Goodbye San Diego

As our time in San Diego is coming to an end I'm experiencing so many more emotions that I ever thought I would. Moving home to Colorado is exactly what J and I have been dreaming of for the last few years and is our dream come true. But I would be lying if I said the process was easy. 

San Diego (or more vaguely back then, Southern California) was where I dreamt of being as a young, naive, 18 year-old and it was a dream come true 6 years ago. I was headed to the west coast on my own to start something for myself. San Diego has been my home for so many years and I hold so many incredible memories from this place. So much so, that it's almost hard to let it go. 

Life has taken me on quite the journey since my beach-dreaming days. Living here by myself for a year, developing a strong relationship and eventual marriage with J here, hosting so many visitors, accomplishing so many of my goals and basically growing up here. It's so strange to think that I've spent my entire adulthood here.... and now I'm leaving. 

These past few weeks have come with so much excitement about the move and the new adventures in store for us but they've also come with too many "lasts", our last time at the beach, last time downtown, last time having dinner with our best friends here, that it's made me pretty reflective over the time I've spent in California. I cherish these years, the memories and the friends they've given me and will always have a special place in my heart for San Diego because its where.....

 I dreamt of going to college // J would visit when I was away // visitors from home came to see us // I made new friends in the dorms // my relationship with J grew leaps and bounds // we tried lots of new things

 we celebrated accomplishments // grew our family with Ollie // graduated from SDSU // went on weekend get-aways // had celebrations with more friends from home // owned our first house

celebrated 6 years worth of birthdays // went on constant adventures together // hosted our first Thanksgiving // decorated for Christmas // watched Ollie grow up // grew up ourselves

Its gets a little easier when I realize that San Diego will always be a short plane ride away whenever we need a beach fix and it will someday be a place we bring our future-family to so we can share all these memories with them. Moving away doesn't mean we can't ever come back, even just for a visit, but I still might shed a tear or two hundred as we drive away in 10 short days.

See Ya Later, San Diego II

San Diego had some amazing weather this past weekend so J and I made sure to take full advantage of it by spending the day on Coronado Island and crossing something off our See Ya Later, San Diego List.

It was the perfect day.

80 degree weather meant shorts and a tank for this lady and I soaked in the sun while holding my husbands hand for the whole afternoon. We walked past all the amazing restaurants and drooled at people's breakfast scrambles and plates of fresh fruit. I looked into shop windows at pretty dresses and ridiculous shoes. We wandered through Hotel Del and tried not too seem too much like tourists. 

We visited the bay side of the island for the first time and looked across the water to downtown San Diego and the sail boats floating in the breeze. J almost convinced us to splurge on some ridiculous peanut butter fudge and caramel apples but we dined at Nicky Rottens for lunch instead. We headed home with sore feet, tired legs, fully bellies and happy hearts.

I apologize for the picture quality. I didn't realize until we'd been walking around for a while that my DSLR camera battery was dead so I had to use my phone instead. That might be enough of an excuse for us to go back sometime soon.

To view the whole list and other adventures so far, click here!

See Ya Later, San Diego I

Literally the first thing that came to mind when thinking of items for our See Ya Later, San Diego list was taking our sweet Ollie boy to the beach. He just loves it there. Off-leash, splashing through the waves, digging for rocks, becoming a sandy, slobbery wet mess. We're super excited to be able to take him to lakes once we move home but there's just no substituting the ocean now is there? So to start our list off right, we ventured to the beach yesterday morning. 

Thing #1 I'll miss about San Diego: sun, sand, waves and sea breeze in February!

He was absolutely pooped for the rest of the day and I am so glad he got to go! Hopefully we'll make many more trips to the beach with or without the pup in-tow before the move. Also, I am seriously LOVING my Nikon D5100 that J got me for Christmas! This is the first time I've used it with my 55-200mm zoom lens and I'm in love with it.

See Ya Later, San Diego

For the last 6 years I've called San Diego my home. I've lived here, gone to school here, made many friends here, grew my relationship with J here and basically became an adult here. The experiences I've gained while living 1000+ miles from my family and the place where I grew up are some that have made me into the person I am today and I will forever be grateful for them.

But this time is coming to a close. We have been hoping to move back to Colorado for many years to be closer to our amazing friends and wonderful family. And well, that dream has finally come true. And while I am ecstatic that we can now move home there is still a part of me that will be sad to leave the "home" I've had for so long.

We aren't sure exactly when this move will happen because a lot of it is dependent on things we can't control (ie new job, housing market, etc etc) but we know that it will be sometime before the end of June. So we've created our "See Ya Later, San Diego" List of things we need to do before the move. Things that we either can't do in CO (hello Ocean!), things that are exclusive to San Diego (greasy, authentic Mexican food) or things that mean a lot to us because of the memories we have from living here. Yes, most of them involve food. Oops. And I'm sure there will be additions to the list as the time goes on.

I'm going to try and document these things as we cross them off our list. But don't worry, I wont bore you with tons of pictures of my In-n-Out cheeseburgers because I'm sure those will be many. Also, if you live in/near San Diego and think we're missing something, tell me and we'll add it on!