Adios, Palo Alto, and Here We Come, Half Moon Bay!

Adios, Palo Alto and Here We Come, Half Moon Bay!

Our old house, new house on the coast, work, and Foothill

Two years ago our annual letter was called “Blur Blog,” but 2018 seemed even more fast-paced than then. The year started out as usual, but in July after many months (and years) of thinking about moving and looking for new homes, we put a deposit on a yet-to-be-built house in a 19-house development called Pacific Ridge in Half Moon Bay, CA on the California coast, a 20-minute drive to San Mateo.

Our new 2-story home in Half Moon Bay

We then sauntered through our usual vacation at the Family Vacation Center in Santa Barbara which had one dramatic twist: a wildfire aptly named the Holiday fire in Goleta that burned 113 acres and had us wondering if we had to evacuate (we didn’t). Santa Barbara was followed by a ramble through Rome, Venice, and Verona, Italy where we got to catch up with my sister’s family.

At the top of the leaning tower of Pisa

Then August was the month of reckoning. Could we get our house of 20 years at 666 Wildwood ready for sale? We interviewed real estate agents, scoured online reviews of contractors, and researched storage options. Our Palo Alto house was legally renamed 668 (better sounding than 666), emptied out, painted, had electric work done, and the roof re-coated. By mid-October, our “midcentury modern charm in Palo Alto” which was “lovingly maintained and thoughtfully upgraded” hit the market during a stock market tumble and real estate slump.

The real estate agent sells our Palo Alto home

Bad news: we really didn’t get the price we had hoped for. Good news: we got an offer in less than a week. So we can’t complain that we have a hefty capital gains tax to pay. While fixing up the house, we led something of a nomadic life, gratefully housesitting for neighbors and then enjoying the guesthouse at Mountain View Community Cohousing. Our house sale closed on Nov. 19, but our new house in Half Moon Bay wasn't ready until December, so we stayed in an apt in Santa Clara for a month.

On an auspicious rainy day in December, we moved to our dream home by the beach. We love the fresh ocean air and spectacular sunsets. We even like the foggy, drizzly weather though Josh whines about the croaking frogs at night.

5-minute drive or 15-minute walk to the beach

I’m still an information development manager at Oracle, mostly working from home with a weekly jaunt to Redwood City HQ. Peter’s cooking up gourmet dinners in his new chef’s kitchen, and Joshua is completing his junior year of high school by taking classes at Foothill College and has a straight A average.

Still mostly living in Guadalajara, MX, Vanessa launched a new business called Glolocal exchange program that brings non-Spanish speakers to Mexico to learn Spanish and Mexican culture through living with a host family. She continues to do business development for Gobox, which makes multi-use takeout containers and for a Mexican apps development company. I got to be her guinea pig (pre-pilot) Spanish language student in June.

On the tourist bus

Cyndi as wrestler

Other news of note, I have a Wikipedia page and a new website thanks to her. Go take a peek. Sorry, no news on the writing front; I took some time off from writing in order to manage the move.

Much love,

Cyndi, Peter, and Joshua

Learning Espanol