Are they high-altitude cows? Do they require more water?

I'm writing this from sunny California, my future home! In case anyone was wondering, Kyle and I made it in just fine. Adventures and pictures from the trip will be forthcoming (just not this morning). We got to Kyle's brother (Mike)'s house about 10:00 pm, then went to In 'N Out for dinner. Very tasty. We came back to the house and I spent the remainder of the evening trying to dodge the webcam Mike has in his living room. I hate cameras! But it's lovely here, all green and gorgeous. And 80 degrees outside!

Things that brought home to me that I was nowhere I was familiar with:

1. Humid air. Kyle turned the a/c to just air and we got a big shot of humidity. I actually coughed and choked a few times (just a little bit) before my body adjusted to breathing wet air.
2. Fog. We saw a big patch of it just off the road, and I was all sorts of thrown by it. I haven't seen fog since we lived in St. Louis, and I was so floored I kept asking really intelligent questions like "Where did it come from?"
3. Palm trees. We came down out of the mountains and around Sacramento during sunset, which was beautiful. But the palm-tree-shaped silhouettes were unexpected.

I won't lie; I freaked out a teeny tiny bit. It really hit me hard that I wasn't just visiting, but moving here, and I don't know this place. It's still unclear how, but Kyle noticed I was upset, and he reminded me that I wasn't going to be moving here alone. That helped a lot.

We've had a bit of a slow start today, but we'll eventually get going and on to the main event: finding somewhere to live in July. Kyle found a few apartment complexes online that we're gonna check out. (The current plan is to rent an apartment for 6 months or so while we find a house. That'll give us more time to get together a down payment and figure out financing and such, as well as finding somewhere we really love.)

Now, however, it's time for a shower. More stories to follow!