Travel with Grant is Moving to the Bay Area this Weekend
Good evening everyone, I have some big news to share. Yesterday, I accepted a position with a technology company in San Francisco and I will be moving up to the Bay Area this weekend. I will be staying with my cousin in Walnut Creek (east side of the bay) and commuting via BART daily. This is a totally new experience for me. For the first 25 years of my life, I’ve lived at home with my parents. This weekend will mark the beginning of a new chapter in my life.
What does this mean for the future of Travel with Grant?
I will continue to blog a few times a week, probably less frequently than I do now. Based on my work schedule, I will probably blog in the mornings and evenings and maybe sometimes on the weekend.
I won’t be able to take as many vacations as I did throughout 2014 (but hey, there are 52 weekends a year which equals 104 days of vacation every year). I want to meet some NorCal readers and bloggers, so I will try to do a few NorCal Meetups and the occasional OC Meetup back home. I will still attend as many travel conferences as I can:
- TravelCon in Anaheim, CA the weekend of February 28 (presenting too!)
- FTU Advanced in San Diego the weekend of March 6
- FTU Advanced in Dallas the weekend of April 17
Walnut Creek / East Bay has some of the same grocery stores and pharmacies as Orange County, so my MS opportunities will be similar. I will need to scope out the local area and see how MS-friendly the stores are. I will still share some new MS opportunities and deals I discover.
What will be the hardest part of moving to the Bay Area?
Adjusting to the weather of the Bay Area will take some time to get used to but I just bought a heavy duty waterproof jacket at Macy’s today, so bring it on Mother Nature! Adjusting to the BART public transportation system will take some time to get used to, luckily there are a few iPhone apps that can help me. And lastly, adjusting to life away from home will probably take the longest to get used to. I guess I should figure out how to do my laundry and run the dishwasher before I leave home…
I am working on a few blog posts, but might not get to them until next week. I have been experimenting with my Target Redbird Card (spoiler alert: it is awesome!), dealing with PayPal customer service regarding PayPal My Cash Cards (not awesome), and sharing some pics of my private tour of the US Capitol in Washington, DC from Monday morning (pretty awesome).
Don’t look too closely at the background, there is a naked man back there
Got any words of advice? Please leave a comment below and share your wisdom with me. Talk to you all later!
Congrats Grant!
Thank you Joe! Happy holidays!
Congratulations on your new job, Grant!!!
Yay! Congratulations! You sound super upbeat. I’m happy for you–keep your faithful readers in the loop about life in San Francisco. :)
I will do my best, hopefully I will have some interesting/entertaining stories to share.
Congratulations on your new job, Grant!!
Good Luck! there are a few Bart apps. Bart Runner is the one I use. I know at least 4 people here not including myself who are in MS. Would be great if you can organize NorCal Meetups so we can share ideas and so on.
Excellent, I will definitely do a NorCal meetup, so I can meet some other MS locals. Anyone near Walnut Creek?
Live in town next door in Alamo. Nearby WMs are not friendly for any volume and most kiosks are chronically broken. There is a decent Target in town (next to the Bart station) so your Redbird is a good choice. Decent number of CVS and and a few malls in the area. Overall, I’d give is a C for MS.
Navigating BART is pretty easy. It’s getting to and from that’s a PITA. BART now connects to both SFO and OAK (as of a few weeks ago), so you gettaways should be relatively convenient.
Thanks for the MS rundown Paul. I plan to be a lazy MSer. I have 3 Serve Cards, so I will continue to do online credit card loads for 3 and online debit card loads for 2. I will probably max out my Redbird Card at Target and maybe even use my Target AMEX if I want to do a little more MS while at Target. I would prefer not to go to Walmart, but I can always use my PayPal Business Debit Card there. It has my name on it and says Debit, so booya Walmart!
I am so glad the BART goes to OAK now. I picked the right year to move up here :)
Looking forward to meeting you at one of the many Meetups I plan on doing over the next few weeks :)
Congratulations! It sounds like another exciting chapter is beginning.
Welcome to the Bay Area!
I grew up in Long Beach, but moved here in 1981. It’s not that cold……just the beach
Thank you Rene, I hope you’re right!
That’s great……you will learn how to watch a true baseball franchise……….and you will have to start hosting Bay Area meet ups……..Sausalito would be a good place to start! I’ll be there!
I’ve never been to Sausalito, but now seems like a great time to go :)
Congrats, great news! Focus on the job and try max out your 401k. That is an expensive place to live! I almost got my first job out of college there by the way. Build a career with the company & don’t worry much about the blog. Work hard at your job FIRST and build marketable skills and credibility. Then when you get into your 40s you can be a little bored by it and look for a new challenge and can always pick up the blog back up lol. Seriously man, happy for you. It is time to leave the home & make something happen. No substitute for hard work, you got ethics and common sense worked out so go get them!
Thanks George, I will do my best as a responsible/financial adult and grow within the company. If you are out to SFO/OAK, let me know :)
Congratulations on your new job!
Congrats on the job. I also live in walnut creek so be sure to let me know if you would like a tour of the local ms!
I would also appreciate it if you show me around. It would be especially useful to me because I have friends from Pleasant Hill, and I might end up working in Walnut Creek in the near future. In addition, I occasionally pass by Walnut Creek on the way to my aunt’s house, Napa, Tahoe, or other places.
OMG Simon, that would be awesome! I’m usually free on the weekends, let’s start at a coffee shop for breakfast and go from there!
Sure that works for me! Just let me know when.
Welcome Grant!!! I have been a daily reader of your blog since 2012. I live in the east bay and work in walnut creek. Can’t wait to come to your meetup in the bay!!!!!
Excellent Erik, it will be great to meet other locals in Walnut Creek. As for the blog, I only started writing in May 2013 (I should have started earlier, I know).
Welcome to bay area Grant !!! All the best for your new job !!!
Congrats Grant! I’m glad you are at least staying in California. I’ve heard manufactured spending can be very tough in the Bay Area, but I bet you’ll think of some ideas.
I think you’re right. SF will be tricky, but I think the East Bay will be easier. Plus, I don’t do crazy amounts of MS per month, probably around $10-$15K nowadays. I’ll see you at FTU Advanced in San Diego :)
So proud of you, Grasshopper! You’ll go far in your career and in life in general!
Congrats Grant!! This is wonderful news. the east bay is awesome …. Some of my best memories were from that area(my wife then girlfriend went to cal…)
Congrats & Welcome!! It’s funny I was just leaving you a comment yesterday that I like following your blog because you live in CA, I’m excited that you’re going to be even closer. I live in Emeryville and work in Dublin. Would love to meet you and the people on this comment thread who are in the area and do MS! :) I have a few friends in South Bay who MS as well. :)
Thank you Star. I am surprised there are so many readers/MSers in the Bay Area. I will do my best to have some Meetups all around the bay to get to meet people up there. I might do a few before the holidays and then a few more after the holidays. I know people would rather be with their friends and family this time of the year :)
Oh regarding weather…I went to UCSD for college and although it may be a couple degrees colder (and only in SF) here, it doesn’t warrant heavy outerwear haha. It’s kind of similar actually, warm during the day and colder at night. I get by most of the year with just a fleece jacket from Uniqlo (which we have like 5 of here!). It doesn’t rain all that much EXCEPT for today and tomorrow because of the Pineapple Express storm. ;)
If I can handle the rainy days, I should be fine. I have a few jackets that will work on the milder days.
Since I’m from San Jose and worked in Walnut Creek last summer, it’s exciting to see you move to the Bay Area. I know of 2 other travel bloggers from northern California: Jon (Wanderlusty) and Ariana (Point Chaser). It would be cool to arrange a combined meet-up like you’ve done with Travel Summary before. As well as plan meet-ups directly on your blog, you can go on Flyertalk and Saverocity to discuss meet-ups. On the Flyertalk thread, they proposed a meet-up on Saturday, December 13 if you’re interested.
http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/communitybuzz/1594755-san-francisco-manufactured-spending-meetup.html
http://saverocity.com/forum/threads/sfo-bay-area.613/
I can’t think of very many unique manufactured spending opportunities in the Bay Area. However, on Flyertalk, I read about the free Capital One 360 ATM in downtown San Francisco. This is great if you have an American Express for Target card.
http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/manufactured-spending/1436631-true-no-fee-atms.html
Thank you for sharing the links. I won’t be in town for the meetup tomorrow, but I will do my best to make it to the next one. I also like the idea of having a combined meetup with Wanderlusty and Point Chaser. I’ll get in contact with them and see what their schedules are like.
Thanks for the tip on fee-free ATM. I haven’t used my Target AMEX much lately since I have a Target Redbird Card, but I will bring it up anyways. That is a pretty easy way to MS right there.
I look forward to meeting you sometime soon. Happy holidays!
Congrats, Grant!!! We’ll miss you and the In n Out meetups. My advice? Don’t forget to put your boss on the right credit cards.. just kidding ;) Best of luck!
I’ll try to come back to SoCal 1-2x per month to see family and friends. I’ll try to organize a few OC Meetups at my favorite burger place too :)
Congrats on the new job! I’m glad you’re moving closer. Maybe I might see you on bart too as I bart daily to the city (also a tech company so maybe even the same one!). Make sure to get a clipper card, best thing to get when you bart and see if your company offers commuter benefits where they will match some of your spend. Best of luck!
Excellent Elena. My company provides a clipper card to us for free, so I’m sure that will save me a lot of time and money. I plan to go from Walnut Creek to Civic Center by Bart. I’m not sure what the schedule is, but I want to get to Civic Center around 9-9:30am. Maybe we can have a mini BART meetup :)
Oh, that’s very nice of that company! Well I also get to civic center around 9am. There’s a good chance I’ll see you around then. :)
That’s great. If you are on Twitter, follow me @travelwithgrant and we can figure it out :)
Congrats! I just moved to the bay area myself, and I look forward to meeting you at some point!
Great to hear, what city are you living/working at? There are so many people up here, I love it already!
Another piece of advice I have is that if you ever want to visit your family back home, consider taking Megabus or Bolt Bus. If someone can pick you up from the Los Angeles station (or if you don’t mind taking the train from Los Angeles to Irvine), then the bus is a good affordable way to get from the Bay Area to southern California.
http://travelisfree.com/2014/11/08/im-not-too-cool-to-rock-1-megabus-tickets/
Nice, I’ll check that out too. My original plan was to fly SFO-SNA on Southwest Friday night and then SNA-OAK on Southwest Sunday night, take the BART to Walnut Creek and get my car from the parking lot.
The storm this week is probably your welcoming party, it doesn’t usually happen often. Which tech company are you working for, and in what role?
There are a lot of MS folks here, especially some clueless ones among the techies that tend to spoil the game.
I will be working at Paymentwall, near Civic Center. I will be working on marketing / advertising / booking travel. Sounds like a lot of fun to me :)
The technie folks are the ones who create the MS opportunities, so I will be close to the action :)
Good luck, Grant. If you’re going to be working for a tech company in the Bay Area, you’ve already made it!!. Warmest congrats. I never made it to one of your In n Out gatherings, since I just moved from NYC to L.A. a few months back, but will try to go to FTU one of these days and meet you in person. Like TBB said before, focus on your job and your career. MSing and travel will always be there, but a good job may not. All the best!!
Thank you Laura, I will do my best balancing work and travel. I can handle both :)
Congratulations Grant! I love the Bay and know you’ll have an amazing time there!
As far as working and blogging, carve yourself a few “hobby” hours a week and use them wisely – and then spend the rest of your time developing your career, friendships, etc. :-)
Great advice Jennifer, I will split my free time among blogging, learning about MS in the Bay Area, and meeting other readers up here. Let me know if you are ever in town :)
Congratulations Grant! Walmarts are fewer in the Bay Area but living in Contra Costa County you have a great opportunity to do MS in the Bay Area suburbs, which are similar to the OC. And, if you don’t mind a train trip, Amtrak Guest Rewards special redemptions on the San Joaquin are the absolutely cheapest way to get from one side of the state to another, since one bus connection comes free with each trip.
Excellent, I will have to refresh my memory on NorCal based Amtrak routes. I love the 1,500 Amtrak point routes <3
Congrats Grant! Sounds exciting!
Good luck !
Congrats Grant. I was telling my son about you and go see you when you have a meet up at Irvine last night:( I wish my son could meet you, but I am sure you ‘ll have a wonderful new experience at your new place! Good luck to you and I am looking forward to read new blog post about your new life:)
Thanks Noko, I’ll be back a few times over the next few months to Irvine, so you can bring your son to one of my OC Meetups :)
Congrats and welcome. Remember, NorCal meet-ups, not Bay Area Meet-ups. There is more to the No. Calif. area than just the bay area.
Thank you, what city are you in?
Sacramento area
Hmm, I’ve never been to Sacramento, are there any other TWG readers in the area?
I’m up there for at least a little while longer.
Thank you Simon. I’ll reach out to you on Monday after I settle in at Walnut Creek.
Cograts on New job
Congrats on the new job!
Congrats on the move, you’ll enjoy it.
Out of curiosity, where did you get your Redbird? Was it in OC? I’ve been away for some time so just catching up on the blog now!
A friend from Colorado sent me an activated temp card, which I was able to register in my name/address. No Redbird temp cards in CA, that I know of.
Congrats on the new job Grant! I grew up in the Bay Area, Cupertino originally. Nice place to live. Speaking of Redbird, I just got mine registered today! I closed out Serve yesterday and they made no mention of it when I called for the ID verifications. My permanent card is on the way, can’t wait to test it out.
Great to hear about Redbird, I hope your card comes soon as you can enjoy all the Target credit card loading. Happy holidays!
Thanks Grant, you too and safe journeys to the bay area.
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Congratulations. Nice to see life besides miles and points.
Congrats. But please stop calling the area where you live NorCal. You are moving to the bay area, specifically the east bay. As someone who has moved here from Northern California 7 years ago living in Walnut Creek is NOT NorCal.
You are right, I will use The Bay instead of NorCal. I’m still getting used to the lingo :)
I consider the Bay Area to be northern California. However, I realize people from cities like Chico and Redding might not think so.
I can’t please everyone :(