Here on the West Coast

Greetings from the West Coast! I haven’t been able to post in the past couple days because a) my home internet service was shut off earlier than expected, and b) the traveling and move have been so hectic the past couple days that I couldn’t find time to get on the internet. But finally, here is the long-awaited update of the now mostly completed move. I got quite a few pictures of my house in Texas, which I will post in full later, and snapped a few shots of the new place in California. It’s quite different!

We've traded in Texas flatlands and scrubby forests for redwoods and the Pacific. Wow. We are currently about a mile from the ocean--we can even see it from the house!

This is the trail just behind our old house. Very typical of the climate and flora in central Texas. We lived in the middle of a huge pine forest, slightly arid but beautiful. It was already getting into the triple digits when we left, so we just missed the scorchng summer heat.

This is the view from the place where we are currently staying. You can just see the ocean on the horizon. I can't believe how big it is because I'm so used to being land-locked.

It's also unbelivably cold here--about 65 degrees. It feels like winter! I've gotten quite wimpy about the cold after eleven years in Texas. Breaking out the winter clothes already. I got some pictures of the California terrain on the ride from the airport. The differences are interesting. In our area in Texas, the only topographical variances were low, rolling hills. Here, we are just on the edge of the redwoods forests, a fairly mountainous area, and I loved seeing the mountains on the horizon and the enormous trees, mostly redwoods, pines, and eucalyptus (and the occasional car that snuck into the pictures!).

I really do love the mountains. We also visited a tiny little town nearby called Felton, way up in the mountains. It's a beautiful, beautiful place, and we may end up living there. Unfortunately I didn't bring my camera on that excursion. We also went to the beach very quickly and I snapped a few photos, which I think require a post of their own. Living so close to the water, though, we can go pretty much all the time. More pictures later....