Living in California

My husband Anthony and I moved to California, USA just over a year ago from London, UK.  We now live in Southern California in a town called Oceanside near the beach, it’s just south of camp Pendleton and is known as a Marine town.  We love new adventures and we have been on many since we have been here and always find new and exciting area’s of California.  What I love most about California is the nature reserves and deserts and for each of these there are fun things to do and specific vegetation only found in these areas.  Let me elaborate.  Just up the road there is a desert called Borrego springs.  Here they have a plant which is indigenous to the area called the Octillo which is a cactus type plant that covers the desert land and when it blossoms looks like a bush of flames, it truly is a remarkable sight (see pic below).  This desert just goes on and on and is a haven for off road fanatics.  If you don’t have a sand buggy there are many places where you can hire them for the day and the trails will definitely keep the dare devils of the family entertained for hours on end.  On the other hand this same area offers hot springs for the ladies of the house or the rest of the family looking to spend their day relaxing.  Alternatively there are always well organised hikes for all levels.

Travel a little further north in Californiaand visit SequoiaPark

This is seriously like a scene from the movie Avatar, it will absolutely blow your mind the trees are sooo big you will feel like you have been shrunk and thrown into the movie honey I shrunk the kids.  From the moment I got to the time we left my jaw dropped at every next turn.  Apart from the trees being goliath looking, the views along their hiking paths were absolutely breathtaking.  The peace and tranquillity found here is like nothing on earth. It felt to me like a place of great wisdom and energy, when you come across a tree called General Sherman it gives a little depth as to how great these trees really are. General Sherman one of the Giant Sequoia (Sequoiadendron giganteum) has a height of 83.8 metres (275 ft). As of 2002, the volume of its trunk measured about 1,487 cubic metres (52,513 cu ft), making it the largest known non-clonal treeby volume.. The tree is believed to be between 2,300 and 2,700 years old.

Another little Gem we found on the way down to Southern Californiawas a place called Idlewild.

This little village is filled with log cabins, jazz bistro’s, glorious hikes and little blue birds called scrub jays.  It’s a great place to go for a romantic getaway.

Every time we go exploring we find a new place that chisels it’s way into our hearts and at the end of the day once we return to our new home we sit on the water’s edge and watch the sunset over the great Pacific and marvel over the wonder of it all.