear, sweet child of mine. We MUST begin to work on the palate.

So on the last day of the week we were there, we FINALLY sealed the deal on a house in Mountain View. Forget about the fact that it's more than twice our current mortgage payment on our house in Florida, yet smaller! Actually, we're quite happy with it. We love homes that have a bit of character to them, and this one does. The neighborhood is beautiful and walking distance to a few parks. It's also a long walk or short drive to downtown. It has a very nice front and back yard with 2 tangarine trees and a lemon tree. Here's our new humble abode - if you knew what this place would sell for, you would fall to the floor in shock (well, except for those actually in CA):

Once we actually move in we'll have to post pictures of the back yard and inside.

On the way home, we were able to convince the pilots to let Merrick get a shot at hanging out in the cockpit. He flew it pretty well for not having any experience. No major complaints from the passengers. Then they let us take it even one step further and put our 2 year old son right in the engine:

I kid, I kid! A couple shots of Merrick at the aviation museum. :)

We will officially be California residents on December 1, 2009.

California Here We Come

Most, if not all, of you are aware by now that we have made the difficult decision to relocate to California, in the Bay Area between San Francisco and San Jose. For the last 10 years, each company I've worked for has tried to get me to relocate, and we finally felt it was the right move to take that plunge.

There are so many pros to this....I love the Bay Area -- it's so beautiful there, there's so much to do, incredible restaurants, culture and diversity that would enrich Merrick's life, and from a job security perspective it makes a lot of sense because I have a really good network of colleagues out there. Craig and I have always worked really well together in terms of our careers...he's more entrepreneurial by nature and has done really well. I'm VERY risk adverse in this area, so I've been the one working the 9-5 (I wish, more like 7am-8am, 9am-5pm, then 8pm-11pm -- Merrick gets the in between slots), and have the stable income we know we can count on (well, as much as anyone can count on right now) and the health benefits. Considering the current economic environment, and the fact that my network/industry is not in Florida, we decided it would be a good decision.

Though there is only one con in terms of leaving Florida, it is a HUGE one. One big enough to really tip the scale. It's the fact that half of our family is now out here. So our hearts are heavy, and it was a bittersweet decision.

Well, I guess the other con is the cost of living out there is atrocious. But it's that way because it is such a desirable place to live.

So California, here we come! With all the things it has to offer, maybe we can convince both sides of the family to move out there too. And while we're at it, our friends! *Hint Hint*

Halloween Heat Wave

October 31st in lovely St. Augustine, Florida. And what temperatures are we having these days? Well, let's just say that we went out for a night of trick or treating with Merrick, Willow and Wren and Merrick made it to ONE house before he had completely stripped off his costume. It had to have been about 85 degrees with insane humidity and bugs galore. Blecch!

It was pretty funny to watch the kids go trick-or-treating. Willow was dressed as a bride, and we got about 20 feet before one of her shoes broke. Wren and Merrick, who are just this year starting to get the concept of Halloween, would eat the candy as soon as they got it. In fact, Merrick refused to use the trick or treat bag because he didn't want to lose the candy. Wren would unwrap the candy and get halfway through it before he was on to the next.

We were probably out there with them for close to an hour, yet we made it to only 3 houses. And then THEY were the ones that were OVER IT.

Finally, a bit of a confession. I bought the cutest turtle costume for Merrick last year. It was a big too big, but we made it work:

Then this year, I bought him another really cute turtle costume. It was a just a teensy bit small, but we still made it work....hmmmmm....because I am NOT the type of mom that would have my son wear the same costume 2 years in a row. No way!!

Look, this is the LAST year I'm going to get away with him wearing such a cutesy costume. I had to take full advantage!

Here are just a couple more pics from our Halloween. I tried SO HARD to get a picture of all the kids while trick-or-treating, but after about 15-20 blurry shots because none of them could hold still, I finally gave up.