Saying Goodbye..

Saying goodbye to our first apartment turned out to be more emotional then I anticipated. Although we have been feeling positive and confident about our decision to leave we spent two years and eight months in that place and made so many memories.  We were lucky enough to have some great neighbors in our community and friends nearby.  We had our usual watering holes and many date nights that were walking distance.  We had some great memories walking to the pier watching the sunset or going to the Thursday morning farmers market.  I knew only little bit about the town of Oceanside but now Charlie and I are very happy to have spent some time in this area because it is a great little community with a lot to offer.  It is the end of an era for us and it is a bitter sweet parting. It is difficult to say goodbye to friends, neighbors and the whole place in general but it is the way things are and I feel lucky to have the experience and memories that I have.

I really had fun having our own apartment.  Charlie was so willing to let me put whatever up where ever I wanted too, never complaining that something was too girly or overcrowded.  We didn't spend a lot of money accumulating stuff but we did have a lot and I loved our apartment.  I do have to admit though getting rid of everything was a hassle and it felt really good to purge everything that we did (despite how much we got rid of it still felt like there was a lot we kept, about 9 nine boxes & a car load of things). I wanted to take some pictures to remember what our first place together looked like and also throughout the cleanup.

One of Johnson's favorite spots in the house..

And yet another..

I know a lot of stuff.

One of my favorite things in our house was the bookshelf.  Photo albums, school work, pictures, knick knacks, souvenirs, etc. 

It was not uncommon for me to walk into the bathroom and see this (freaked me out almost every time).

Oh boy did I love my plants.  The one on the right is a money tree that I've had for about 5 years.  I probably had a total of 20 plants indoor and outdoor and I am not bringing one with me!  Of all the things the plants were the hardest things to part with.  

Our bedroom view, so many sunsets. 

And then the cleanup began..

We did a garage sale the first weekend we came back from NY and it was very successful.  We sold all of our major furniture and ended up moving the bed to the living room to have something to sit on!  Our neighbors bought our couch so it was really convenient because moving them was so simple, but when we sold them we were like oh ya, now what do we sit on!?

This was our last day of cleanup!  We did a walk through with the landlord and she said everything looked good, just more cleaning.  But it was sort of surreal to see it as empty as it was, especially since we had every bit of wall space covered!

Not only did we love the place we were at but we really enjoyed the town as well.

This is our public library and right in front of the street there would be a farmers market every Thursday morning and in the evening a street fair. We went many times and enjoyed every trip. 

Many beach days..

And this was my view every time I was about to turn onto our street. Rows of palm trees with a view of the ocean.  We will be missing this view!

We were fortunate to make a few really good friends.  I met Kristen in my first semester at CSUSM and  we hit it off immediately! We sort of lost touch for a semester or two but then this last year and a half we reconnected and our men hit it off too!  This made for great double date partners a few times a week (at least) and it developed into a really great friendship. 

Charlie, Brian and Johnson got very close too. 

We will always have a special place in our heart's for Oceanside.  <3 p="">