Home

The Minnie has a final destination. The last leg of our adventure will take us to Carpinteria, California. That’s where we will live next, on the campus of Cate School. Beginning July 1, I get to lead an incredible team as the next Director of Admission and Enrollment. Christmas came early this year! 

While we set out on this trip in part to find our new home, we knew when we visited Carpinteria and Cate in the fall of 2015 that it would be a hard spot to beat. I’d been to the campus quite a few times, always thinking about kids and for whom it would be the right fit. Last fall, we went to look for us, just to get a feel for whether or not a school such as Cate, or Cate specifically, would be right for us. In other words, could we see ourselves on a boarding school campus? Turns out, we walked away from that weekend excited about the possibility of transitioning to a boarding school, assuming the right job at the right school came along. It did, and we could not be happier. 

About a month ago we went to Cate for my on-campus interview. I was probably the first candidate to show up in a motorhome and to camp at the state beach instead of staying in a hotel. But that didn’t matter because at Cate, we feel at home. 

One of the strengths of the school is the community, a critical component for us in our search for home. While I have always felt the warmth and generosity of the students and the adults who work at the school, on our visits to the school as a family, we felt it even more so. It was easy for us to envision our life on campus, and we felt accepted and respected. 

The bonus in this move to Cate is Carpinteria. We love Carp! We get the sense that this is what all SoCal beach towns must have been like back in the day. When we visited in 2015, we were amazed at the quaint, small town feel. And, we could not believe how easy it was to find parking on a beautiful Sunday at the beach! We parked blocks away, because we were so excited to find a spot, and were then shocked to see so many available spaces just one block away from the rolling waves. This is not San Francisco parking, friends! 

When we strolled down Linden, people smiled at us, and the fresh smell of the Pacific Ocean permeated the air. Very, very different from what had become the norm for us in San Francisco. We are heading to the complete opposite of what we had been living, which is in fact, what we were seeking. Small town, cozy, friendly, accessible, but still closer to bigger towns and cities: Santa Barbara and Los Angeles.

In addition, we are grateful to stay in California. The abundance of fresh fruits and veggies and farmer’s markets, an interesting food scene in Santa Barbara, vibrant arts communities up and down the coast, camping for the Minnie at Carpinteria State Beach, and sunsets over the Pacific each night. There’s more, so much more, we know, and we are excited to land in Carp, explore our new surroundings, welcome new friends into our lives, and host our old friends who are already booking dates to visit!

So, we have a little over six months left on the road, the stress of the job search is over, and the Minnie has a final destination. Life is good!