About Us
Where it all began…
It was the start of a new school year, our final year at San Diego State University, and we had both been placed in two of the same classes together. We didn’t know each other at the time, but one afternoon while in politics class, we sat next to one another and ended up talking throughout the entire class about our shared love for waterskiing. Clearly we were not paying any attention to the lecture. This random conversation about waterskiing turned out to be a life-altering moment for the both of us. By the end of class, we had exchanged phone numbers and by the following Friday (December 9th to be exact) we were on our first date downtown at the San Diego Symphony listening to Beethoven’s 9th. Neither of us are classical music connoisseurs, to be sure, but we both agree that our date at the symphony is one of our favorite memories that we have together and hands down the best date either of us have ever been on.
We decided to move in together a little after our one-year anniversary and, although it was a big leap, we knew it was what was best for the both of us and it turned out to be an amazing decision! Fast forward to almost two years and here we are now living together with our good friend Peter and our beautiful rescue pup, Maple. We love our very open and simple apartment that is located just minutes from the beach. As the tide rolls in, our view of the Mission Bay Marsh fills with water and provides a gorgeous scene that we love to watch time and time again. We are so appreciative of this life for it is good and it is ours to share.
It didn’t take long for us to meet, fall in love, move in together, rescue a puppy and begin this beautiful life journey with one another. What can we say? When you know, you know. It also wasn’t long before we knew that we wanted to start something together. Something that could bring value to others, a platform for us to share our thoughts, ideas and tie together a community of people from all kinds of backgrounds. We both love expressing ourselves in creative ways and feel very passionately about creating happiness and sharing our life experiences with the world. And so… Live Simply California was born!
Kimberly Montgomery
Hello beautiful person!!
I’d like to take this opportunity to personally introduce myself to you. If you don’t personally know me (yet) then I am so glad you are here! I LOVE meeting new people and am looking forward to you joining our awesome community! I guess I should start off this introduction by telling you a little bit about me.
Where do I even start? Well, to begin, I grew up in Orange County, CA until the tender age of eighteen when I packed my life away to move down to San Diego for college— Go Aztecs! I have since graduated with a degree in Communication accompanied by a minor in Marketing and have decided that San Diego is home. After spending four amazing years living in paradise (they don’t call it “Sunny San Diego” for nothing!) I think it’s safe to say I’m not going anywhere anytime soon :) Since moving here, I feel that I’ve really acclimated myself to the “San Diego Lifestyle”. I live on the beach, practice yoga, surf (not well I might add), hike, free-dive and, of course, eat lots of tacos— Taco Tuesday anyone?
Oh and the absolute best part? The boy I had a crush on in college… well, turns out he liked me too and now we’re living together in the cutest little space by the beach! We also live with our good friend Peter (hi Pete) AND our beautiful baby girl— well fur baby that is. Her name is Maple and Duncan and I rescued her together about a year into our relationship! (crazy I know) She is a Rottweiler Mix and also the biggest snuggle bug :)
As I’m navigating through my twenties, I’m starting to discover more of what I’m passionate about and what brings me genuine joy. One of these revelations turned out to be my love for travel. This really began in college when I studied abroad while living in a small town in France for close to a year. While living in France, I was able to visit twenty-seven other countries all while studying marketing at a graduate-level curriculum. It was all so crazy, exhausting and wonderful at the same time. I truly believe that experience matured me in ways that I had expected. When I returned home and the adventure died down, I realized how much I missed seeing new places and experiencing different cultures. Because of this, I decided to start venturing out of my comfort zone more and traveling when I could. I also had the realization that I live in such an amazing, beautiful place and have yet to have see a lot of its beauty. Lucky for me, Duncan also shares the same passion for travel and we have made it tradition to gift one another fun trips for our birthday presents each year!
Another big passion of mine actually stemmed from my love for travel— photography. When I traveled to new places, I had wanted to imprint the memories in my mind forever and that is exactly what photography has done for me. The process of taking the pictures and then getting to edit them using different editing software almost feels like an art to me. It is also just so fun and so rewarding! I love to print my work and hang them up in our room, make scrapbooks for Duncan’s and my anniversary every year, and even have them printed and blown up as decoration! (my parents have an enormous print that I took while in Paris hung up in their kitchen nook!) My favorite subjects to photograph are landscapes, portraits, underwater shots and action sports like surfing and wake-boarding.
My love for both travel and photography has spilled over into Live Simply California. I love documenting our lifestyle and travels and hope that by doing so, we can spread the power of positivity and the idea that living simply will not only benefit us, but others as well. I feel that I have so much to share with you all. I am also so very eager to learn from every one of you! And that is what I want Live Simply California to be about— community. I want this to be a platform for everyone to feel welcome to share and benefit from one another. I’m so excited to see what we all can create!
Until next time,
-Kim
Duncan Rains
This is my Truth
Hey Friends!
I want to take the time to introduce myself and share a few things that you may or may not know about me. Think of this as our own personal coffee date :)
I was born December 19th 1993 making me 24 years young.
I was born in the amazing little town of Ojai, triangulated east between Santa Barbara and Ventura, California. Ojai offers many things unique. As a kid I was able to walk around the streets at night safely - a privilege I will always be grateful for. I could be exploring the orange groves nestled up against the base of the mountains that surround the valley 360 degrees with just a few minutes walk from my house, or and ride my bike to the local water holes for a summer afternoon cool-off. Some kids proclaim there is nothing to do in Ojai. I always thought it was paradise.
Raised by the most supportive and hard-working mother and understanding father my sister and I were always held to high standards. My sister Tait is 13 month younger than I am and is one of the most beautiful and hard-working persons I know. Our parents separated when I was 10 so we were raised by our mom. I spent the first 21 years of my life here in Ojai completing High School, Community College at Santa Barbara CC and working since I was 15. I grew up loving sports, all the school sponsored ones from baseball to swim team, until I began loving more untraditional activities like mountain biking, surfing, yoga and spearfishing.
Fast forward to my 21st year I studied abroad in Spain (Sí, hablo español pero no perfectamente) and fell in love with travelling. I have been to Italy, Portugal, Thailand, many places in Spain and Mexico, and will be travelling to Australia in November! I moved to San Diego in 2015 to finish my BA in Communication and Leadership at SDSU where I met my perfect girlfriend Kim. We share a cute little apartment in Crown Point with our precious Rotty Mix Maple and our friend Peter.
I work in hospitality as a Bellman/Valet but will be leaving soon for flight school to learn how to fly the Lockheed Martin C-130J for the Channel Islands Air National Guard 115th Airlift squadron where I will start my career as a Pilot! I currently hold my single engine airplane private pilot license.
I believe in the power of positivity and compassion and that we all have the potential to live the life we truly desire. Life is not meant to be lived for the weekends so spend time every day doing something you love!
As William Ernest Henley proclaims,
I am the master of my fate
I am the captain of my soul
Keep it simple everyone,
-Duncan