House hunting and hotels

Matthias and I are currently in the Los Angeles area. We arrived Tuesday. We are looking for our new home. It is a strange thing, trying to imagine yourself living in a totally new environment. I find myself asking a lot of questions: "will we be happy here? Will the dog be happy here? Where will I walk the dog? Where will I hang out? Will I be able to connect with anyone here?" It is a rather intimidating decision. I know that we will find a place, eventually. We are in some ways at an advantage, since Matthias doesn't drive back and forth to the airport every day. He only drives back and forth once or twice a month. Therefore, we can live within a 2 1/2 to 3 hour radius of the airport. That means we have a lot more ground to cover than usual.

We drove to Palm Springs when we first arrived on Tuesday. Matthias rented a Toyota Prius, because we are thinking we might sell our truck and buy one. It is a pretty cool car, and easy to drive. It has been getting about 46 miles to the gallon. Impressive! The reason we went to Palm Springs is that might be the most AFFORDABLE area right now. There are quite a few things I really love about the Palm Springs area. It does get extremely hot there. This time of year, however, it is gorgeous. The light reminds me of Hawaii, and guess what - we got a hotel room in this wonderful hotel called Caliente Tropics. It is all decorated Hawaiian style, and I have to say, it was one of the cutest, most original hotel rooms I've seen in a long time. I've got photos of the room, and it was simple, but clean. The thing that really got me was that painting over the bed. What a nice painting - and this is HOTEL ART!!!!! Whoa!!! I could see the painting while I sat in bed in a mirror that hung across from it. I enjoyed it immensely. Of course you must realize that part of my love of this hotel is due to my partiality to anything Hawaiian. But STILL. It was really fun!

I found the contrast of desert and palm trees really interesting, and perhaps a bit jarring! The thing is, there were some pretty nice houses that we could actually afford, and that is comforting. I wasn't sure if that would happen, since California is notoriously expensive. We have already looked at a bunch of different areas, including La Quinta and Idyllwild. Idyllwild is up in the mountains, reminds me of Evergreen, and it was COLD. I have to admit, I don't think I want to be in the cold anymore. I mean, we've DONE the mountain thing already. The dog would love it there, but he can't be the only reason we buy into a certain area. The rest of us have to like it, too. It had just snowed the day before we got to Idyllwild, and you can still see a bit of it under the awning of the cafe where we ate lunch.

We are now in a Hotel 6 near the airport (LAX) because Matthias is leaving on a 3 day trip to Anchorage at 2 am. I will be driving him to the airport, and then coming back for a few more hours of shut eye. I am planning on checking out the Oxnard, Hueneme Beach area while he is on his trip. He will be back on Sunday, and then we will continue our exploring after that. We head back to Colorado on Tuesday.