Love and Hate in So Cal (aka We're also flying next time)

Mr. Wonderful and I took a 5 day long trip to So Cal to visit my family about a week ago. We said good-bye to my sister, who is headed to Philly for med school, and George, Luke's oldest friend who finished her PhD in social psych and a sweet job at a Community College in the DC area. We also had the incredibly opportunity to see the Dead Sea Scrolls and were treated "Avenue Q". There was some drama over a batch of chili, but all in all it was good times.

However, despite the number of people I know and love in San Diego, there is nothing like driving to said city that reinforces why we'll never move back* like sitting in Southern California traffic. On Thursday it took us 3.5 hours from Glendale to Irvine. On Friday, 3 hours from Irvine to San Diego. It took us a combined total of 6.5 freakin' hours to drive a little over 130 miles. Gas mileage plummeted, stress levels rose, and we got to spend 3 hours asking ourselves why we drove. And on either side of the concrete river: strip malls as far as the eye can see. I never appreciated living in a place where trees aren't all the same height, grass isn't all exactly the same color, and asphalt isn't the dominant material until moving to Santa Cruz.

The real pain in the ass is that driving is still the cheapest way to travel from No Cal to SD. Plane tickets would have run us in the vicinity of at least $150 a piece, plus the cost of leaving the car at the airport. The train is a cheaper option at $90 pp, but we have to drive 3 hours to SLO and then take the 7-8 hour train ride (which I think we actually will try next time).

Either way, glad to be home, even if I am leaving again in a week.







* By "never" I of course mean, "unless someone offers us a butt load of money" and by "us" I mean Luke, because really, the big bucks aren't in history. Shocking, I know.