Lots of people hear “SD has great weather” but they don’t really understand what it means to your lifestyle to have the kind of weather we have.
I can play soccer or beach volleyball any week of the year. Mid-Dec. Mid Jan. Doesn’t matter. Still nice enough to play.
The list of things you can do outdoors here year-round here is endless: sailing, kayaking, any outdoor sport, barbeque. Name it.
The weather is simply never in the way. It is hard to appreciate that unless you have lived both here and somewhere that is cold in the winter, or hot in the Summer.
Gardening year-round. This includes citrus. Fresh lemons every month of the year.
I do not own an ice scraper.
I don’t own an air conditioner.
I only wear jackets when I travel. A sweatshirt or wind-breaker over a long-sleeve shirt suffice.
I don’t have to keep my engine warm overnight so that it starts. Even on the coldest days I get in my car, start it and drive away.
In 13 years I have never hit ice on the road. Not even sure I have been on a road with ice on it here.
Other things I like:
The terrain. I hate places where the trees are taller than the hills (Florida, for example). Something in my psyche doesn’t like that. Here, we have canyons and beaches and mesas and bays and cliffs and mountains so it is very geographically interesting.
Proximity to Mexico, California agriculture and the ocean make for some pretty nice restaurants both low and high end. I love the food here. Not as good as SF, but good. Some of the ethnic foods are kind of lame here – Indian and Middle Eastern, for example, are not too exciting.