Oregon – That’s or-E-gun not or-uh-gone*

 It is almost criminal that it took me 38 years to finally get my butt over to Oregon.  I guess I was still holding out for a big northwest trip to see the national parks, explore the pinot noirs and see the cool volcanoes.  (Mt St Helens erupted on my birthday in 1980.  I was 6 years old and this had a massive impression on me.  For the nerds amongst you, some great footage of that time can be found here:  you tube mt st helens) 

When Jesse moved to Eugene in the early-mid 90s I heard tales of early grunge/coffee barista/snowboarding lifestyle.  He would go on and on and on about how gorgeous the forests were, how pristine the skiing (boarding) was.  I was intrigued, but did not go out and visit, being a poor student and all.

Then Katy moved there in mid noughties, and she kept banging her head in frustration when we would say we wanted to try all those wonderful wines, but yet hadn’t committed a spot in our social calendar to make the trip.  (Her house is a mere 30 minute drive to the wine country.) 

Even though our US road trip is supposed to be more serious and goal oriented (finding a place to call home), how could we pass up the chance to check out Oregon when we were within shouting distance?  We could not.  We did not. 

Now that I’ve been there,  what did I think?  Well, it’s very green.  And very wet.  And there is a lot more than just green forests across the state.  And the people are very nice.  And the food and wine are fantastic.  And everyone is so much more down to earth than you’d expect.  And there really are some crazy vegan-99%ers who sound and look exactly like those characters on Portlandia.  And the rest of the state is way more redneck than you can imagine.  (Thank you Dad for teaching me to fish or I’d have had nothing to talk about with these people).

The Columia River Gorge

Driving across Oregon - would you have guessed it was OR?

Another Unexpected Delightful Side of Oregon

It’s really too bad about the weather – we stayed in both Eugene and Portland which proved to be very nice respectfully small and medium sized cities.  They had nice houses, nice shops, nice restaurants, but damn, that weather.  It is astonishingly similar to the UK – a weather forecast with 50 shades of grey – no wonder the books are set in Portland/Seattle.  In this case Grey isn’t the S&M husband, but the abusive clouds and pounding rain. 

TrackTown USA 2012 Olympic Trials in Eugene

How can the folks at Nike stand to have their headquarters there?  Surely they should be somewhere awesomely sunny to enjoy the sporty weather.  It seems more like a home for London Fog trenchcoats and Gore-Tex than a home for track shoes.  If you don’t know the story, Nike has its origins in the track program at the University of Oregon (as does Animal House, but I don’t think those things are related) – where ex students and current coaches were playing around with waffle irons to find the right grip for the new tracks of the 1960s -- a company was formed, the rest is history.  What I don’t understand is why, when they first opened an office in Santa Monica, they chose to HQ themselves in Beaverton in the shadow of Oregon’s clouds rather than the shadow of California waves. 

Maybe it was the healthy produce?  The whole state is like a giant fruit bowl – excellent growing conditions for the world’s best strawberries (hoods), more cherry varieties than you ever knew existed, blueberries, huckleberries, more salad ingredients and micro greens than you can imagine, and yes, you even drive through the grass seed capital of the world on route 5 between Eugene and the capital, Salem.  Pass over the allergy medication, you’ll need a few handfuls a day. 

Maybe it was the wine?  The wine really is first class.  I don’t know why the Willamette region doesn’t have more praise and world reknown.   Some of the best pinot noirs and chardonnays come from the region.  This is surprising to me since the climate is a million miles away from a burgundian one, but these varietals taste different here in any case.  Pinots taste like those cherries and berries the state is famous for.  And before you go pronouncing that wrong, it’s will-am-it (dammit), not will-yam-ette.  You get corrected a lot in or-E-gun. 

Maybe it was the environment?  Raining, or snowing, or those 2 months a year when the sun comes out, those Cascade mountains really are something else.  When you read about them the word ‘prominence’ comes up a lot.  What makes these mountains so spectacular is that 1) they are actually very steep snow capped volcanoes (11k+) and 2) they spring up out of nowhere with no other mountains around to distract the eye.  They give you hiking, mountain biking, skiing, snowboarding, climbing activities and then wooosh the Colombia river snakes through and gives you windsurfing, kite boarding and kayaking.  Put in a golf course here, raft some whitewater there, and oh put a few hundred miles of bike paths in too – and wow, is it easy to be out and active here.   Just make sure you grab that rain gear…because no matter what you do, it will be wet. 

*Apparently us outsiders all pronounce it incorrectly.

Northern California – what a long strange trip it’s been

(Note:  for the next 8 weeks we are off the find-a-town-to-call-home part of the trip and just enjoying a long summer vacation.  Therefore these write-ups will be more descriptive rather than evaluative. )

I just finished reading Mark Arax’s collection of essays about the lives and times of various Californians called “West of the West”.  The title is attributed to Teddy Roosevelt who once exclaimed, "When I am in California, I am not in the West, I am west of the West”.  The idea of “The West” – capital T on The – conjures up images of open plains, cowboys, stagecoaches, etc.  Even more contemporarily, if you ask someone for their imagery of the west they will describe scenes that are more Wyoming or even Texas, than the state that is truly as west as it gets in the lower 48. 

California is a lot of things, but it is not typically western.  On our 5 month journey up the state from San Diego to Eureka, we’ve gained an enlightenment on just how many different places California can be.  Coastal deserts, palm oases, urban jungles, long sandy surfing beaches, foggy shores, fertile valleys, rolling winelands, granite peaks, volcanoes, and ancient forests.  We’ve seen snow, and rain, and month-long sunshine.  But nothing prepared us for this last bit of the trip. 

It’s a funny thing that when people talk of “Northern California” they mean San Francisco (vs Los Angeles).  Take out your map, you’ll see that San Francisco is only 2/3 up the coast – wouldn’t that make it Central California?  There is this whole chunk, possibly the size of the lower 3 states in New England, or even South Carolina, which very few people know anything about.  If California is west of the west, we were north of the north for this last part of our Californian Adventure.  

Yosemite Falls as seen from a gentle raft

To the far eastern boundary, you find the mighty Yosemite national park.  I always knew of this park, but confusing it with Yellowstone, I couldn’t tell you where it was or what it was famous for.  After a bit of research we learned that the park was set aside early as a state park long before the national park system even existed.  The bulk of its 3.5 million visitors a year spend their time in the tiny 7 square mile Yosemite valley.  The valley is carved in a hollow of granite – a single slab of granite.  If you could strip away the ground and trees around the cliffs of the famed Half Dome and El Capitan, you’d find a 300 mile long, single piece of granite.  Even with our research completed, the experience of awe as you stand in this valley cannot be expected.  It is the backdrop of your childhood 1000 piece jigsaw puzzles left, right, and center around you.  The air is clearer, the sky is bluer, and that granite…oh boy.  300 miles of granite – how many kitchen counter tops is that exactly?

Lassen Peak in mid June at 8500 feet

Heading northwest from Yosemite, you’ll find another National Park at Lassen Volcanic.  Never heard of it?  I’m not surprised.  It’s a little bit out of the way, at high snow covered elevation, and one of those places that you don’t do much other than to drive thru.  Lassen itself is a volcano that had a bunch of eruptions between 1907-1921.  It was made a national park in 1916 – my hypothesis is that they were afraid of it and didn’t want anybody living out there.  In any case the place is still very active and amongst its claims to fame are the existence of all types of volcano – plug, shield, cinder and strato – but don’t ask me to explain the differences. Another claim to fame is the Bumpass Hell thermal area which is supposed to be an incredibly scenic area of boiling mudpits and steaming fumaroles.  Sadly so deep is the snow that the access hike to Bumpass Hell is only open after mid July and we were there too early.  You can’t walk down over the snow because it obscures the marked pathway and you just might fall into a pit of boiling acid – I’m therefore perfectly satisfied to see the pictures online and skip the adventure myself. 

From Lassen we headed down, from 70 degree temps to soaring 110 degree temps, and west, along California 299, the scenic byway that traces the Trinity River through the Trinity Alps.  After passing through the valley floor, home to a great percentage of the world’s fruit bowl, you climb up and down through countless ghost towns left behind after the gold rush.  Only once you go through the last pass does the temperature change again, with that part of the northern California coast never getting much warmer than 65 degrees. 

Reaching the coast, we find ourselves in Humboldt County.  Arax writes about the people of Humboldt County deep in the redwoods three hours north of San Francisco.  Humboldt Bay, in the Victorian Seaside town of Eureka, (did you even know California had a victorian seaside town?) was only accessed / found around 1850.  Explorers knew there was a bay there, but couldn’t find it by sea.  It was only when the gold rushers moved in by land that they properly found it.  (Get it? Eureka!)  There are very few bays along the Pacific Coast, so it made sense that Humboldt Bay would get settled and become a major logging town for export.  With 96% of the trees gone by about 1990, the logging business disintegrated over night.  What would these people turn to for their next business opportunity? 

Two major historical events shaped the answer to that question.  The first was in the late 60s when the summer of love exiles left San Francisco to go do hippie things in the woods.  The local (redneck) loggers didn’t mind them…there was enough land/space to go around.  Everyone tells stories of hidden marijuana groves throughout the redwood forests – stumble upon these at your peril.  Their operations were small, sourcing only what they needed to consume themselves – rarely creating a cash crop for wider distribution.  But that changed in recent times, with the 2^nd historical event that has shaped the economy of Humboldt County – legalized medical marijuana.  Today all those ex loggers have joined the hippies and have started to grow something green that matures far earlier than those ancient redwoods.  We now see a modern commercial marijuana farmer.  Technically the law states that each person can only grow 25 plants.  But grow those indoors and you get 6 harvests a year vs the 1 harvest a year of the outdoors growth.  Suddenly you’re looking at an easy $1 million or more even under the legal specifications of the law.  Drive through town and you’ll see those cute little victorian homes now have a minor renovation – you aren’t able to see through the first floor windows – for these homes are now grow rooms. Boarded up, shaded or otherwise blocking out the natural sun, these places have their electricity dials buzzing.  According to Arax, as many as 1 in 5 houses in the county is a grow house.  The hardware stores and garden centers are chock a block with hydrophonic fertilizers , soils and supplies.  It’s all very ‘wink wink’ with their exhibits showing how to grow tomato plants, but everyone knows what everyone is doing.

When Andy and I visited Eureka we expected to see little old ladies on antiquing missions oohing and ahhing at shop windows.  What we actually saw was a community of dreadlocked grungy types on skateboards smoking away on pipes in the middle of the street.  We were in town for 2 days and never saw a single policeman or police car.  When we walked into the Lost Coast brewpub, a hush fell on the crowded room. . .we were not from around here and everybody knew it.  We got the feeling that police cars are no longer necessary. Justice is served up local style.  You stay over there and I’ll stay over here.  It’ll be interesting to see when and if the gangs come in.  Maybe they are already there. 

As you drive out of Eureka you follow the 101 up the redwood coast.  Pictures cannot do these trees their justice.  It is where the forest scenes of Stars Wars were filmed.  It’s full of kitschy tourist stops – avoid the tempting Trees of Mystery stop, there was not much to see there.  There is a National Park there, but I had read that the real awe inspiring sights were in the Jedediah Smith state park.  Driving through both, I have to agree.  Maybe it’s the more rugged dirt road that forces you to slow down, maybe it was the way the rare sun dripped through the trees, but for us Jedediah Smith was the crown jewel. 

These trees actually make our car look tiny!

Not far after exiting the mighty redwoods you approach the state border with Oregon.  They should put a rest area in there, a place for voyagers to gaze back on California and wonder at the state’s marvels.  You’d have thought 5 months would be more than enough to soak of the state’s riches.  As we crossed that border we both agreed that 5 months was way too short.  California we are in love, and we will be back.  

A State full of riches

San Francisco – Sitting way above the Dock of the Bay

A view of the city on a rare clear day

When we polled our friends about where we were most likely to end up living in America, the overwhelming response was San Francisco.  The reasons people gave had to do with the food, the wine, the European-ness, the jobs, etc.  In fact, if you brought me back to my late 20s I would have told you then how much I wanted to live in San Francisco.  But Andy and I knew enough about the city and the bay area to know that it would be a hard sell for us.  Food and wine is a great description, but is that enough to make you fall in love with a place?  Isn’t European-ness what we are fleeing from?  And what about that fog?  It was all a bit puzzling.

The puzzle began with where to base ourselves for our 4 week discovery session of the city by the bay.  San Francisco and the wider ‘Bay Area” covers a very wide region – you could argue the size of a small state.  Each neighborhood is not only different in its people and style, but VASTLY different in its weather.  A simple mile of driving can be the difference between sun and fog.  The fog doesn’t just roll in romantically in the afternoons, it sets up camp and has its own postal code. 

   

With a dearth of rental properties in the city, we chose an executive rental in Sausalito.  It’s a gorgeous setting – a little Positano shaped hillside trickling down to the sea, the first exit off the glorious golden gate bridge.  Sadly it is this geographical and aesthetically pleasing environment that draws in the busloads of tourists and (bad) cyclists on a daily basis.  Between 10-6 each day you cannot drive thru town.  God forbid you should require the convenience of something like a grocery store – those have been zoned out of ‘quaint’ tourist land.  As a result of our harrowing 20%+ grade uphill to our house perched on stilts on the hillside and the avoidance of tourists, we spent a lot of days marooned in our tree fort.  At least the view was spectacular - we literally woke up with gleaming sun over the bay, the very spot where Otis wrote his song.  We spent the day "watching the ships roll in, just to watch them roll away again. "

Morning sun over Angel Island, taken from my bed

 "The Bay" from our Sausalito tree house

When we did venture out, we found the city to be as expected.  A lot of great food (the best we’ve eaten in America, the best grocery shopping too), a lot of great wine (though Napa is up its own ass and stuck in the 80s), and strangely european – except that they haven’t worked out good public transportation.  Oh, I hear you locals shouting things like “BART (Bay Area Rapid Transit) is amazing” but it was you locals who gave us cab company phone numbers and even private sedan car numbers and apps – telling us never ever to rely on the buses. 

A surprise, and a seriously negative point for the city, is that there is actually little to do in the city itself.  Note the bold “in” there.  When we asked people what they did for fun we heard endless citations of trips to wine country, trips to Yosemite, trips to the beach, trips to Tahoe.  You get the pattern.  When we pushed them for recommendations in the city the universal answer was … wait for it… BRUNCH.  Brunch is not a pastime, my friends.  Brunch is a meal.  And don’t get me wrong, it’s probably my favorite meal, but a city needs more than a good brunch culture.  ½ of 1 weekday does not an active city make.  That’s when it really hit us – ½ of a weekend day.  That’s all the time that most san Franciscans take off from work.  They work extremely long hours here – starting up this entrepreneurial company or that.  We saw a dad on a tennis court with his daughter on his cell phone talking about a financing plan for a new business.  People are passionate about their work – that’s generally a good thing – but take it too far here.  We met with another friend who rides the company bus each way to work.  We asked how long the commute was and got a “not long…just an hour… and the bus stop is so close… just a 15 minute walk”.  Ok, so you work 12 hours a day and commute to work 2.5 hours.  No wonder there is nothing to do – who would ever have the time to do it? 

Little-to-do does have its benefits -- our tour of the city itself was so efficiently done in a matter of days that we had weeks to explore the larger “Bay Area”.  There really are some lovely places to live around the bay – and our readers will not be surprised to learn that the close vicinities of Berkeley and Stanford were our favorite neighborhoods.  Around Berkeley Andy felt most ‘at home’ with his Oxford roots.  Bookstores, a fantastic produce market (Berkeley Bowl), and little bakeries and other interesting shops all found in a quaint and very cycle-able downtown.  Stanford, and its neighborhood of Palo Alto has more flaunting wealth, and more sunshine, but could also be a comfortable home sweet home. 

The gorgeous Stanford campus

It’s a young city despite the fact that people have lived here for generations and are the types to make sure you know that.  Yes folks, San Francisco has a whole variety of douche-bags.  The saying “There’s nothing bad about California except the Californians” was probably first uttered here.  Maybe I’ve been out of work too long already, but a segmentation of the city is warranted, don’t you think?  At the risk of offending absolutely everyone, I hearby give you my segmentation of San Francisco Douche-Bags: 

What is not douchey (I promise you, that is a word) about the city are its chefs.  Wow.  They really know how to put a plate together here.  The abundance of farm fresh produce so close to the city is remarkable.  It’s farm to table, without going out of their way to overpromote that.  Without trying to be too crunchy-granola-organic crazy – they use butter and cream and salt and all the yummy stuff in between.  There were so many Michelin starred restaurants that we could only try a few.  You’ll see our recommendations below. 

After living in the city for a month, I may not have left my heart in San Francisco but I definitely left my stomach.  And isn’t the way to your heart through your stomach? Maybe our friends know us better than we know ourselves.

San Francisco against our criteria:

1) Is it a college town?       In some neighborhoods

2) Does it have liberal politics?      Possibly too liberal?

3) Is it sunny?           HA! In which half acre?

4) Is it sporty?           Not really

5) Career prospects?       Strong

6) Airport access?     Good

7) Foodie?      Awesomely so

8) Aesthetics?     It has some stunning vistas

9) Easy to make friends?  Yes, plus we know people already

Activity recommendations

1. Touristy day - walk the embarcadero, take a ferry, ride the cable cars, go to twin peaks. There, you've seen all you need to see.
2. Muir Woods - take a walk in the redwoods just minutes from town.  (Though if you ever get the chance, the redwoods in Jebediah park near the border with oregon are even more spectacular)



A stunning walk through the redwoods at Muir Woods

3. Explore the lesser known parts of wine country - check out Geyserville and Dry Creek.  
4. If you aren't afraid of heights, walk or cycle across the Golden Gate bridge.  Or, if you want to wait for 25 years, be in town for a big anniversary birthday.  We caught the 75th and the fireworks were amazing!  
5. Take your bike down to Half Moon Bay for a lovely cycle and lunch by the sea  
6. Take the Tiburon ferry over to Angel Island (the ellis island of the west) and rent a bike for a tour of the islands relics and 360 degree views of the Bay

Dining recommendations:

1. Manresa – All the way down in Los Gatos, but absolutely wonderful.  This reminded us of L’enclume or even Noma.  All of the produce comes from a local farm and they surprise and dazzle you with perfectly cooked plates. 
2. Coi – In town, on Broadway, this simple room (you’d have to know where it was or you’d miss it) produces spectacular food.  Three words:  foie gras ganache.  Outlawing this should be a sin.  
3. Sushi-Ran – If you do find yourself in Sausalito as a tourist, on the quieter Calendonian street you will find this gem.  Order the tempura fiddleheads.  Because where else will you get these?
4. Willie’s  - Up in Healdsburg, the real heart of Sonoma wine country (and far better than Napa) you’ll find this awesome bistro.  Order a bunch of their small plates and drink your way down the wine list.
5.  Ferry building – If only all foodcourts could have takeaway ham cones. 

LA Story

In 1991, Steve Martin was cast in a brilliant film about life in LA.  Memorable scenes included ‘open season’ on the 405, a large group of diners ordering half-caff coffees, the difficulty of getting a dinner reservation (“with a financial statement like that you cannot have the duck”) and a brilliant scene involving hidden roller skates and an art museum. 

At 17 years old, it formed my first real impression of the city – vacuous people who drive everywhere and only care about themselves and their celebrity ambitions.  Business trips taken decades later didn’t add much to that impression – pretty beaches, but long straight boring roads lined with strip malls.  Uggh.

So you might ask why we bothered to include it on our discovering America tour.  Well, the answer is simple – LA probably has some of the best job prospects for us, and we wanted to know what it was like to stay in a real house, in a real community, rather than as complete tourists.  We’re glad we did.

We stayed in Venice Beach – which has easy access to the freeways, and ridiculous access to miles and miles of beach, including the 20ish mile bike trail that spans the coast.  The neighborhood itself is very funky – with Abbot Kinney street being heralded as the coolest street in America, or so Esquire magazine says.  The streets are lined with trees and houses have both front and back gardens, producing a very suburban neighborhoody feel within an urban center.

Cycling in santa monica - just a few miles down the beach from venice beach

perfect sunset over venice beach

As luck would have it, we timed our stay with the neighborhoods annual Venice Home & Garden show – where local residents, mostly artists and architects, open their homes to the community as a big fundraiser for a neighborhood school.  So we got to go inside the walls and see how people are living.  Wow.  There is some good living here – lush gardens, brilliant pools and an architectural aesthetic which has taken the mid century bungalows and transformed them into open comfortable living bar none.

 

LA isn’t as bad as its reputation would suggest.  There are some plastic, vacuous people, but that cannot be more than 2% of the population.  There are celebrities, but the 3 times we saw celebs (Rob Riggle, Marcia Cross, Helen Hunt) they were acting like normal people too.  We weren’t stuck in traffic that often.  We were easily able to get dinner reservations at some of the world’s top 100 restaurants – and when we showed up and were not celebrities, we were still treated spectacularly well. There are some streets lined with strip malls, but actually it is surprisingly green – and even wild – just minutes away in the santa monica mountains.

Just miles away from downtown LA to the Santa Monica mountains 

The only really negative thing we had to say about the place (beyond the usual cost of buying a house, crime, etc) was that the supermarkets and produce stores were horrible.  We couldn’t even find a decent blueberry at a Whole Foods.  Thank goodness for the farmers markets – you would have to do your stocking up there for sure. 

And be careful where you park – they hover over your meter and write out the tickets before it clicks expired.  Don’t say we didn’t warn you.

In the end I had to remember that Steve Martin ultimately finds love and happiness in LA.  Maybe we can too.

LA against our criteria:

1) Is it a college town?          Not really

2) Does it have liberal politics?      You know, I don’t know.

3) Is it sunny?           Yes

4) Is it sporty?           Mostly

5) Career prospects?       Strong

6) Airport access?     Good

7) Foodie?      Ok.  Good ethnic eats, bad shopping

8) Aesthetics?     Better than expected

9) Easy to make friends?  Probably, plus we know people already

Some tips for dining:

1.) Spago is a real institution. The service is good, the food is good.  The scene is a bit 80s.

2) Saam at the Bazaar is an experience – but the vibe outside the special tasting room actually looked a little more fun.  Whatever you do, order the cotton candy foie gras…oh wait, that wont be legal after July 2012.  Sad.

3) Umami burger is amazing.  The truffle burger…oh…my…god.  

San Diego - Chilling out on the 32nd Parallel

We have a contender, ladies and gentlemen.  The bar has been raised.  San Diego is in first place of possible places for us to live. 

Swami's Beach 

• It’s a city, but small and easy to get around  
• It has jobs in fantastically nerdy and innovative fields
• It has breathtaking scenery and oodles of things to do outside
• Average temp in winter – 60.  Average temp in summer – 80 (No heat, no aircon needed, just lovely sea fresh air)
• Coastal desert – so no allergy flare ups and lots of sun
• Good eatin’ – the place that made the fish taco popular
• And great people – relaxed, chilled-out, get-a-surf-in-before-work set 

San Diego has a cluster of medium-high rises. It's the inner city international
airport that stunts the growth of those buildings...those suckers fly right into town. 

When I lived in South Africa in the 90s everyone would tell me how much they loved San Diego.  I stood there a bit unsure about how to respond – yes, I am American, but no, I am not from, nor have I ever been to San Diego.  I *think* they have a zoo there? 

I had no impression of San Diego – I’m not sure I would even have been able to tell you it was southernmost city of California.  I get very confused by all the San and Santa towns of California.  Seriously, someone says San Jose, San Luis Obispo, San Clemente, San Mateo, San Marino, Santa Clara, Santa Rita, Santa Barbara, Santa Rosa, Santa Cruz … and I just stare deer-in-the-headlights and start to panic – how am I possibly supposed to keep them all straight?

Up until the 1960s San Diego was the same size as, and growing at the same rate as, Los Angeles.  Then the highway craze happened – and since San Diego is the end-of-the-road to Los Angeles’s middle-of-the-road, San Diego started to slow down.  And thank goodness, because that’s what we love so much about it.  Like slow food, there’s something to be said for a slow city.  It is a small city but still has a direct flight to London.  It’s a small city but still has ethnic diversity and a handful of brilliant educational institutions (Scripps, UCSD, Salk Institute).  Those educational institutions, complemented by the mighty fine living standards have attracted some of the world’s best technology and consumer companies.  Qualcomm, Sempra Energy, Peregrin, WD-40, Petco, Kashi and Jack-in-the-Box are all headquartered in San Diego. 

The biggest employer however is the military. Remember this scene?   “You're one hell of an instinctive pilot. Maybe too good. I'd like to bust your butt but I can't. I got another problem here. I gotta send somebody from this squadron to Miramar. I gotta do something here, I still can't believe it. I gotta give you your dream shot! I'm gonna send you up against the best. You two characters, are going to Top Gun.”  Well, Top Gun is smack dab in San Diego. Scenes from the movie were filmed all through the town.  Everybody is here: navy, army, air force, marines and coast guard. There is seal training, and elite flying training and even - you wouldn't believe it unless you saw it - the dolphin training center which trains dolphins to detect mines and other disturbances in the water.   North County ends where the ginormous Camp Pendleton begins.  Take out your maps – Camp Pendleton has a very substantial chunk of the California coastline.

While your map is out, consider the geography of San Diego.   It feels like it should be further south given it’s at the bottom of California with Mexico literally on the doorstep, but it shares a latitude line (roughly) with Dallas, TX and Savannah, GA.  Going further east you’d pass over Bermuda, and finally hit Africa somewhere around Marrakesh, continuing on to Cairo and Tel Aviv.  If you flipped the planet over, San Diego’s 32 north becomes the 32(ish) south of places like Mendoza, Santiago, Sydney and yes, there it is, explaining it all…Cape Town. 


So now I get it, the reason all those South Africans love it is because it is just like Cape Town.  Except instead of the sometimes third worldly problems of the African outpost, there’s a Starbucks and a Target and a farmers market that moves from neighborhood to neighborhood so you can always find one on any day of the week. 

The glorious green hills just east of the city.  

The beach and cliffs of Torrey Pines

Sunset over Cardiff by the sea

Let's play a quick game of word association:  If San Diego was a car it would be a ….

            Beth – an old, used/loved, jeep – airy and sunny and ready for some outdoor adventure

            Andy – America's best car -  not flashy, but engineered well.  (Is there a car model that encapsulates that?)

3 words: 
            Andy:  outdoorsy,  chilled,  highways

            Beth:  chilled coastal communities

San Diego against our criteria:

1) Is it a college town?          yes, well, sort of - it isn't all about the colleges

2) Does it have liberal politics?       Not really - it is gay friendly and eco-conscious, but kinda conservative 

3) Is it sunny?           Yes, but there is a thing called June Gloom

4) Is it sporty?           Ridiculously so

5) Career prospects?       I think so - biotech  pharma

6) Airport access?     non stop to London on BA - 2 small terminals.

7) Foodie?      yes, and getting more so everyday.

8) Aesthetics?     sea, hills, what more do you need?

9) Easy to make friends?  very easy. we made some new friends easily

Things to do in San Diego

1. Walk the trails and beach at Torrey pines, spotting sharks amongst the surfers in the sea below the cliffs  - check out the nearby Gliderport for extra aerial fun - bring a picnic

   

   Torrey Pines - not just a famous golf course

   

   Watching people glide on the thermals at the Gliderport
2. Rent or bring your bike down to Coronado and cycle the 9 mile paved cycle path on Silver Strand
3. Check out the Del Mar fairgrounds website to see what is happening on any given day – roller derby, wine tastings, circuses, horse shows oh my
4. “Seal Tour” amphibious vehicle tour of the bay 



It would be a strange day if you didn't see the seals and sea lions

5. Swim in san diego state's awesome outdoor pool  



SDSU pools - one for laps and one for just floating around - no kids allowed (Amen)

6. The zoo really is amazing - it was the first to have cageless exhibits and the innovation didn't end there - these folks know how to teach and entertain at the same time



Polar bears in their huge exhibit at the Zoo

7. A day drive to Borrego Springs to see what Palm Springs might have looked like in the 1950s and to check out the awesome metal sculptures littered by the roadsides

Borrego Springs metal sculpture

Where to Eat:  

1. Kitchen 1540 – a nice bistro style joint in the Auberge hotel in Del Mar.  They'll do a tasting menu for you off the cuff if you ask nicely. http://www.laubergedelmar.com/kitchen1540/   

   

   Hamachi with dill sorbet at 1540
2. Flavor – cougar den with a view (tuna crisp with truffle)  http://www.flavordelmar.com/
3. Urbn pizza – northpark  http://urbnnorthpark.com/
4. Any of the Malarkey joints – we liked Burlap the best of the bunch especially for its awesome description "asian cowboy"  http://www.burlapeats.com/
5. Carnitas Snack shack – pork schnitzel on pulled pork  http://carnitassnackshack.com/



I don't think there is a better pork sandwich anywhere

6. Georges at the Cove (downstairs or if you are lucky Tbl3) http://www.georgesatthecove.com/california-modern