dstark

SF is a fantastic city.

If I was in the area, I would visit the Marin Headlands. Just north of SF and the Golden Gate Bridge, the views are spectacular.

Very few places have views with the combination of some of the best that nature has to offer and some of the best man-made structures ever built. The Pacific Ocean, Mt. Tam, Downtown SF, Alcatraz, the SF Bay, and the towers of the Golden Gate Bridge (right in your face).

The photo from this link shows how crowded this area can get.

Marin Headlands - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

The rest of Marin isn't too bad either. There is a reason Marin County is an expensive place to live. Stinson Beach, Point Reyes, Tomales Bay, the Tiburon bike path, Muir Woods (redwoods to the sky), Mt. Tam, Phoenix Lake, and Lake Lagunitas.

The traffic isn't always the best. The people of Marin don't believe in building roads, or development (that's a good thing).

Very few lines. Maybe at the Department of Motor Vehicles.

somemom

Hey WashDad, me too- used to take the bus to Huntington-state side, of course.

I lived the first 40+ years of my life in CA; I don't remember being worried by earthquakes- though I do recall being awakened by the '71 Sylmar quake. As an adult, I can think back to earhtquakes where we ran to see the water sloshing out of the pool and watching, hoping it would not crack!

I also remember the fire season followed by the "rainy season" followed by the mudslide season- that was more scary than earhtquakes. We have loaded our cars in fire season both in NorCal and SoCal and even had a huge forest fire burn through our neighborhood- we were lucky, but neighbors lost homes and possessions.

Growing up in SoCal (I think of it that way now) was nice, orange groves, bus to the beach with friends, work at Disneyland, etc., but as an adult I headed north and discovered I like four seasons. And I learned that speed limit signs actually mean the maximum NOT the minimum as we do in SoCal.

In NorCal I learned that four season can be fun, and small towns with less traffic are more my thing. Having also lived in Canada, I can see the amazing scenery all over the west- from Utah's red mesas, to all of CA to the amazing sights in British Columbia. One good thing about BC/WA, no poison oak/ivy that i have seen

I had an opportunity to work in Newport Beach for about 6 months a year or two ago and it was really interesting to note that whilst i enjoyed it all, I had no interest in going back. With lots of family all over the state, visiting is good for me

ucsd_ucla_dad

Anyone is supposed to be able to walk there and have access however, there's been some controversy when some of the residents try to illegally block access. The public wins against the billionaires in court on this subject though...

Group's 'safaris' take public on little-known routes to access Malibu's beaches : Local News : Ventura County Star

Native Intelligence: Guide to Malibu's hidden beaches

Schmoomcgoo

If you are planning to head toward LA, get off the 101 at Flynn Rd. in Camarillo and head West to Pacific Coast Highway (US 1), then drive south. I'm not sure how many miles down--10?--you'll see Pepperdine's campus across a bright green rolling hill and backed by mountains on your left. Check out the view from that campus! I don't know how anyone gets anything done there!

I too love California. My daughter was born there and will be attending college on the California coast next year.

poetsheart

Man, now you guys have got me so jealous! I've wanted to visit California (especially northern Cal) for most of my adult life. I want to see the rocky coast, the Redwood forests, and wine country. IwantIwantIwantIwant to---and I want it now!

musicamusica

Im a plein aire painter living in the foothills of the San Gabriels. I am a short
1/2 hour metro-rail ride from downtown (Opera, La Phil, MOCA, etc etc) and
I am just a 5 minute walk to the mountain and seemingly endless parkland.
I painted yesterday in my little front yard and was approached by three shy deer.Tomorrow Im headed to Malibu to paint the surf. Whoever thinks SoCal is nothing but endless sprawl, never got off the freeway.

momof2inca

I love California today! Woke up, went for a swim as the sun came up with clear blue skies and a warm breeze. It's now about 78 degrees with a slight east wind off the desert. D has her prom tonight and she will not need a coat or even a shawl.

mkm56

My daughter has just hit us with "I'm going to start looking for jobs in SoCal". We are east coast and the thought of her living so far away makes me terribly sad. She has visited a couple times in the last few months and seems to like it. My only times in CA have been in the LA area and all I can seem to remember is the relentless traffic and mobs of people. Not sure how a single girl with some kind of entry level job is going to be able to survive with the cost of living there.

WashDad

Leaping from tree to tree, as they float down the mighty rivers of British Columbia. The Giant Redwood. The Larch. The Fir! The mighty Scots Pine! The lofty flowering Cherry! The plucky little Apsen! The limping Roo tree of Nigeria. The towering Wattle of Aldershot! The Maidenhead Weeping Water Plant! The naughty Leicestershire Flashing Oak! The flatulent Elm of West Ruislip! The Quercus Maximus Bamber Gascoigni! The Epigillus! The Barter Hughius Greenus!

With my best buddy by my side, we'd sing! Sing! Sing!

ellemenope

If you come to live in SoCal, you'll have to learn how to talk in numbers. When you tell someone how to get somewhere, you'll invariably say something like: "You take the 5 to the 805 to the 8; then take the 163 and get off at the Park Blvd exit."

edvest1

DStark, you are right on about the Marine Headlands. On a warm windless day we used to packed deli sands and picnic with a spectacular view. Life was good. Sigh...now we are living in snow belt of the northeast, Ivy tuition out of our bank balance each month. oh I am not complaining where we are now but I remember the past with a smile.

dstark

edvest1, I'm glad to see that you were able to enjoy the Headlands.

I don't go there enough.

MomZ

Growing up in Santa Barbara it is easy to take it for granted. Reading these posts remind me how lucky I am. My husband also grew up here and we settled within walking distance from our parents. Raised our kids in the house we still live in. D #! wanted to experience the East Coast. So after trying out UCB ended up at UMD College park. After graduating the jobs were back east. She is in the Washington DC area and says now she realizes how great it was here and hopes to be able to return some day. Don't know if it will happen as she met someone at school from Baltimore they will be married here in Santa Barbara in June but will live in the Washington DC area.

coureur

>>In NorCal I learned that four season can be fun, and small towns with less traffic are more my thing<<

Yeah, I experienced plenty of "four seasons" before I moved to SoCal. As I recall four seasons was a concept that usually wound up involving jumper cables.

undecided

I went to high school in SoCal, and I got my first taste of the NorCal/SoCal rivalry when I did a weekend environmental conservation retreat in Tahoe freshman year. It was my first solid experience with regional dialect ("hella," anyone?) and regional hostility.

My mother grew up in Marin County and I remember many lovely summer vacations -- we lived in Texas during my K-5 -- to visit my grandparents in San Rafael (and take horseback riding lessons in the hills by Novato, hike in Muir Woods and drive along the coast by my dad's old home in Point Reyes).

I go to Cal now, and am glad to be back in the Bay Area. I've been a few places, certainly not as many as I intend to visit, and I find it hard to believe I'd ever be comfortable living so far away from the redwoods and the bright, beautiful green hills.

My time in SoCal taught me to speak in numbers (it's so true, ellemenope, and your description made me laugh), measure travel in hours (it never took me less than a 15 minute drive to get anywhere, and often included 1+ hours since I lived in the mountains), read billboards in Spanish, and plan snowboarding weekends around trips to the beach.

My absolute favorite part of California is being in reach of everything you want to be, as long as you're willing to deal with travel. It's perfectly fine (and sometimes fairly common, depending on which metro you're near) to commute from the suburbs to the city for work, and with the high cost of living in the cities themselves I don't expect this to change anytime soon. I just hope public transportation catches up soon. BART is the only workable public transit option I've found -- the buses are horrible in the Inland Empire and Bay Area alike.