That's what I'll be doing next week, heading up into the mountains on a bicycle tour. Hopefully the weather holds up but you never know up there haha. Your story is a rare case, the city/metro is a seller's market. People are getting outbid by $30k+ in cash and there's no way in hell I'd be able to compete with these rich Californians.
Doesn't even include all the extra costs either! I'm not worried about it, I just may not live here for the rest of my life. For now I'm fine with it since I'm renting somewhere close to downtown and there's no way in hell I'd be able to afford a house out in this area even if the market wasn't ridiculously competitive. Glad to hear it worked out for somebody though, watch the value of your property skyrocket without even doing anything to it lol.