It’s one thing to move across town and another thing entirely to move to a different part of your home state or to another state in the U.S.
For nearly 30 years, Santa Barbara was the top romantic getaway spot for my wife Patty and I. We were always happy to make the nearly three-hour drive north from our long-time home in Hermosa Beach to escape the crowds and noise of LA for a day or two or three.
We are both native Southern Californians and we spent the first half of our lives together as parents focused on raising our daughter Juliette and as entrepreneurs building a highly successful business together. We have been inseparable since our first lunch date in August 1983, married in 1985, and then putting down roots in the South Bay.
Until 2012, we had never considered relocating to Santa Barbara or even leaving our beloved Hermosa Beach community. It was a combination of factors: Juliette graduating from college, selling our door and window retail sales business of 26 years, and my mother’s death. All of these events occurring within a few months of each other had Patty and I look deeply into each other’s eyes and say YES to the move.
At that time, the cost of housing in Santa Barbara was comparatively less than home prices in Hermosa Beach. And in hindsight, even if home prices were the same, the peace of mind we’ve found living in Santa Barbara for the past decade made the move here priceless and would have been completely worth it to us, even if it had cost more money.
When we seriously began to explore Santa Barbara as prospective home buyers, we experienced the many different neighborhoods and what they had to offer us as transplants from Los Angeles to Santa Barbara County. One of the must-have items on our list was that moving to Santa Barbara offer us as many cultural connection opportunities as in the Greater Los Angeles area. And from the Santa Barbara Film Festival to Live theater and music venues throughout the area to a now walkable State Street filled with award winning, popular restaurants, we feel like we traded up by planting new roots in Santa Barbara.
Ultimately, we found a best fit for our lifestyle on the Mesa, just steps to the ocean, shopping and restaurants. We have everything we need close by and we are able to get anywhere we need to be in Santa Barbara within a 10 minute drive. Perhaps our biggest surprise and silver lining is that everyone we’ve met here, from Santa Barbara natives to transplants like ourselves, cherishes the area and realizes what a special place it is!
