Meet California Date Night

This article about California Date Night was originally appeared in the SD Voyager. Click here to read.

Today we’d like to introduce you to Cheryl Garst.

Cheryl, before we jump into specific questions about your work, why don’t you give us some details about you and your story.

As a young girl, I had two dreams: to live in California and to be Indiana Jones. I remember watching T.V. shows, movies and reading magazines about California’s beautiful beaches, perfect weather, and cultural diversity that as a child was very appealing to me. I grew up in Stone Mountain, Georgia, and while there are many things I love about the South, including the people, food and peaches, California just seemed like a magical place.

When I look back at my dream to be like Indiana Jones, I just really wanted to go on all the rad adventures that he did; I mean who wouldn’t want to explore lost tombs in the deserts of Africa, bushwhack through the jungles of South America and find rare and exotic animal species and ancient Mayan temples? This was all very appealing to me as a young girl and today as an adult, minus maybe the extreme bushwhacking or being chased by international warlords.

What started out as two childhood dreams became a reality for me in about 2012. I had just finished nursing school in North Carolina and decided against pursuing a job at one of the hospitals in the area. My brother, Michael, who is a Chief in the U.S. Coast Guard, was stationed here in San Diego and invited me out to stay with him. I said yes in a heartbeat. I bought a little trailer and towed everything I owned across the country with my little Toyota Corolla and never looked back.

From the time I was a young girl until my move to San Diego, most of my traveling adventures had been throughout the United States. After my move, I was hired at Sharp Memorial, where I work as a Registered Nurse (RN) in a medical intensive care unit (ICU). I had the resources and time to expand those adventures to outside the U.S. I have traveled to the ancient Incan ruins in Peru, the Terracotta Army in Xi’an, China, the Great Wall of China, the magnificent pyramids at Teotihuacan, the hidden temples of Angkor Wat, and so much more. It is amazing to look back at all of my adventures and I’m excited to keep exploring and sharing my experiences.

We’re always bombarded by how great it is to pursue your passion, etc – but we’ve spoken with enough people to know that it’s not always easy. Overall, would you say things have been easy for you?

I’d say there are two main challenges at this point. One, Ashley and I both work full-time. As I mentioned, I am an ICU RN and I love what I do, but there are tough days that sometimes require several days of rest and recovery. Ashley is a manager of government relations at the San Diego County Regional Airport Authority and also manages a consulting firm, advising clients that range from athletes, companies, trade associations and more that keep him active. On top of that, we are both very active and invest a lot of time staying in shape. To say we live an active lifestyle might be an understatement, but we are both built that way and it works for us.

The second challenge is that since the launch of California Date Night last fall, we’re seeing increasing interest from local companies that want to collaborate. We are so grateful and honored to have the opportunity to work with awesome people and brands and figuring out how to help as many people as we can have become one of the driving forces behind the work we do.

Tell us more about your work.

Along the way, I met my fiancé Ashley who also has a love for California and a passion for travel and adventure like I do. When we first met, he promised me two things: one, that I would never be bored and two, that he would always date me. As we came together and started creating our own adventures, we wanted an easy way to share what we were doing with our friends and family, and California Date Night was born. When I hear the name California Date Night I’m genuinely happy because it reminds me of the State I love so much and that I have a partner to create amazing life experiences with.

Shortly after we created California Date Night, we received a ton of support from our family and friends. At the same time, we started receiving inquires from people outside of our friend and family unit asking for recommendations on food, travel and date night ideas. Many of these people had seen our posts on social media or read about our adventures on our blog and either tried the same places we did or wanted to and trusted our opinion.

That’s when we realized that we had an opportunity to help fellow foodies, travelers, and the businesses that provided those experiences. One of my favorite sayings is “I live where you vacation” let us face it, San Diego is, in my opinion, the best place to live on earth. The vision I have for California Date Night is not only to give recommendations to our local community regarding food, travel and date night ideas but also to showcase our beautiful city and state as a travel destination.

Has luck played a meaningful role in your life and business?

I am incredibly lucky and grateful that I get to live in a place where people vacation and that we have such a diverse outdoor environment in San Diego not to mention the best climate in the world. I love to mountain bike and I love the variety of trails in the mountains, desert and the beaches that we have access to. Our proximity to Mexico is a huge bonus because of the easy access we have to the culinary and wine scene that is on fire in Baja, California.

Early on in the life of California Date Night, we were fortunate to connect with a supportive local foodie network and also with an active and inspiring group of travel bloggers. These relationships have been a very important part of our growth.

I would be remised to not mention the work I get to do with one of the most incredible health care teams in the world. I can’t say enough about the people I work with that take care of the sickest patients in our region, and I’m thankful for the opportunity we have to participate in important clinical trials in the fight against Covid-19. We are all in this together!

To read the full SD Voyager article, click here.