My First Vacation in California

My first vacation in California was as a teenage girl, visiting a friend for a couple weeks.

I stayed with her in her mom's apartment in Hollywood. It was our home base for teenage wandering-- and enjoying our summer days without any pressures of school. We took many trips to California beaches (which takes a long time on public transportation,) but the memories of California certainly stayed with me, especially after returning to my home in the midwest U.S.

I have traveled all over the world, but have called California my home for many years. Still, living here is a vacation. Every day I ask myself, "When will I feel like I own this place--like I can call it my home and be a resident that really knows it?" That time has not come yet, and for that, I still wake up and find the same enthusiasm that brought me here so many years ago, lingering, staying on, and finding out I really couldn't go back to wherever I came from.

California has its downfalls and problems, but a friend who I've helped train to become a travel writer went on some press trips and wrote stories for me, then returned to California and decided to only travel outside the state on rare occasions when the destination is great. I asked her why she came to this state of affairs after only one year. Her answer was fairly simple, and easy to understand. She said, "I've decided that life in California is a vacation. If I have to downgrade my living standards to travel and write stories about other places, it's not worth it to me. I'm staying in California."

So as you can see, many of us find that California creeps into our blood, and like it or not, we're kind of hooked on this vacation lifestyle we live.