Goodbye Vista - A Photo Essay

Adam took the Boy Scouts camping this weekend and with it he took our car. So I started a bike gang. I'm the only member so far and I spend all my free time in it now. Yesterday I biked the 10 miles home from work -- when have you biked from the middle of one city (Carlsbad) to the bitter end of another (Vista)? Well, it has been done. Several times. By me. When I am carless. And then when I got near home I decided to just keep biking -- dropping off my backpack for my camera pack -- much lighter! I wanted to capture Vista before I left. The cute little Southern California town that Adam and I will remember fondly as the place we happily spent our first year of marriage. I also woke up early this morning and went biking for some more pics. Like I told you, the gang is my life now.

Oh, by the way. We are moving. In 2 weeks to Irvine, CA. Adam's company is moving up there, only an hour from here. But since he and I are firmly against commuting long distances, we have chosen to uproot, me quit my job and...go. It has caused a few different emotions in me. I feel ready to quit. But not exactly ready to move...Vista has grown on me. I hated it for awhile, but we've gotten settled in our ward and we love our little studio apartment. Alas, I am a creature of change and have always prided myself on thriving on it. So we will move and start over and probably grow into our new space just great all over again.

So here are a few pics of Vista that really sum it up for me. It's a little city with a country feel to it. I have taken that for granted, I fear, because O.C. is much more congested. But. Nevermind. Let the happy memories roll.

These 2 things I see every morning at about 6:10 am on my run with friends Merrilee and Shannon. This mailbox says: Dude, surf's up and, like, whooooaaaaa why did my $500 self get all cut up just for this? I almost trip on memory lane every time I see it. Adorable.

This picture captured one California mainstay: hardworking Mexican immigrants. It was 6:30 pm and it didn't look like these guys were going home anytime soon. These people work harder than I will ever have to. A little mailbox that says: I live in the country. That was the token trait of Vista: close proximity to both city life and rural life.

This was kind of an Asian shop with a Hispanic twist. Couldn't really figure it out. But Lita and family sold me a mean salmon steak when I was hankering for one. Cheapest movies in town, hands down. The couple that owned this place was so nice and SO smart -- price the movies at 94 cents and with tax it turns out to be a real 1 dollar flat. When does that happen anymore? So what if half the place is VHS and the other half are new releases that are 2+ dollars...? I go with 4 quarters in hand and 4 quarters only. I Heart Books was a book exchange shop that gave out free bags of old English muffins every Monday.I never made it to a play here but I always thought it was the cutest little oldfashioned thing in town.Vista went through a mural spasm at some point before I got here. These murals used to cause my eyes actual pain as I winced in the other direction. Now I think they're kind of quaint. This shop makes some great fresh tortillas. Who can hate a painted shop in which singing sombreroed men make fresh tortillas? This scene depicts our kind mayor, Mayor Vance, who happens to be in our ward. Miss Vista is also in our ward, except this year she is blonde. And not 37 years old.

I had no idea THIS was going on. I guess a perk of jaunting out into the world at 7:30 on a Saturday morning. Vista's very own little morning market! Uh! I guess we have one more Saturday to enjoy it. Goodbye, Vista. You've been great. We will miss you.