Mrs. Brad and I say goodbye to region we love

We arrived in Fairfield-Suisun on a hot Memorial Day weekend in 1986, married less than a year and excited for my new job at the Daily Republic.

We left Fairfield-Suisun on a hot June day in 2018 with a lifetime of memories and a love of a region in which we spent most of our adult lives.

Mrs. Brad and I now live in Walnut Creek, having left Fairfield-Suisun after 32 years – the past 26 years at the same address. We're sad, excited, nostalgic and optimistic.

And grateful.

Unlike some who leave town and complain about the region or about California in general, we love Fairfield-Suisun. It's where we launched our professional careers, began our family, raised our sons, spent most of our careers and grew from our early 20s to our mid-50s. We aren't fully gone – after all, one son lives in Fairfield, the other in Suisun City – but we are no longer residents.

Mrs. Brad's first exposure to Fairfield in 1986 came as we drove down West Texas Street, a few days after I accepted a sports writer position at the Daily Republic.

"Isn't it great?" I asked, enthused.

Mrs. Brad was battling illness. And West Texas Street looked a lot like it does now – strip malls, Allan Witt Park, storefront churches. In her eyes, it was . . . not great.

But we were on an adventure.

We found an apartment (a tight financial fit at $390 a month!) on East Travis Boulevard. We started making friends. We found a church. We moved, moved again and then – after our first son was born – moved into the home where we stayed until this summer.

We grew to love the community.

We loved the west wind and the smell of the Budweiser plant.

We loved Travis Air Force Base and Rockville Hills Park.

We loved the Suisun City waterfront and the mall.

We loved the proximity to the interior Bay Area and the seemingly endless supply of Wade brothers.

We loved our sons' mix of friends and the people in our middle-class, 1970s mass-development neighborhood.

We loved the Daily Republic and eating at the Athenian Grill.

We loved hearing the public address system from Armijo High School and seeing the carnivals at Highway 12 and Marina Boulevard.

We loved hearing the train go past and seeing fires in the wetlands west of town.

We loved going for walks around our neighborhood and shopping at Raley's.

We loved the Fairfield Fourth of July parade and the Suisun City fireworks, as well as the crazy neighborhood fireworks shows after the Suisun City show.

I became a defender of both Fairfield and Suisun City. When people from Vacaville or Davis or the interior Bay Area criticized the cities, I went to war.

I love Fairfield. I love Suisun City.

Now? We moved (gasp!) to one of the cities that I used to criticize for being too affluent and monocultural.

Our first nights in our new home were exciting, but melancholy. It's a new chapter, but it comes after the greatest, most unexpected chapter of our lives.

We moved to Fairfield from our hometown of Eureka in 1986, thinking we would live there for a few years while I built my professional resume.

We wound up putting down stakes there, raising our family, building a lifetime of memories and making lifelong friends.

We're no longer residents of Fairfield-Suisun, but know this: We are eternally grateful to have lived there and we will continue to be ambassadors for the region.

And our old home? Well, that's the subject of next week's column.

A cliffhanger column!

Reach Brad Stanhope at bradstanhope@hotmail.com.