Well we made it to California in one piece! I 'bout nearly died of heat-stroke in the meanwhile, but now my freckles are already starting to grow together as sun protection, so I think I'll survive.
We started our big trip off with a garage sale last weekend. I think we probably sold about a quarter of our belongings and then gave another quarter of it away to a charity. After packing up the vans and realizing we STILL had too much stuff to fit in, we gave another bunch of stuff away.
You start realizing which of your belongings are really important to you and which are disposable when you literally can't fit all of it in your moving van and have to choose your favorites! It made me remember stories of the pioneers leaving their beloved pianos and paintings behind when they traveled West because they couldn't fit everything in their covered wagons.
Our first stop on moving day was to the DMV. My mom's car tags expired about a week ago! Oops! So we stopped and got a trip permit. Last thing we wanted was to get pulled over while we're traveling 800+ miles to our new house!
We had packed Carlita into a cute little kitty carrier in my car, and she wasn't so sure about it at first. I'm sure she assumed I was taking her to the vet, and she wasn't happy about that. After 10/15 minutes though, she started to calm down, and after that it was pretty smooth sailing with her!
After stretching our trip into two VERY LONG days (it was too hot to go any faster in non-air-conditioned vehicles), we finally made it to Southern California! My sister put us up for the night and then her in-laws helped move us into our new second-story apartment on Saturday morning. Between the sweating and the stairs, we're definitely going to be losing weight here! Lol.
Seriously though, it really is gorgeous here, and I think I'm starting to acclimate to the heat already. Everyone we've met has been really friendly so far. People drive faster, speak a lot more Spanish, and all have tans, but so far the culture-shock hasn't been too much! Lol. I am pleased to have found a Barnes and Nobles, Kohls, and several Starbucks already. It's been fun exploring my new town this weekend! Also, I interview with my potential new job this week as well, so I'll have to let you all know about that! :) Lot's of new changes, for sure!
You start realizing which of your belongings are really important to you and which are disposable when you literally can't fit all of it in your moving van and have to choose your favorites! It made me remember stories of the pioneers leaving their beloved pianos and paintings behind when they traveled West because they couldn't fit everything in their covered wagons.
We had packed Carlita into a cute little kitty carrier in my car, and she wasn't so sure about it at first. I'm sure she assumed I was taking her to the vet, and she wasn't happy about that. After 10/15 minutes though, she started to calm down, and after that it was pretty smooth sailing with her!
After stretching our trip into two VERY LONG days (it was too hot to go any faster in non-air-conditioned vehicles), we finally made it to Southern California! My sister put us up for the night and then her in-laws helped move us into our new second-story apartment on Saturday morning. Between the sweating and the stairs, we're definitely going to be losing weight here! Lol.
Seriously though, it really is gorgeous here, and I think I'm starting to acclimate to the heat already. Everyone we've met has been really friendly so far. People drive faster, speak a lot more Spanish, and all have tans, but so far the culture-shock hasn't been too much! Lol. I am pleased to have found a Barnes and Nobles, Kohls, and several Starbucks already. It's been fun exploring my new town this weekend! Also, I interview with my potential new job this week as well, so I'll have to let you all know about that! :) Lot's of new changes, for sure!
This is so exciting! Share some pictures of your explorations! California is so lovely:)!
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