Things To Miss/Things To Discover

Written January 20th, 2011 (But in real-life time, we're leaving this morning for our drive across the country to Raleigh! Thank goodness for wireless laptop cards. And homeopathic cat sedative!)

As excited as I am about our upcoming move, and even though I know that it's the right decision for us, there are still some times when I get overcome by how much I'm going to miss California. After all, I decided when I was about 9 years old that I wanted to move here! But like I told my parents, when I was making that decision almost 20 years ago, the cost of real estate wasn't even a consideration. Nor was it when we moved here right after college. But seriously, if you've never been to San Francisco, add it to your places to visit. It's such a wonderful area!

To help me deal with some of my sadness about leaving Cali, I thought I'd make a list of all the things I'm going to miss, and also a list of all the things I'm looking forward to in North Carolina. Leaving is going to be bittersweet, and although the great things about North Carolina aren't going to wipe out all the things I'll miss about Cali, I hope they will end up balancing each other out pretty well.

Things I'm going to miss about California (in no particular order):

• My favorite restaurant, the Stinking Rose. I doubt I'm ever going to find another restaurant who's tag line is "we season our garlic with food"
• The moderate weather
• The open minded people, who choose not to judge others who are different than them (although with the whole Prop 8 nonsense, I guess California wasn't as liberal as I thought)
• Being so close to everything, the water, the mountains, wine country, big city life
• The fact that when I sing along in my car to Katy Perry's 'California Girls,' it won't be the same
  
• How easy it is to drive 20 minutes for family get togethers
• Our friends
• Our favorite camping and hiking spots
• The fact that in almost 7 years of living here, we never made it to Lake Tahoe (we had camping reservations there a couple of years ago, but a big forest fire forced us to cancel)
• Having to cancel our Yosemite cabin reservation that I'd made for our 1 year wedding anniversary
• Seeing deer munching grass on the hills by the highway on my way to work, which always makes me smile, or the views of the SF bay from highway 280 on clear days
  
• The Pacific ocean--except for in college, I've never lived more than a short drive to the water (SF Bay or Puget Sound)
  

Things I can't wait to discover in North Carolina (in no particular order):

• A million and 1 new places to go camping
• New beaches to check out, about 2-3 hours away, that are actually warm enough to swim at
  
• Trying new southern foods
• Figuring out which neighborhoods we want to buy a home in
• New places to go hiking
• I will finally be able to get away with saying "ya'll"
• Finally getting to paint walls and decorate how I want, once we buy a house
• Actually being able to afford to buy a house before we're 40
  
• Being able to make quick trips up and down the east coast, most of which I've never seen (we'll only be a 4 hour drive from Washington DC and 8 hours to NYC, so flights will be quick and cheap)
  
• Fireflies, which I hear are pretty cool to see
• No matter what, I will never again have as long of a work commute as I do now
  
• Actually having seasons (which means I'll need to buy some cute winter clothes and shoes!)
• A ton of new restaurants to try (I currently have 43 restaurants bookmarked to try--we could almost eat out every week for a year and try something new every time. Plus, a large percentage of these restaurants have crab cakes on the menu, which I'm mildly obsessed with!)
• The fact that everything will be new, new restaurants, new grocery store, new bars....everything will be a new adventure!

I'm sure there are a ton more things that I'll miss in Cali, and a ton more things to look forward to in North Carolina, but these were what I came up with off the top of my head!

If you had to move tomorrow, what is the #1 thing you would miss about where you currently live?