Welcome to California!

We finally made it to California! What a crazy week it has been. You never realize how much random junk you have until you only have room for the essentials in your car. We spent a few weeks trying to sell things and luckily we were able to get rid of a majority of it. After that we had a big goodwill trip to make and dropped some things off with family members and we were good to go!

I had a change jar that I have had for a few years and we finally decided to cash in with it at the bank. We estimated there was about $35 in there but luckily we were way off. There ended up being over $90! Definitely a nice surprise.

We left on Saturday afternoon after getting our oil changed (you can never be too prepared!!) and got into Reno around midnight. I think I learned my lesson about finding one of the cheapest hotels in town. Don't think we will be doing that again. Definitely worth it to pay a couple extra dollars.

Sunday morning we left Reno and it was such a fun day. It was so fun to pass through Tahoe National Forest and then see the first signs of spring once we got out of the mountains. After a long, cold winter I felt like I could almost cry seeing the green grass and gorgeous white and purple and pink blossoms on the trees.

This entire week has been spent apartment hunting. We wake up in the morning and make our list and then went out for the majority of the day. We were super lucky to be able to stay with my sister in law's family. They were so nice to let us stay with them and we were forever be grateful. I think the highlight of our stay was picking a piece of fruit from their orange and lemon tree. This lemon I picked was outrageous. It was right next to a regular sized lemon on the lemon tree but has just grown to an astronomical size. Anyone want some lemonade??

While apartment hunting we had so many funny experiences with property managers. It seems like people will say just about anything to get you to live there. One lady tried to convince us that every other town in the bay area was the ghetto except the part of town where this particular apartment was. She also said that every other apartment probably had bed bugs except for the one that she was showing. It was pretty comical. Another apartment we looked at was great but we wondered if the part of town was safe and the property manager said that it was fine. If we ever felt unsafe or uncomfortable we always have 911! I wanted to bust out laughing. No kidding.

After a busy week I am so relieved that we found and were approved for an apartment! It is in a cute little neighborhood with a big park. Tim and I are going to have to get our tennis rackets out! The best part is that it just underwent a complete remodel and so everything is completely brand new. More on that later!

We are so excited to be in the bay area! This is definitely going to be the start of a new adventure for us and we can't wait to see what is in store for us here.