Phil999

I am about to accept a job in The mission area and plan to move in Dec or Jan there is just me my wife and our 2 cats. Initally my wife will not be working and she does not drive (no license and has wanted to) so i wanted to stay in an appartment where it would be possible to get to shops etc walking rather than having to use taxi's all the time (I drive and will have a car). Archstones Mission Viejo seems to tick all the boxes as its only a couple of minutes walk to Shops of Mission Viejo mall is this my best option or are their any other appartment complexes that would be better? Or would i be better off renting privately and not using a complex?

Vets - How much are vets in CA? How do they work do i need to register my cats before i can visit? Are there good bad / ones if so could someone recommend a good one?

Thanks in advance for any advise you can offer.

Phil

Sally Redux

I am not familiar with that area although on looking it up it it described as a master-planned suburban community.

The cautionary note is that California life is highly car-dependent, and your wife may find her life very restricted if she doesn't drive. What is considered 'close to facilities' is very different here and the heat makes it more difficult to walk to places.

Havnfun

We live in Mission Viejo and my office is on the corner of Crown Valley & Los Altos (First Team Real Estate). I have not been in any of the apartment complexes as I deal with single family homes and condos. There is another large apartment complex called Camden Crown Valley which is in the same area as Archstone.

That is a very convenient location if your wife does not drive. There is bus service in Mission Viejo - it's not great but that area seems to be serviced pretty well because of the hospital, Mall and the College.

Our vet is located at Marguerite & Oso, I am happy with the quality of care and service I get but they are much more expensive than we paid in Canada. My sister-in-law just had a really good experience with another vet in Mission Viejo so I am going to get the contact information and can pass it along. Let me know if you have any other questions.

Good luck with your move

Bob

Welcome to BE and good luck with the move!

But she will learn to drive...if nothing else, the freedom it gives you will help with settling in big time.

Plus walking around in the summer heat after doing a small grocery shop is just crap, it really is.

As for the cat, no idea, but there's been a couple of recent threads on vets, I think they're more general in nature but you might be able to get some good info. There's certainly loads of threads on actually bringing your animals into the US though.

Phil999

Thanks everyone for the advise i will checkout the threads about moving the cats over.

katiekat

Definitely agreed about the driving. While in the winter ("winter in So Cal being like November, December, January) it isn't too bad to walk because it's usually about 70 degrees and sunny, in the summer it easily creeps up into the high 90's and over 100.