How many Dopers live in Northern Califorina? Such as the San Francisco Bay area, San Jose, Oakland, Berkeley, Davis, Sacramento, etc.?
I moved here from the Washington DC area about 3 months ago. I live in Vacaville, which is between SF and Sacramento. I came to live with my boyfriend, who is stationed at Travis AFB in Fairfield. Luckily, I was able to keep my job and I am now telecommuting.
I really like it here and would like to find out what other Dopers live around here. Specifically, how did you come to live here, what do you do for fun, how do you like this area, etc.
Also, maybe we can think about planning a NorCal Dopefest!!
(grumble, grumble, stupid lousy mouse skills… hit submit too soon)
I came to live in California when I went to UC Santa Cruz for grad school in astronomy. I got a job in the Bay Area after I left grad school, because the (then future) Mr. Neville lived in Oakland near the Berkeley border.
I absolutely love this area, though the housing prices and the traffic are downsides.
I’m pretty much a homebody- I read, play computer games, and play with the Neville kitties for fun.
Living in Morgan Hill and working in San Jose, here.
I and the mister came here during the dot-com boom times (we’re ninety-niners). We hail from southern California, but we’ve always loved northern California and were happy to make the move.
We’re both foodies, and one of our recreational things to do is to scout out good restaurants (not necessarily expensive ones). In the bay area, restaurants are plentiful and the foodie culture is terrific. We also garden, hike, bike and travel for fun.
We had a look at Vacaville once, since it’s home to a few biotech manufacturing plants and we thought it might someday be necessary to move there. Nice little community; about the same size as Morgan Hill.
Santa Rosa here. About an hour north of SF, smack dab in the middle of Sonoma wine country.
I moved here a little over 5 years ago after meeting my (now) husband here on the SDMB. I was living in central PA (State College) when we met and had been there for about 3 years. Before PA I lived in New Jersey, where I was born.
My husband moved here from SoCal when he was a kid, 14 or so, and lived here until he joined the Army at 18. After 7 years of service he decided to settle down here, since his mom and sister and his ex-wife and kids were here.
We head down to SF about once a month, to meet with friends, hit a bar or a show, shop, eat, whatever. We usually make a weekend out of it.
Like teela brown and her husband, we’re both foodies, we too enjoy checking out restaurants in the area and perusing local farmer’s markets and gourmet shops and the like.
On weekends we’re often out doing something. Hiking, cycling, and camping are high on the list. Every 3 months or so we’ll sign up for some kind of organized run or ride. We also like to do ‘touristy’ type things - museums, wine tastings, historic sites, romantic weekend getaways, massages, etc.
I absolutely love this area. It’s gorgeous, there’s plenty to do, it’s diverse enough to keep things interesting, and the weather is pretty darn nice.
Suburban Plankton and I are in Sacramento. SP was born and raised here. I was born on the Peninsula and then lived in San Jose until I was 15. Then my family moved to nowhere south of Placerville. I went to college at Sac State and met SP there. We got married and just kept living here. His family is all in town, and mine is close enough. It’s a nice place to raise a family.
We live close enough to do day trips to San Francisco, Lake Tahoe, Apple Hill, the Wine Country. Of course, we’d rather do weekends trips.
We like cycling, horseback riding, hiking camping, going down to the river. We love eating out and trying different foods.
I’ve lived in the Bay Area since I was 5 (LA before that), except for 4 years of college in Pennsylvania.
I grew up in Sunnyvale, then lived in Redwood City, then Sunnyvale, then Palo Alto, and now I own a townhouse in Santa Clara.
I’d hate to live anywhere else.
Oh, I guess I should have said more. DangerDad is a Sacramento native, while I moved up north for college–I’m from the Central Coast. We met at Berkeley. Then we moved to Silicon Valley for a while, and were glad to move up here, where my folks have been living for a while now.
Chico is pretty great. We hope to stay here permanently.
I grew up in the East Bay, but I live in the Central Valley now. Still northern CA, but barely. At least, we consider ourselves northern, if it comes down to the whole northern vs. southern thing.
I don’t get to the Bay Area much; I spend most of my free time in the Sierras lately.
I’m from the “Heart of the Bay”, Hayward. Which could only be described as a heart if it were horribly diseased and putrifying. It’s about 35 minutes from SF and 15 minutes from Oakland.
Born, bred and edumacated by the lovely HUSD. I’m trying my very best to keep from having my children enter this not-so-lovely school district. The school that I’m closest to was last on the list of per-student-spending. Ugh! Private schooling may be in their future.
PS…I also think that I’m the first to use the “SF Bay Area” as my location, there’s just a lot of copycats!
I’m from San Francisco and Petaluma and sometimes I even go back for a visit. (Next time being Thanksgiving.)
Anne Neville, I went to UCSC for my BA…you could have been my TA! Except I have no idea when you were a grad student. Also, my astronomy 1 TA was a guy. So I doubt it.
I live in South San Francisco (The Industrial City!), moved here in '91 from El Lay (Barstow[!] before that). My partner is a native though; she still shudders when I point out the fact she married a SoCal girl.
We’re actually planning on moving up near the Davis area next year. We can’t afford a house here at all, plus we have our heart set on building one of these on a chunk of land:
Born & raised in Vallejo, college in Davis, lived various places around the Bay Area in my 20s and 30s. Finally escaped to Amador County in the Mother Lode.
Within an hour’s drive from my house I can be in Sacramento if I need civilization, or the high Sierra if I need wilderness.