travels with toby

I said I’d never go back. You know that old adage: never say never.

We’ve been on the road to “where shall we retire?” for so long. We have literally been around the world looking for that perfect place for the next chapter in our lives.

For many years we were considering retiring to southern Spain and our plan was to leave for Spain no later than 2020. And we all know what happened that year. Like everyone else in the world, our plans changed and we eventually decided to not move to Málaga, Spain. I’m somewhat disappointed that I won’t be retiring there but also a bit relieved. It was going to be a lot of work, I’d be so far away from my daughter and we’d be starting all over where we didn’t know anyone. And so many other reasons, too many to mention. Plus the language barrier for the husband. I speak Spanish, he can get by. It maybe could have worked?

But, we’re older now and we still want to be somewhere warm. Last summer we started chatting with our long-time friends about retiring together. I wondered if we could buy a property together after we both sell our houses and I began looking for multi-family properties in California so we’d each have our own house. I found so many around the Sacramento area. I researched and really got into Sacramento. I think it would have been a great place to retire. But that is not happening. Our friends are not retired yet and they live in Los Angeles where I grew up. Since we’re ready to leave winter behind we’ve decided to move back to Los Angeles to be near our friends and to be warm. Maybe some day we could all move to Sacramento? 🤔

We visited Los Angeles in February to see how we felt about living there again and we had a fabulous time. I have to confess that when the plane landed at LAX….well, there were tears. Happy tears. It feels like home to me. It’s all familiar. I know all those streets and freeways. And it was so beautiful!! They had had a lot of rain which produced luscious greenness in the hills. I grew up there and I don’t recall ever seeing any hills so green! They don’t stay that way all year so it was lovely to see that. I’d share a photo but it doesn’t do it justice, but I did take photos of the green, green hills.

I have loved Minnesota, it truly is a beautiful state. We built a life here, owned two houses and raised our daughter here. I have so many great memories to take with me. But winter is harsh and it’s especially harsh on those of us with arthritis. Mine began around the time I started dreaming about retiring to Málaga after our trip there in 2011. I knew my body was going to need a warmer climate.

And so, we’re moving back to where I grew up where everything is familiar, most everything because you can’t really go home again, can you? Many things are the same but many have changed too.

I never got around to blogging about our trip to California in February. Maybe once we get settled I will get back to it. I especially want to post about the Huntington Library and Gardens as that was one thing I really wanted to do and we went and it was fun! Instead here are a few galleries of some of the highlights from the trip to get me in the mood for Los Angeles.

Of course there was a music jam and they all had fun playing some tunes together in our friends’ guest house. Here’s a photo of the jam, sitting outside and of course a selfie of all of us.

Next is a collection of photos including The Original Pantry downtown that used to be open 24 hours but the pandemic changed that I guess as they are no longer open 24 hours. There are other photos of dinners, one in particular was so good! Our friend made these delicious ribs and I think it was my favorite meal that week. You can see “happy valley” in the background of the last photo. They have a fabulous view of the valley!

Just us two girls visited the Norton Simon museum. It’s probably been over 30 years since I was there. It’s a lovely museum with a nice sculpture garden. It’s the museum you see during the Rose Parade every New Year’s day. I might do a separate post for this museum but likely after we move. But please enjoy a few photos in the mean time.

Here are just a handful of photos from our day at the Huntington Library and Gardens.

Finally, a collection of sunsets from our friends’ house except for the first photo. I took that one on the flyaway bus from the airport to the valley. Sunset with plane!

California here I come, right back where I started from. Okay, that’s not exactly correct because I started life in the Chicago area. We moved to Los Angeles when I was 9 so my formative years were spent there. I graduated from Cal State Northridge and got married there so it will be a sort of homecoming for me and I’m starting to get excited!