Vintage Value Venture - For When You Can't Stay And Surf

From today's Drudge Report an AP article

Go East, young man? Californians look for the exit

LOS ANGELES – Mike Reilly spent his lifetime chasing the California dream. This year he's going to look for it in Colorado.
With a house purchase near Denver in the works, the 38-year-old engineering contractor plans to move his family 1,200 miles away from his home state's lemon groves, sunshine and beaches. For him, years of rising taxes, dead-end schools, unchecked illegal immigration and clogged traffic have robbed the Golden State of its allure.

Is there something left of the California dream?
"If you are a Hollywood actor," Reilly says, "but not for us."

The number of people leaving California for another state outstripped the number moving in from another state during the year ending on July 1, 2008. California lost a net total of 144,000 people during that period — more than any other state, according to census estimates. That is about equal to the population of Syracuse, N.Y.

Meanwhile...here is a photo taken last weekend on an Orange County beach.

What other state looks like this in the middle of January?

Dead of Winter Surfer at Monarch Beach - Photo courtesy of Jay Rubin Photography

But if you're planning on leaving California for more opportunities...but colder climates

You might at well start shopping for warmer clothes now.

Vintage Lalaounis Ruby Brooch at Beladora.com $2450

Here is a very chic vintage red wool tweed boucle suit with a smart funnel neck collar to keep the cold out. Add a vintage brooch to the collar, like this Lalaounis classic, for a little bling.

Woodland Farms Antiques Red Tweed Suit $165

And since you're not going to be wearing your Jimmy Choo's outside in the snow, here are some functional shearling lined boots from Zappos.com.

La Canadienne Shearling Boots $384

Personally, I'll put up with the taxes and the traffic....because it is 80 degrees in the shade in January.