Jess and I have been in California this week looking for a place to live in July. Unfortunately, since we're not yet married, LLNL's relocation package would not cover expenses for Jess on this trip. So, we decided to drive rather than fly. They'll reimburse my mileage, and it doesn't really cost any more to have her in the car, but it does mean we had to make the 11+ hour drive. The drive actually wasn't nearly as bad as I was anticipating, having Jess with me certainly made it better.

We left Provo at 10:00am on Sunday. We stopped for lunch in Winnemucca, NV. Turns out that Winnemucca is pretty much exactly halfway between Provo and Sunnyvale. We ate at a KFC / Long John Silver's. The guy in line behind us was wearing spurs! The first tank of gas yielded an impressive 39+ mpg! I was happy about that.

We got back on the road and headed toward the CA border. Jess had been looking at the AAA maps in my car from a couple years ago and saw a city labeled "Rochester (Ghost Town)" which was about 10 miles off the highway. We thought it would be fun to detour out to. So we drove out there to find not a Ghost Town, but a fully functioning mining operation. So, apparently, someone found a way to re-open the mine and the AAA map is a lie. Since that didn't work out we're going to try to find a real ghost town to stop at on the way home.

At the California border we had to stop for "Agricultural Inspection" (Yah right, I'm sure they're not actually looking for drugs or anything, they really care if you're bringing in contraband apples). I had to get out and open the trunk to let the inspector take a look. He didn't actually move anything, just sort of looked at the contents and asked if we had any produce, pets, or animals. We did have a head of lettuce in our cooler (for sandwiches! We knew Mike doesn't own any actual food), he didn't seem to care about our lettuce trafficking and told us we could go. I really wonder about the legality of these border checks considering it's a state border crossing and only the Federal Government (supposedly) has the power to regulate interstate commerce. Seems like vehicle inspection should fall into interstate commerce, but whatever.

We got into Sunnyvale around 10:00 pm, so the drive took us pretty much exactly 13 hours which includes stopping for lunch and our detour out to the "ghost town". The second tank of gas got 42+ mpg, I like my car. We dined at In 'N' Out Burger as Jess has never eaten at one before. She was also enamored with the palm trees, and the wind turbines.

Altamont Wind Farm

On Monday we slept in to recover from the trip, then headed up to Livermore. We checked out Portola Park Apartments and Diablo Vista Apartments. We could be alright staying at either location (they both had 100% recommended 4+ stars in all categories on apartmentratings.com). Unfortunately, they won't know if they have any openings for July until the end of May. So we filled out applications for each and turned them in the next day. They said they'll process the applications and put us on a waiting list. The managers at both locations seemed very interested in helping us out once they found out I'd be working at LLNL. They clearly understand that tenants who pass an FBI background check and qualify for a Top Secret Security Clearance are likely to not cause them any trouble.

We also drove out to Mountain House and looked around so Jess could see what the area was like. That's where we are thinking about picking up a cheap foreclosure house. It's a pretty nice area, brand new community.

Unfortunately for us, we managed to arrive in California just in time for a freak heat wave with temperatures in the upper 90's. The average high for April is ~70. So it's been a bit toastier than we were hoping for. The weather is supposed to return to normal tomorrow, when we leave, of course. Mike said that it will probably only be this hot maybe 7 days the entire summer, we managed to catch 4 of them.

On Tuesday we went back up to Livermore and kind of wandered a bit. We drove by a few other locations, and stopped by a real estate company that also runs house rentals. Of course, they don't know about availability in July, but if the apartment complexes don't work out we can look into one of their houses. We checked out a few neighborhoods that they have locations in, so we could at least get an idea of which areas would be acceptable. If worse comes to worse, perhaps we can bribe Mike to take a drive out to Livermore in May and look at some options for us.

It still feels a little weird that we'll actually be moving out here in July, to live, for the indefinite future. We stopped at the Livermore Library which is pretty nice, walked around the downtown "main street" kind of thing they've got going. Stopped in a local furniture store there and talked with the owner for a bit.


Today, we're relaxing mostly. We'll head to the Bay and wander around, probably drive across the Golden Gate Bridge and stop at the park, mostly wind things down before we drive back tomorrow.

One of the vineyards in Livermore

[This Entry]