1. I’m initmately familiar with RB as we’ve been visiting there for the last 15 years (wife’s parents live there). We already have friends just blocks away and the kids are very good friends already with their children.
2. One of the biggest factors for me is being close to my wife’s parents. They live just a 10 minute WALK away and it would be great to have the grandparents close for my kids.
3. Poway Unified schools are a major attraction.
4. being very close to Miramar MCAS and the benefits of using the commissary and who can pass up $1 movies on base?!
5. We’ve been living the coastal climate in LA for the past four years, and I have to admit we love it. But that doesn’t factor in as strongly as the social/family aspects.
6. One thing that many civilians cannot comprehend about military folks is that we’re used to being apart from our families. It comes with the turf. It’s not like I’m going to be in Siberia, I can come home if I need to within a couple of hours, and the commute wouldn’t be a daily drive, I’d stay in a hotel room in LA while I’m up there. Ideally, I’ll just do the commute until a transfer to the company’s San Diego office is viable.