When I started this blog many years ago it was to chronicle my travel adventures near and far, and for the most part that’s what it is. The subject of this post, however, is far and away my most ambitious “next big adventure.” Empty nesters for the past year, my husband and I have just uprooted from our beloved home of 23 years in Walnut Creek, CA, a suburb of San Francisco.
We didn’t migrate to Texas, Idaho, or one of the many other (relatively) low cost states that have been all the rage for Californians of late, but rather to Los Angeles, where we’re renting a home smack in the middle of the city and paying the highest gas prices in the country. (To be fair, the Bay Area isn’t too far behind!)
The Quest for New Adventures
My husband and I love to travel and are constantly seeking new adventures. So in the years leading up to our younger daughter starting college we began plotting a change that would allow us to experience someplace new – an extended vacation of sorts but more permanent.
We’d had many ideas swirling about over the years, but the crux of our decision rested on whether to sell or rent our home, with the caveat that we still need to bring in decent paychecks until we turn 59-1/2.
Our discussions around this topic really heated up during the pandemic while we were both working from home. With more time together for long walks around the neighborhood, our conversation almost always gravitated toward the big question, “What next?”
Change is Good for You
I’ve always been a believer in the importance of challenging yourself and venturing outside your comfort zone. There’s even some science to back up the value of change.
A study done by the University of Chicago economist, Steven Levitt, showed that when faced with making big life decisions like we were, choosing “change” ultimately makes people more satisfied than sticking with the status quo.
Nonetheless, switching jobs, renting our house, and moving 360 miles away all in the span of about six weeks felt like jumping off Half Dome. The shock of ultimately making this leap – when choosing to do nothing would have been a lot easier – was blunted only by the fact that we didn’t sell our house. Renting it means leaving doesn’t have to be forever if we don’t want it to be. But this move at least nudged us away from inertia. It was a good first step.
Change is Also Hard
People have asked me countless times what I’ll miss most about our home in the Bay Area. To be truthful, there’s so much I will miss that I sometimes ponder why we left.
I could not have asked for a better neighborhood. From the dear friends I’ve made and always want in my life, to the top-rated schools and proximity to awesome hiking, a vibrant downtown, and convenient public transportation, it was the perfect place to raise our family. The reason we rented instead of selling our house was so we can return if and when we want, and I am grateful to have this option.
Embracing Novel Experiences
But now that we’re setting up camp in the City of Angels, we need to look ahead, not back. And that’s why when we first started searching for places to live here, we took a lot of time to consider what situations would increase our chances of enjoying this next chapter in our lives and what situations would make us flat out miserable.
Let’s face it, there’s a lot about Los Angeles that isn’t particularly likable. (Can you say car traffic, smog, and now a seriously dire homeless situation?) There’s also so much to love about this sunny, sprawling, chaotic, and wonderfully diverse city. It was important to make sure the parts to love would outweigh the less-desirable parts.
For us that means more time at the beach, more diverse and eclectic dining options, more cultural outings, and of course, a whole new set of So Cal weekend adventures, like Santa Barbara, Joshua Tree, and Catalina Island, to name just a few.
As empty nesters, we also have different needs. For example, being in a good school district isn’t a consideration anymore.
So, we focused our wish list on experiences we felt we had been missing out on during all those years raising our family – like being in a city and being able to walk everywhere. Our old house, despite its many wonderful qualities, was ultimately in the ‘burbs. To go shopping, out to eat, or just about anywhere, we had to hop in the car. It wasn’t far, but we still had to drive.
Now you may be shaking your head wondering how LA, of all cities, was going to make up for the part about walkability. Indeed, my realtor down here had her work cut out for her when we expressed our desire to live in a relatively quiet residential neighborhood that was in walking distance of shops and restaurants AND on a bus or subway line to downtown! (LA has a surprisingly robust transit network, but I’ll save that for another post.)
One of LA’s Most Walkable Neighborhoods
In the end, we settled on an area called Hancock Park, which is close to Beverly Hills and in between our respective offices in Century City and Downtown LA. We live on the bottom level of a lovely Spanish-style house on a broad, tree-lined street that bursts with jacaranda and star jasmine in the spring.
It’s almost as big as our home in Walnut Creek so we have plenty of space for our girls when they are with us, and we don’t have to pay for a storage unit since most of our furniture fits nicely in our new home. I love the small (read “manageable”) backyard and patio areas, and it’s a great neighborhood for walking our dog.
Ralphs, Trader Joes, CVS, and countless shops and eateries are just a stone’s throw away, which means we don’t have to drive to the supermarket and load up on groceries anymore. We can just walk around the corner to pick up food whenever we need to.
There are several small gyms I can walk to, and one of LA’s oldest revival movie houses owned by Quentin Tarantino is just a few blocks away. How cool is that?
Further afield but still walkable is The Original Farmers Market, one of LA’s most beloved destinations for tourists and locals alike. Adjacent to that is The Grove with its more contemporary, upscale retail offerings and beautiful AMC movie theater where stars sometimes show up.
The Los Angeles County Museum of Art is 1.2 miles away, and a five-minute rideshare will drop us in front of the new Academy Museum of Motion Pictures.
The point is, by finding a killer spot that checks most of the boxes on our wish list, we’re hopefully setting ourselves up for success in this next big adventure of ours. We’re in LA for at least a year, and if in the end it turns out not to be the place for us, I want to at least be able to say we made the most of our time here. From dinners in Koreatown and concerts at the Hollywood Bowl, to hikes in Malibu and weekends at the beach, I intend to fully embrace this next big adventure of ours.
