Week 143: Town to City, San Diego to the Bay, Berkeley to Philo, and back

Week 143: September 21st-27th, 2025

This week, I started playing a new city-building game called Town to City. This is a game that is a “cozy, grid-less city-building video game developed by Galaxy rove and published by Kwalee.” It was launched for PC on Steam for Early Access on September 16th. “Players start with a train station and an empty plot of land, transforming a 19th-century Mediterranean tow into a bustling city by freely placing buildings, decorations, and natural elements to meet the needs of their growing population.” I love the voxel art style of the game. It is very similar to Minecraft’s boxy pixelated shapes. I played the free demo for over two hours, which is impressive considering most demos for games are pretty lackluster. I was immediately hooked, and bought the full Early Access version literally as soon as I finished the demo.

The cute art style for Town to City!

In my opinion, the Town to City game is a cuter, simpler version of City Skylines (which I have over 600 playing hours in). I love building worlds and cities, and the special decorations and fun art style make this one a bit less stressful than the traffic and sewer management that comes with Cities Skylines. I absolutely love the soundtrack, and I think this game is going to do really well in the cozy gaming community. You can read more about Town to City on Steam here or on IGN here.

Now, while I could have spent the entire week and weekend glued to my computer playing Town to City, I did actually have real life plans to unplug for a bit and travel back to the Bay Area. So, while I was digitally going from Town to City, I had to travel in real life from San Diego to the Bay Area. This gave me a chance to see the new and improved Terminal 1 at the San Diego Airport. Ever since I started college back in 2017, Terminal 1 at SAN has been an absolute nightmare. There were NEVER enough seats at each gate, and the layout was horrendous. It almost made flying Southwest unbearable. However, this time around, things were quite bearable. I was pleasantly surprised and impressed with the facelift that Terminal 1 got. Though Southwest Airlines has recently been making bad business decisions (what do you mean I don’t have a free checked bag anymore!?), it continues to be the most affordable option to fly between San Diego and Oakland airports when I visit home. Despite my really poor dinner planning skills leading to an overpriced chicken sandwich and Vita Coconut water for $24, I had a good first impression of the new Terminal 1 and look forward to more flights in the future.

My trip up to the Bay Area was mainly for another fun cousins’ trip up to Philo - just like the one back in Week 38. I love catching up with my cousins, Georgia and Paolina, and because we have known each other for so long, everything feels easy. We laugh a lot, eat good food, and reminisce on our childhoods. We got to stop at our old favorites like Lemon’s Market and Navarro Winery, and even had a great cider tasting at Gowan's.

We also got to try a new spot next to Lemon’s called Jumbo’s Win Win, which offered nostalgic diner vibes, burgers, and Straus soft serve. We walked the classic Hendy Woods hike and visited our old river spots with the property’s silly white dog, who I think was named Kayla (?).

 On the drive home, we changed our plans due to bad air quality near Mendocino and instead drove through Gualala and down the 101 South. In Gualala, we had great chai, apple and pear pie and a “Famous Veggie Pie” at Trinks Cafe, checked out a bunch of weird art at an art gallery, and “ooh”-ed and “aah”-ed at the grey gorgeousness of the cliffside beach towns along the 101.

Having no cell service for the majority of the drive home meant I could either nap or yap. I (obviously) chose to yap with my cousins because we love to laugh and enjoy each others’ company.

This was a fun trip home and helped prepare me mentally for my next Bay Area trip for much longer in November. I’ll be watching our beloved blind (and deaf) old man/rat/bat combo of a 5-pound dog, Kingsley, while my parents are in Scotland for a wedding. Now, back to my beloved screen time back in San Diego, and my new fixation of Town to City.

See you next week.