You sound restless at heart, content in practice :)

I have never been to the US, but a lot of what comes to mind for me concerning california is LA, but I think there is quite a diverse range of environments there. LA doesn't sound nice to me.

we had about two weeks of nice sunny days, but the vast majority of summer so far for us has been thick overcast and rain.

A "normal" summer in the north :D

Just imagine how boring life would be if every plan went off with out a hitch.

I think a lot of our self-worth comes from our experience at overcoming adversity.