Fashion Valley / Mission Valley

OK I've decided that I want to live near a trolley stop, which means the beachside locations are out :( sadly...

I am looking at either Fashion Valley or Mission Valley. Both look pretty nice and not too far to either beaches or downtown area. (I realised now that Mission Valley is a wide area and Fashion Valley is actually INSIDE Mission Valley).

From wikipedia:

Mission Valley is a wide valley trending east-west in San Diego, California, through which the San Diego River flows to the Pacific Ocean. Due to its massive size, it is divided into two neighborhoods: Mission Valley East located in the eastern region of San Diego, and Mission Valley West in the western region of the city.
Mission Valley serves as an important shopping and entertainment center for San Diego. Some newly-built condominiums and apartments can be found in the area as well.

Three major shopping malls located in Mission Valley are Fashion Valley Mall (Mission Valley West), Hazard Center Mall (Mission Valley East) and Westfield Mission Valley (Mission Valley East). The frontage roads parallel to Interstate 8 from Presidio Park to Highway 163 are named Hotel Circle North and Hotel Circle South, for the many hotels and motels located on them. Other commercial developments can be found in the valley as well, including smaller shopping plazas, auto malls and vocational schools.

ohh I can't decide!

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Mission Bay Park/Beach

San Diego.. how I can't wait to meet you! How can I be so in love with a place I've never been to before? (OK I was there when I was 2 so that doesn't really count). I hope you don't disappoint, I'm sure you won't. :)

Mission Bay Park is the largest man-made aquatic park in the country, consisting of 4,235 acres, approximately 46% land and 54% water. The park offers a wide range of recreational activities including paths for walking and jogging, and playgrounds for children. It is one of San Diego's most popular locations to fly a kite, picnic or sail a model yacht. Fire rings make it possible to cook out and stay warm. Mission Bay Park also offers a variety of free opportunities to the public such as professional volleyball and Over-the-Line sporting events. Annual attendance in the park is estimated at 15 million.

Mission Bay Park and Beach looks beautiful!

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Dreaming of moving to San Diego...

I've been toying with the idea of moving to Hawaii for about a year now but realise that the living costs there are too high and the pay rate too low and it's hard to find a job that's not in the tourism/hospitality area...

I thought and thought about the 'perfect' place for me to move to. Of course there are legal issues with visas and whatnot so I wanted to make it easy on myself and make it the States. I have citizenship but haven't lived there since I was 3.

I like California because it's closer to my home in Australia, than the east coast of the US. I HATE and despise cold weather. It has to be warm and San Diego is about as far south as you can get! Plus it's fairly close to L.A. if I need to go there for any reason. But there is no way I'd want to live in LA because it's too smoggy and polluted, big and spread out, and pretentious with its filthy rich and good looking people (I know that is a gross generalisation but in any case I don't want to live there because I don't want to breathe in bad air pollution, and deal with constant traffic jams).

I know it's a far way off, probably at least 9 months if not more till I move there but I am already planning.

I started reading the San Diego 'network' on Facebook and found out about this site.

San Diego Reader.

It describes each of the suburbs/areas fairly well.

Ideally I want to live near the beach. I love the beach. I am not a typical tanned, blonde beach bunny per se but I just love being near water. If not a beach then a harbour, lake, river, pond, anything. I can't wait to watch the sunsets as its a bit of a novelty for me, since I used to live on the east coast of Australia and can only watch the sun rise.

I just quickly looked on Flickr ..

Mission and Pacific beaches are closer to the city, but La Jolla beach looks nicer. From what I've read, La Jolla is a nice suburb. Actually all the beach-side suburbs are!

I'm an avid photographer and can't wait to capture all the beautiful scenes at my 'doorstep'. :)

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