Well, I wouldn’t say that I’ve seen it all. I never visited the LA area, think I just didn’t want to deal with the traffic, plus there’s nothing there that compares with the more scenic parts of the state. I would still like to have gone to King’s Canyon and Sequoia, but you can’t see it all.
I’ve also been up in Oregon and Washington state. They both have their own appeal, like Crater Lake, Mt Rainier, Olympic Natl Parks are quite nice, and the Oregon coast is very beautiful.
Now that we’re in this part of the country, I’d like to see some of the sights around here. Always wanted to go to New England in the fall, or the Blue Ridge Pkwy, Gettysburg, stuff like that. We’ll see.
Absolutely! SoCal has some awesome National Parks too. And I’ve also seen the more scenic areas of Oregon as well you’ve checked out as well. Need to get out to the New England area one of these days. Have done tons of Intl travel, but still have to see much more of the US.
Skyline Drive (Shenandoah Valley) is an amazing drive in Autumn. It’s worth your time if you are ever in the area. Having grown up someplace very flat, I appreciate the Appalachians.
I used to be into Civil War history, so obviously I wanted to see all the famous battleground sites like Gettysburg, Antietam, Fredericksburg and so on. Now that we’re a lot closer to those areas I’d like to do like a tour of those sites. Seeing the Blue Ridge would be a logical side trip.
I’ve done a route check, and we’re only about 8 hours drive time from Gettysburg, so it’s something we could do over a weekend.
We took our five kids to Gettysburg when they were high school age and below. We had a car audio tape to listen to as we drove around the battlefield. Sad music. Then we went to a museum where it had illustrations of how many deaths there were in various events. We were all so depressed from it all that it took a day or two to recover and enjoy our vacation! Some heavy stuff!
This article from NPR that showed up on my FB feed seems a apropos to this thread and the forum:
Winter rain here is problematic. We are going to have the freezing rain crap this weekend (as is discussed in another thread). The worst kind of precipitation…
Very true. But It’s pretty incredible how much drought relief occurred in a week. I had to travel up through the Sacramento Valley today for work, and it’s breathtaking the amount of instant lakes, and standing water there is in some of the fields/swollen rivers. Crazy.
From the 60’s to the mid 70’s one family of relatives lived in South Lake Tahoe. My cousins there were on the ski patrol. In those years the winter snowfall would leave telephone lines only 3 to 5 feet above the snowpack. Their job was to tag the lines with bright red flags so that residents and visitors didn’t injure themselves. That’s what I think of as “normal” snow fall.
Yeah, I imagine it would be very moving and humbling to be in such a hallowed place.
I’ve never been to a Civil War site, but about ten years ago, I was at the American cemetery at Omaha Beach in France and seeing that sea of white crosses on that perfectly manicured lawn was quite an emotional experience.
It was a surreal scene to see the sea birds fluttering above the beach, and hear the tide quietly lapping on the sands knowing what happened there just a couple generations ago.
Several years ago, my civil war buff young son and I visited several battle sites. At Antietam, he drug me out of the car and across the grounds to a series of ditches and small ridges and told me, “Dad, we’re standing on hallowed ground. 25000 men fell here.” I still weep.
Well, I know this is a thread about Cali rains, but man, it’s been a wet winter here. Seems like it’s been raining off and on almost every day for the New Year, and they’re saying the same pattern thru next week. The only good thing is that it hasn’t been cold enough for frozen precip.
I’ve been aiming to fix the leaky roof on our old house, but the weather’s not been cooperating this year. Every little bit of rain we get means more drip, drip, dripping onto the ceiling. Oh well, can’t control the weather, just guess I’ll have to watch some football today…
