![\"img\"](\"http:\/\/www.seecalifornia.com\/images\/pierszb.jpg\")
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This picture of Huntington Beach Pier<\/a> reminds me of why I moved to a California beach town. It was minus 10 degrees just days before Christmas. I worked as a news photographer in Chicago and desperately missed the winter breaks previously enjoyed as a college student. I also longed for warmer climate. Horrifically cold and sad about assignments such as a plane crash where I was the first to arrive on the scene and see the dead man in a pile of snow outside his crumpled plane, I booked a flight to California to visit my parents in Huntington Beach. Anyone who’s experienced a Southern California Christmas knows that the weather miraculously turns warm & beautiful for the millions of tourists visiting. Like so many other holiday visitors I was just thawing out when it was time to pack my bags and leave once again. A voice in my head said, “Don’t go back!”<\/p>\n I did go back to Illinois–to quit my job and move. It was bittersweet–a happy and sad Christmas all in one.\u00a0 It’s hard to say goodbye to friends, and to leave a paying job with no prospects on the horizon. But\u00a0 I haven’t looked back since moving to California (Huntington Beach shown in photo).\u00a0 Have I been rich? Not financially.\u00a0 Have I been happy? Most the time I am ecstatic about living in such a warm, wonderful place. During this special holiday everything turns magical with thousands or millions of twinkling lights<\/a> reflecting on the waterfronts, decorated mansions<\/a>, and spectacular theme parks<\/a> & hotels. From a photographer’s perspective, I wish Christmas would never end. Happy Holidays to all of you…may your days be filled with magic, too!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" This picture of Huntington Beach Pier reminds me of why I moved to a California beach town. It was minus 10 degrees just days before Christmas. I worked as a news photographer in Chicago and desperately missed the winter breaks previously enjoyed as a college student. I also longed for warmer climate. Horrifically cold and […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[29],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.seecalifornia.com\/traveltips\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10268"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.seecalifornia.com\/traveltips\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.seecalifornia.com\/traveltips\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.seecalifornia.com\/traveltips\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.seecalifornia.com\/traveltips\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=10268"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"http:\/\/www.seecalifornia.com\/traveltips\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10268\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.seecalifornia.com\/traveltips\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=10268"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.seecalifornia.com\/traveltips\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=10268"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.seecalifornia.com\/traveltips\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=10268"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}