San Diego is paradise. It’s mid-November and we’ve not had to put on even a light jacket since we got here. We were cold all the way down the coast (remember, I had to buy a jacket in Sausalito!), but it’s so warm here we don’t even need to put the heat on at night. It’s t-shirts all the way. Paradise, I tell you. It is supposed to get a little colder next week, but it’s been around 75-80 all week! THIS is what I moved for. This is what I live for – winter without cold weather. It’s inconceivable, but a lot of people who live here take it for granted.
We got another late start this morning (lazy slobs that we are). We didn’t even leave the campground until 1:00pm. We decided to go to Hillcrest for lunch at CORVETTE DINER, which we loved when we visited San Diego last month. This place is SO much fun! Our server, Scarlett, was the cutest girl with bright red hair and red lipstick. She had so much personality. Eric and I just fell in love with her! The last time we were in, we fell in love with Lulu, our other server. I think all the waitresses there must audition for the job, rather than interview, because they are such great performers. Scarlett really is in show business, which came as no surprise!
The first thing they do when you sit down is throw a bunch of straws at you. It’s really shocking, but then you realize what it is and you just laugh. They’re all in bowling shirts and Capri pants, or poodle skirts with saddle shoes. They’re more costumes than uniforms.
I had the Wednesday Special – Vegetable Lasagna. Eric had the Popeye (spinach) salad. Both portions were so huge that we brought back enough to have dinner tonight. We topped it off with the World’s Smallest Brownie Sundae, which was just enough to satisfy our sweet tooth.
After that, we started driving around to look at more rentals that our realtor, Bonnie, had sent me in an email. We drove to eight places today. We were in LA JOLLA ("The Jewel"), MISSION HILLS, and PACIFIC BEACH, among others.
It's so much easier zipping around in our little KIA RIO!
Some places we looked at were fabulous, some didn’t thrill us at all. There were a couple that are in a gated community and are very fancy. The thing is, we won’t use the exercise room, or pool, or club house, or barbecue very much, so it seems like a waste to pay for all that and not even take advantage of it. We just want a safe place to live, where we will have room to put all 130 boxes we shipped from New York.
My theory is: We need a place to put the RV. We need a place to live. We need a place to store all our stuff, until we move into a condo. So, if we could find a place where we could park the RV free, that’s big enough to hold all the boxes until we move again (so we don't have to pay for storage), and is in a nice neighborhood, then that would be perfect. Unfortunately, it’s very hard to find.
Eric says we may as well sell the RV (boo hoo), because we probably won’t have much chance to use it in the next couple of years, at least for more than a long weekend. He feels that if we sold it, we wouldn’t have to worry about storing it and the money we got would pay for our rent! That’s all true, but it’s not going to be easy to sell a small RV (at least I don’t think so).
Eric also wishes we could just buy a condo right now, because he hates the thought of settling in and having to move again. I just don’t want to buy until I really know San Diego, because I want to stay where we buy for a while and I don’t want to regret a “hasty purchase” because it turns out that I work far away, or it’s inconvenient to get there, or the neighborhood isn’t what we thought, etc., etc. If we rent for a year, we’ll get to know where we really want to live. It all makes sense to me. We just have to find a place to rent!
This has become our new job – Eric drives and I plug all the addresses into Betty and navigate us all over town. It’s not all fun and games. We were getting on each other’s nerves today. No cause for alarm. Nothing we haven’t experienced before. We’re both a little stressed these days, what with apartments, jobs, and unpacking on our minds.
Yesterday we saw four places; today – eight. Tomorrow – who knows?
We got back to the RV around 6:00pm and it was already dark. Eric decided to go for a ride around the neighborhood. He hasn’t ridden in about a month (maybe more) and I think it’s driving him crazy. Maybe he’ll get into a routine of riding every day again, even if it’s not mountain biking. He got back and was in a much better mood. He said he explored the area a little, found a great bicycling path and rode about 15 miles, until the light on his handlebars died. He says he would have stayed out later, if the light had held out!
We had a dinner of leftovers and watched TV. I’m looking forward to another day out tomorrow, in beautiful San Diego, finding the perfect “love nest” for me and Eric. I know we will find it, with Bonnie’s help!