California

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OVERKILL

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So I'm here in sunny California, Mountain View/Stanford/Palo Alto area. Flew into San Francisco, leave in a couple of days. My benchmark US city is still the Raleigh/Durham area (Chapel Hill) in North Carolina for favourite place in the United States.

- There are a LOT of ads for "US Solar" on TV here.
- I have seen more Tesla Model S and X vehicles in the last few days than I've seen in my life. They are EVERYWHERE. Also a ton of Chevy Volt cars around.
- San Francisco is not as clean as I expected, heck, the whole area isn't. This is in stark contrast to NC, which was pristine.
- The people are quite friendly
- It is DRY. Not quite Dallas "everything is brown and burnt" dry, but still very dry
- The "U-Turn" intersections with the median are new to me. Kind of a weird way of doing things
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- Fuel, food...etc. More expensive than other states I've visited. Still cheaper than Canada.

Will try and snap a few pics, however, I was sick for the first two days I was here unfortunately, so I haven't had much time to get out.
 
I grew up in the San Francisco bay area . I was born in 1953 and growing up in Millbrae California was a wonderful place to grow up, by the 1990 the Bay ares was turning in to an over populated socialized mecca of filth and ugly. I moved July 2000. I spent a few weeks in Millbrae Taking care of some real estate sales and what a rotten disgusting area now. People in the tech must like the filth and scum.
 
The Texas U turn is all over the state, it takes some getting used to. Make sure you are in the correct turn lane, or you will find yourself forced into a u turn.
 







Some recent pics from Santa Barbara. Top one is looking at Santa Barbara from Butterfly Beach in Montecito. The next 3 are at my house this morning. The last one was a co-worker's post on FB yesterday at work. They have already said that techs will be off since it is an outside shop. I will probably have to go in to answer phones. I have the N95 masks on hand and am waiting for Amazon to deliver a dual cartridge respirator.
 
Originally Posted By: Danno
Texas has that U-turn intersection as well. Different, but effective in moving traffic imo.


Yeah, I had limited exposure to it outside of Dallas, however this is like every intersection here, which made it more curious. It is effective, but takes a bit to get used to.
 
Originally Posted By: bdcardinal







Some recent pics from Santa Barbara. Top one is looking at Santa Barbara from Butterfly Beach in Montecito. The next 3 are at my house this morning. The last one was a co-worker's post on FB yesterday at work. They have already said that techs will be off since it is an outside shop. I will probably have to go in to answer phones. I have the N95 masks on hand and am waiting for Amazon to deliver a dual cartridge respirator.


WOW!!

Big talk on the news up this way is the smoke blowing up the coast affecting air quality. Obviously doesn't hold a candle to what you are going through though
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Land in SFO tonight.

Short layover and back to EWR.

SFO is a great city - always liked it.

Could never live there, however....
 
Originally Posted By: bdcardinal
Get ready, the smoke is in San Luis Obispo County and there are reports of smoke in Monterrey County.
When I lived in Palo Cedro Ca. It seemed every other summer was like the pics you posted. There are always wild land fires. some man made and some lightening caused.
 
Northern California is nice, but San Diego is the place to be in California.
 
Originally Posted By: dishdude
Northern California is nice, but San Diego is the place to be in California.


+1, including North County San Diego and anywhere to the east.

If you want peace and quiet Carlsbad is worth looking at.
 
You haven't really experienced California driving until you've been creeping along in traffic and had a motorcycle blast by your driver's door splitting the lanes... legally.

Daughter lived in Ca for 8 years, SD, SF, LA, and could not wait to get out. Neat place to visit but...
 
Originally Posted By: CT8
I spent a few weeks in Millbrae Taking care of some real estate sales and what a rotten disgusting area now. People in the tech must like the filth and scum.


You couldn't force me to live there.

Originally Posted By: JustinH
The Texas U turn is all over the state, it takes some getting used to. Make sure you are in the correct turn lane, or you will find yourself forced into a u turn.


They are TRULY NECESSARY in many areas... just as important as driving straight.
 
I like The SF area but prefer SD and Monterey. CA is pretty all over, but you're right, SF isn't that clean, and has what seems to me to be a greater percentage of homeless, junkies and odd vagrants around as compared to other places.

But some of the views and sightseeing opportunities are spectacular.

Be sure to get up the hill above Berkeley for a sunset.

 
San Francisco is the most different city I've ever seen. Nowhere to park, I only drove through it. I could never drive a stick shift there, I drove my VW with a DSG and I wanted to rip my hair out it was so painful. Touching the brakes basically puts the car in neutral, so letting off the brake to go for the gas pedal made the car roll back. Then that makes you push the pedal harder and you spin the tires.

I'm not sure what you mean by u turn medians? I think we have those? Maybe I'm just used to them.

San Francisco is dry? You'd freak out here in Phoenix
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We finally got "rain" last week. It had been 103 days without rain. Literally got a whopping .07" of rain (or 0.178 cm).
 
Originally Posted By: OneEyeJack
Originally Posted By: dishdude
Northern California is nice, but San Diego is the place to be in California.


+1, including North County San Diego and anywhere to the east.

If you want peace and quiet Carlsbad is worth looking at.
I have lived all of my 54 years in San Diego. Im in East County now out in the hills and love it. I can't see ever moving from here. IMHO SF is disgusting.
 
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Y'all:

San Francisco (AKA "The City") is a remarkable city - both good and bad. I was on the 30th floor of Embarcadero #4 during the 1989 Loma Prieta earthquake. Briefly stated, that was a bit wild and hair raising.

But one thing about Cali, where can you do things like this, and do them 340 days a year? This is me on my Campagnolo Record equipped Seven Axiom road bike on a section of Peachy Canyon Road near our house. Year round, I ride this road about 5 days a week. There aren't many places in the World where you can do something like this. And not just because of the weather. The Santa Lucia range has a network of fantastic roads like these, many with miles long climbs of 10%, and short spikes of 20%+. Pant, pant, gasp, gasp! :))

Cheers,

Scott

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PEkOnA2HSbk
 
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