I live in the "East Bay" about 30 miles NE of San Francisco. I was born about 5 miles from here and have never lived more than about 12 miles from the hospital I was born in. My wife was born in San Francisco and both of us grew up in Pleasant Hill where we met in high school.
When I was a kid we had horses and there were places to ride. At 12 years old I could saddle up my horse and go riding with friends, be gone all day, just had to be home for dinner. The places we used to ride are all paved over now.
We have plans to move in a few years, though not too far. We'll stay in California where our friends and family are. We plan to retire in the Gold Country, maybe Nevada City. Meanwhile, my wife and I are mostly happy here. I've been working for the same company for over 30 years and I'm happy to have never been out of work since I graduated from High School. My wife works for the school district and loves her job.
13 years ago I picked up the sport of whitewater kayaking. I now have 2 kinds of friends, those that kayak and those that I don't see often. I have a lot of good friends and California has perhaps the best whitewater rivers in the world. I kayak year round, anywhere from 30-50 days a year. My wife and I also enjoy trout fishing quite often in the same rivers, after a day of kayaking. I still hunt a bit in the fall also. There are things about California that I don't like but there is a lot to like. As a few fellow Californian's have said on the thread, there is a lot more to California than L.A. and San Francisco.
