Our First Few Days in San Diego

After being up all night, we were exhausted and starving. Pancakes, breakfast burritos and a California burrito (for John because he had been dying to have an authentic one for the entire time we were on Oahu!) with extra coffee hit the spot. Then we saw the RV dealer across the street... and decided to see if they had what we were looking for. Our plan was to buy a used RV and car to tow then drive cross country to North Carolina. We agreed we would NOT buy anything after not sleeping all night. They had two Class A motorhomes that were both prior rental units. I liked the one with bunk beds but John vetoed it because it was too expensive and the finishes were cheap looking. 

We then checked into the Best Western in Poway. John was still sick but was able to take a short nap. I took the boys to the pool. By dinnertime, the kids were exhausted but we grabbed a quick bite to eat then we all crashed for the next 13 hours. Literally. 

We had until Monday to return the rental truck so most of Saturday was unsuccessfully spent car shopping at a few local dealers. We brought a massive pizza over to my brother's house and the cousins got to meet each other for the first time. Sunday was more car shopping and the kids were BORED to say the least. We found a private seller in Ocean Beach who had a small car with manual transmission and low miles. Yay! No more car shopping. We then went to La Mesa to look at RVs. The first place we went to weren't thrilled that we didn't want to spend over 100K and they basically ignored us. The next place we went to had a really nice RV with bunk beds for the boys but we weren't thrilled with the interior or the financing.

Monday morning we got up early and drove to Ocean Beach to pick up the car. I informed the lady at the desk that we would be needing our room for another 3 nights. She told me this wouldn't be a problem. As we are driving, she calls to tell me that there had been a mistake and the hotel was booked. We had to leave. Awesome. I frantically texted my sister in law and brother to see if we could stay in their camper. Thankfully, we were able to stay there. We then drove to the airport to return the rental truck. Did I mention that one of the Alamo workers STOLE my husband's cell phone?!? So annoying. Luckily, one of the hotel workers helped us load our bags in his truck because there was no way we were fitting all of those bags in a tiny Ford Fiesta! After unloading yet again, we were able to take a break.

We drove north to San Marcos to go to Camping World for supplies then decided to check out another RV dealer. After looking at a few coaches, we were shown a 2017 Bounder that had ALL the bells and whistles.. large refrigerator, fireplace, washer/dryer combo, bunk beds, king size bed and 3 slides. I was in LOVE!!! But... we weren't in love with what the monthly payment would be so we forced ourselves to leave. Actually, I had to force myself to walk away. 

John really wanted to buy from a private party to avoid the BS associated with dealers. The next day we looked at 2 RVs from private sellers. The first one was a little too "used" for my taste. The last one we looked at was a keeper! We liked the furnishings, very low miles and it had bunk beds for the kids, a king size bed plus the three slides made it VERY roomy inside. We drove it back to Poway and parked it outside my brother's house.

Not even 12 hours later, a police officer stops by to inform us that several neighbors had complained about the RV blocking their view (untrue) and they thought we were living in it. My sister in law had spoken with all but one of her neighbors informing them the RV was very temporary and no one had an issue with it. So, John moved it to the next street. Unfortunately, a bunch of punks silly stringed our RV that night and now we have a pink stain on the fiberglass. #jerks

John worked tirelessly in the hot sun installing the tow bar to the RV and the car saving us several hundreds of dollars. The boys enjoyed learning Minecraft tips and tricks from their cousins and it was great to see them play together. We left Poway on July 16th and headed East for our next adventure at Ramona Oaks RV Park.

Leaving Oahu

We initially put our house on Zillow as For Sale By Owner. After a few unsuccessful showings, we decided that because of our time constraints (we wanted to leave when the boys were out of school in June), we needed a realtor. We put our house on the market with our friend who worked for Caldwell Banker. I resigned my position in May to be available for the boys and to prep the house for showings. Our boys finished kindergarten and first grade at their awesome school, Island Pacific Academy in Kapolei.  I can't say enough good things about this school! It was definitely bittersweet saying good bye to their friends. We quickly got a full price offer for our house which was amazing but we found the entire "selling" process to be quite stressful. I joked that natural childbirth was actually easier! John flew to Maui to work for 2 weeks and I had to hire contractors for the roof & pool repair plus schedule the tenting for termites. In the midst of all this, I had to deal with my oldest son being bullied at school and a crazy lady who didn't like a decision we had made. The repairs were done. Inspections completed. And finally we got the green light that the sale would proceed and we had 6 days to vacate the home our boys had grown up in. Then John got sick and that cold just lingered. We scrambled to finish packing boxes and load two shipping cubes. The boys were really good sports about their toys being packed up. And THEN... we decided that MAYBE we should take some furniture that could ONLY be found in Hawaii. And so we shopped. And then shopped some more. And we hit the motherload of amazing Koa and Mango furniture... dining room table, benches, chairs, desk, lamp stands, end tables and more!!

We were scheduled to fly the red eye to San Diego on July 6th. A last minute load of laundry resulted in throwing out all but one shirt that my husband couldn't part with because our super awesome washer decided NOT to do a spin cycle and the clothes were sopping wet. We didn't have time to wait for it to dry. We said goodbye to our home and headed to the airport with 8 bags to check, 4 carryons, 4 personal items and 2 car seats in our rental truck. Thankfully, the rental car agency drove us to the airport so we didn't have to load all of that onto a shuttle. We were about 3.5 hours early for our flight so keeping the boys amused was fun. We settled into our seats with our brand new super comfy neck pillows and were praying the boys would sleep during the flight. Aiden, our oldest, fell asleep almost immediately. Wyatt eventually fell asleep. John and I were just drifting off when Wyatt woke up hacking and gagging. He felt nauseous from the mild turbulence and we were up for the rest of the flight to Los Angeles. We landed and had a snack prior to boarding our plane to San Diego. After an uneventful flight, we landed bright and early at Lindbergh Field. John got all 16 bags to the curb then he hopped a shuttle to the car rental agency. The boys were not happy that it was too sunny to see their iPads. John returned half hour later with the rental truck. We loaded all 16 bags and the car seats then north to Poway. We couldn't get into our hotel until 11am and we had time to kill. #sadface 

Our Abbreviated Story

This is our story... my husband John and I met in San Diego in 2003 while I was on a travel nursing assignment. We then traveled over the next 3 years to various cities in California, Tucson, Miami, St. Thomas and Oahu for my nursing assignments. We had many fun adventures in our little Roadtrek camper van named Rosie then upgraded to a 34' motor home named Georgie Boy. Our plan was to live in the motor home and travel the country. We got married in Moab, UT while driving cross country in October 2008. I was supposed to start an assignment in San Diego in January 2009. After driving cross country again from New Jersey to California, my assignment was cancelled and I soon learned we were going to be parents!! We then sold Georgie Boy and moved to Oahu where I worked as a nurse on an antepartum/obgyn unit at Tripler Army Medical Center for 8 years and John freelanced as an Audio Visual Technician.

Our adorable little boy was born in September 2009. Then another adorable little boy was born in May 2011. Life was busy working full time and caring for two little ones but somehow we managed. While we loved island living, we had frequently talked about the challenges of living so far away from family. In January of this year, we decided to move back to the mainland to be closer to our families. We chose North Carolina because it is exactly in the middle of both of our parents and John has family there. And so the journey begins...