Welcome to California
Crossing the border
Nik and I loaded up everything from our storage unit and drove from Portland to San Francisco on Friday to complete our final step in moving to California. The trip was uneventful, but in true Oregon fashion, it rained for the first third of our journey. Then, all of a sudden, we crossed into California, the rain stopped, and the sun came out! It’s funny how that works.
As dusk approached, we kept thinking about stopping for the night, but what would we do in some random roadside motel for the evening? Nothing. So we drove on. All the way to Mill Valley, which is about 10 miles north of San Francisco in Marin County. We stopped at a Travelodge for the night to avoid parallel parking the 17 foot Uhaul at 11pm. It was a smart move.
Saturday morning, we woke up around 9am to drive over the Golden Gate Bridge, and directly to our new apartment. The weather was perfect without a cloud in the sky!!! We quickly developed a system, and unloaded everything in two hours. TWO HOURS!!!! We couldn’t believe we finished before lunch.
The drive through town to drop off the truck was pretty funny as we spotted several other self-movers doing the same thing. Then as we pulled into the Uhaul lot, an employee came up to the cab to talk to Nik, and casually said, “How’s it goin’ Killer?”. Nik loved that someone called him “killer”!!!
Then it was back to the new homestead for a little unpacking, dinner and much needed sleep. Unfortunately, I slept terribly. I think the cause was the 9pm coffee we made just because we had our own coffee mugs. Oh well.
Since then, we have managed to unpack most of the boxes and functionally arrange the little furniture we have. I often find myself sitting in a room daydreaming of what we could do. I would love to have a big work table in the living room that we can both spread out on. I would love to have a nice vanity/dresser in the bedroom to display the little jewelry I have. I can’t wait to get a nice couch, and maybe some rugs. It will be great to have a bed (right now we’re sleeping on an air mattress). We want to start a little herb garden in the kitchen. And I have tons of little ideas for displaying photos and the few art pieces we have.
The room I am more excited about than I expected is the kitchen. I never thought I would sit in there when I wasn’t eating, cooking or cleaning, but I do. I think the explanation is that this is the first “eat-in” kitchen I have ever had. The room is basically a square with a small table tucked away in a cozy corner with a built-in bench and cafe lamp on one side. In the evenings, it feels like I am in a tiny restaurant alone after everyone else has gone home. It is perfect.
After we settle in a little bit more, I’ll take photos and try my hand at interior photo styling!!