One Day Until the Adventure Begins!

The final countdown has started until Cameron and I begin the long haul to the West Coast. We're officially leaving Tuesday morning with a 16' rental truck, a Mini Cooper, two additional friends of Cameron's, and a 75lb Australian Shepherd, who's making the journey in the backseat of the Mini (don't worry, there will be pictures of that, I can assure you). The boys are much more excited than I driving across country (I'm not a fan of long hours in the car. I think I filled my quota traveling to see family when I was younger). However, I'm sure the excitement of moving will overcome the dread of long hours on the road.

The plan is to take about five days to reach Los Angeles. Hopefully, there won't be any unexpected delays on the road like a tornado in Kansas, which is a legitimate fear of mine from all the stories I've heard about the Panhandle. We're hoping to make it Memphis, TN by the first night; it's about 700 miles from where we're leaving in NC, and it'll be a chance for Cameron to see some of his good friends. Cameron has a small pit stop at the Grand Canyon once we hit Arizona, so I'm sure it'll be a great opportunity to stretch our legs and enjoy an afternoon. I've been there once before several years ago, so I'm trying to remember the cool parts to visit on a truncated time table.

The rental truck was loaded up on Saturday so Cameron could spend a few days with his family at the beach. In the wee hours of Friday morning, I became convinced that I was bringing entirely too much stuff and spent several hours repacking and sorting my things into three piles: definitely take, would like to take, and I can send for it later. My parents helped us load the truck (they've had lots of experience with this type of thing moving me out of college apartments and the like). I'm happy to report that we were able to fit everything with some creative organization into the 16' truck. Now, it's just a matter of whether or not the apartment has space for all our things.

Now, that leads me to the apartment we've got set up in Los Angeles. Trying to find an apartment in a different city can be a hassle. But that takes on a whole new meaning when trying to find an apartment 2500 miles away. We spent about two months searching almost everyday for a place to call home. We both knew that it would be a challenge because of the doggie. But good grief. Los Angeles is really the land of the chihuahua. We would find apartments that claimed they were pet friendly...for 25lbs or less. There were places that would say pet friendly, but only took dogs less than 10lbs! My family's dog is a regular sized dachshund; he's by no means overweight and still weighs about 20lbs. That makes me wonder exactly how small those 10lbs or less dogs are! So when our apartment building said they took large dogs, we jumped at the chance and got it!

Another challenge for us was finding a place that was moderately close for me to commute to UCLA. The neighborhood UCLA is in is called Westwood and definitely on the pricier side of LA neighborhoods. We looked at neighborhoods close to Westwood like Mar Vista, Palms, and West Hollywood (which is called WeHo), but for our budget and with a big dog, it just wasn't looking promising. For a while, we expanded our search to the Valley (San Fernando Valley) looking in neighborhoods like Van Nuys, Encino, and even as far north as Northridge, but still no luck. Our apartment is technically in Hollywood and about 10 miles from campus. While that doesn't sound like a lot of mileage, in LA driving it's going to take planning on my part to make sure I don't get stuck in heavy traffic. When we went to LA back in March for me to visit UCLA, we stayed in Hollywood about 9.5 miles from campus. Google maps said it would take about 45 minutes to get to campus. Try an hour and fifteen minutes. Granted, it was a Friday and in the middle of morning rush hour traffic, but that is not a commute I want to have everyday. We planned our move to the West Coast with almost a week to spare before my courses begin in August so I can have a few mornings to figure out when is the optimum time to leave and get to campus in time for class/work.

Over the past few months, Cameron and I have been getting really excited about all the things we can experience in LA. Not going to lie, I love Disneyland and wouldn't mind getting a season pass, but Cameron doesn't quite share my enthusiasm. However, we both have ever expanding lists of restaurants and food trucks to try, shows and artists we would like to see, and several trips we'd like to take-- San Diego will probably be the first one over a long weekend so Cameron can see a Chargers' game and we can go to the San Diego Zoo.

Now that the move is actually here, it feels rather surreal. There will be more posts in the days to come about the drive out west and once we get settled in Los Angeles. Stay tuned!