greggoconnell.com blog

I arrived in San Diego on November 21, 2004 after a 6 day car trip across the United States of America. The first thing I encountered in California was the sand dunes and people riding their 4-wheelers on them. I quickly encountered driving in between, up and down these huge mountains, well huge for me because Massachusetts is basically pretty flat with very little mountain area. I was so freaking scared of these mountains and they seemed to go on forever I was so happy once we got past them. When we finally got to our final destination The Vagabond Inn in Hotel Circle it was raining and kind of cold. I was surprised because everything I heard about San Diego was that it never rains and its always warm. We lived in the Vagabond Inn for 4 days with me, Dave, Erica & the 2 dogs in a 2 bed room. We found the apartment we live in now in the newspaper and it was one of the only places that allowed dogs, near the beach and relatively cheap.

Pros of San Diego:
*Consistent weather with very little rain (it didn't rain once from like February 2005-October 2005)
*Areas near the beach are very pretty with cliffs, greenage & awesome beaches
*Tons of family activities to do (i.e. Sea World, San Diego Zoo, Padres, Chargers)
*The girls per capita here are the prettiest I've ever seen. (it's hard to go somewhere and not see pretty girls)
*2 hours from anything (the beach, the mountains, desert, snow, etc...)
*Everyone here is from somewhere else (I've met more people that weren't born here compared to being born here - its cool you get different accents and traditions)

Cons of San Diego:
*Anything not close to the beach is burnt/desert looking and extremely hot!
*Houses/Apartments are small and no one has a backyard and if they do its tiny!
*People here per capita are the flakiest I've ever met.
*Anyone where you go its always packed and busy. (you can go to Target on a Monday at 2pm and the parking lot is filled!)
*It doesn't rain enough and the weather is consistent. (for me its a double edged sword)
*You need to take a written test to change your drivers license over to California. (this is such bullshit)
*California taxes everything including clothes and at the incredibly high rate of 7.75%!!!

There are a lot of pros and cons to living in San Diego just like any other place. My one year here has been great and bad. It's been fun and boring, I've longed for Massachusetts and been glad I'm far away. I've met some really cool people like Lissa (Panamasian Princess), Michelle (Complicated Lahhover), Brandon (Big Texas), Bill (Pittsburgh Sucks), Kim (Folk Girrrl), Stephanie (God's Girl), Joy (PinkbeltRAGE)...

If you'd like to watch our photo slide show with music for our trip across the country, you can download it here (it's an exe file so after it downloads just open it and it'll automatically play)

Thanks to everyone who has been super cool and interesting in San Diego!

Gregg

P.S. Happy 30th Birthday to Darlisha!