Over a year ago, Jeremy and I moved up to our dream house in our dream location. We moved out of our town house in San Jose and up to our much larger and more private home out in Pine Mountain Lake (PML) near Yosemite National Park.
Living in the Pine Mountain Lake has been a dream of mine ever since I discovered it during a trip to Yosemite about 7 years ago. During that trip, I was considering moving to Houston, TX to take a post doctoral position at Johnson Space Center. The job opportunity was a very interesting one, but unfortunately I would be living in Houston. At the time, there were few opportunities for a fairly new graduate. In addition, before seeing PML, it was difficult to persuade myself that I could have a comfortable standard of living in CA. After being a poor graduate student at Stanford University for years, I was craving a better lifestyle.
At an auspicious meeting at the Big Oak Cafe, I went on a limousine ride with Doyle who took me on a tour that would alter my future. First, he took me to the airport where there had recently been a landing accident. (Since then, the airport conditions have been improved.) I remember being impressed by the views of the surrounding foothills and seeing the Sierras off at a distance. We walked around. Doyle pointed out the various kinds of aircraft parked at the surrounding airport homes. These included twin engines, small jets, helicopters and even gliders. I could see that it would be a great place for an aviation enthusiast to live!
Next on the tour was a view of Pine Mountain Lake. As we drove around, I was impressed by the houses within the PML community. The houses were of different styles (not like the condos I had seen in the Bay Area). Each house had a generous plot of land which looked like the forest I’d seen in Yosemite. The Ponderosa Pines were all around, standing tall at over 100ft. Deer and fawn were spread throughout the area. I had the sense that these houses were plopped down into a forest.
During the tour, we saw the Lake. It was blue and appeared well maintained. I also noted there were several public beaches. I asked Doyle about the price of these houses. He said that in some cases they were $200,000. Wow! I thought I could live here! I would be 20 miles from the entrance to Yosemite (one of my favorite National Parks). (See the picture of Tenaya Lake above.) I could commute to the Bay Area for work via airplane (I was working on my Single Engine Land rating) and have a good size house and some privacy.
That would be a dream come true.
A few years later, I met my husband (another dream come true:-)). I shared my dream with him which soon became our dream. In 2007, we bought our house in Pine Mountain. In 2010, we moved up to Pine Mountain full-time.
Pingback: Walking on Tenaya Lake | How To Eat And Live