California: January 2006 Archives

On Tuesday we signed a one year lease for a 3 bedroom apartment in Oakland, just over the border from Berkeley. It's in a quiet neighborhood but still very close to the university and good places to go out. It's a split-level and we get the 2nd and 3rd floor with a spiral staircase connecting them. The top floor is one big room that we're going to use as part living room, part office and part guestroom. It has a nice backyard and I'm hoping to start a small vegetable/herb garden in the Spring.

We spent most of today making trips to Target, Ikea and Trader Joe's to get all the things you need when you get a new apartment. We're excited to finally have the chance to use some of the wedding gifts we'd received almost a year and a half ago. Megan's busy finding places throughout the apartment where our stuff will live. Sanna and David will be here tomorrow to see the place and bring us some things they were holding on to for us. We'll get some photos posted soon so you all can see the place too.

We spent the last few days looking for apartments in the Berkeley/Oakland area. There are quite a few on the market and Craig's List has been our main means of sorting through them. We also used Google Maps to see how close each candidate is to downtown, UC Berkeley and good restaurants and cafes.

We found one place in particular that stood out among the rest (see photo). We weren't able to go inside and take a good look around because the stairs were falling apart and there was a "No Trespassing" sign posted on the boarded up window. Plus it didn't look like anybody was home anyway. Well, if we don't get this one we'll have to just keep on looking.

I arrived in Berkeley yesterday afternoon after spending the night at Dave and Dawn's just outside Los Angeles. It was a nice, albeit short visit with them and I set out Friday morning around 10AM to complete the last leg.

The drive out of Los Angeles up route 5 was much different than I thought it would be. I had no idea that LA was bordered by such large mountains to the north. They wound up and around for a good 20 miles and then emptied out into vast flat plains filled with industrial farms. In many ways the drive yesterday was the hardest stretch of the trip because I was surrounded the whole time by other cars and trucks. We were cruising at a good clip (a bit above the 70MPH speed limit) and were pretty tightly packed together. In New Mexico, Arizona or Texas it seemed an easier drive since I only had to share the road with a few other vehicles and could zone out a bit.

I did have a chance to see and appreciate what a beautiful state California is. I'm excited to be out here and look forward to being able to do a lot of outdoor activities (biking, hiking, camping, snowboarding, etc.).

So, thanks to Google Maps I pulled into Berkeley around 4:30PM PST. Sanna and David were already in San Francisco waiting for us to arrive at a bed and breakfast they frequently stay at. I called up Alexa and we headed into the city to join them at the B&B. We went out to dinner at Herbivore and then I set out to pick up Megan. Her flight out of Atlanta was delayed and she didn't end up arriving in SF until 10PM. I met her at the airport and we took the BART to the B&B.

Now that we're all in one place Megan, Alexa and I will begin the apartment hunt and I'm starting a search for shared office space. We're hoping to find a place to live in the East Bay - Berkeley or Oakland. It feels good to have arrived in the place that will be our home for the foreseeable future. We'll do our best to keep the travelogue updated but please forgive us if we're sporadic with our entries.