Orland, California by way of the beach
This is a great thread! I love hearing about everyone's hometown, either current or where they grew up, or both.
I grew up on the beaches of Ventura, California (south of Santa Barbara...and hello there fatbottomed girl in Simi Valley!) but now live in Orland, California. Hardly anyone knows of us, but when we tell them we're about 20 miles west of Chico, then the light bulb goes on. Good bike riding there, one of the largest municipal parks in the nation, Sierra Nevada Brewing Company, and Cal State Chico, which is trying to overcome a party-school rep.
Anyway, when we moved here from Ventura we pretty much went into culture shock. There are REAL COWBOYS here wearing tight Wranglers and REAL SPURS and there are more cows than people. We're at about 6,500 residents, and our county has about 26,000 total.
Orland was once in the Guiness Book of World Records for having the most churches and bars per capita than any other city in the U.S.
We grow olives and rice and almonds. Cal Worthington lives here (but not his dog Spot). We're about halfway between Sacramento and the Oregon border, and Tahoe and Mt. Shasta are an easy morning's drive for skiing.
Besides the wonderful small-town environment, what I love about my little city is that on every holiday where an American flag is in order, such as Veterans Day, Memorial Day, etc., the local Boy Scouts put up hundreds of large American flags along the two miles of the city's main street. They drilled holes in the sidewalk near the curb for each flag's pole, and the flags are spaced about 20 feet from each other. It's absolutely spectacular, and when the flags went up after 9/11, it was nearly impossible to drive down the main drag without crying.
Oh, you are making me drool!
Oh,....crab cakes and steamed blue crabs...yummy! :D I used to go to a cool restaurant in MD that was out over the bay and had a crowd: it had tables covered with paper shelf stuff and the crabs were served steamed on lunchroom trays piled high. There was a deep sink and a waiter with clean towels at each end of the place. :confused:
All you could hear was the whacking sound of people beating their piles of steamed crabs to eatable pieces and the sound of shells flying all over...and lots of slurping and gulping sounds of deliriously happy crab eaters... :eek:
They served seasoned red salt and vinegar for the crabs and people in all kinds of dress, from mink and diamonds to bib overalls were in there eating. I think it was called "Captain Johns" or something like that.
It burned down and I don't think they ever rebuilt it, but no kidding the best STEAMED CRABS ARE FROM MARYLAND! ;)
I really miss Maryland crabmeat, cakes, everything food related to seafood there....wahhhhhhh!:o
Bee-utiful shots from Australia!!
Wow, what amazing shots, especially the underwater one, you too-cool gal from Australia! Thanks so much for the photos...say how did you get them to display in your post? You are new here but so am I, and I don't know how to do it. Send us more, photos of your beautiful country and Welcome to TE!! :D
I love this thread, getting some great ideas of places to visit. I think my nosebleed from the Capilano bridge stopped, now I have "rocky mountain quick step disease from even contemplating what being on that swaying, rocking nightmare of a mile high bridge must be like.......eeeeeeeeeekkkkkkk!! I think I'm gonna hurl........:eek:
City Of Churches (long post)
I live in Adelaide, which is nestled beween the Gulf St Vincent (which flows into the Great Southern Ocean and the Mt Lofty Ranges (aka the Adelaide Hills). I live in the foothills. Adelaide is the cycling capital of Australia, with the Tour Down Under and the Australian Championships held here each year. The Australian Institute of Sport (AIS) cyclists train here, and amazing world and Olympic champions like Kerrie and Anna Meares live here. Stuart O'Grady is also from here, as is Lleyton Hewitt (tennis) and Jason Gillespie (cricket, a game we former colonials play with gusto). Oh, and Andy Thomas is our astronaut (flew on last space shuttle).
We host the Adelaide International Festival For The Arts which includes Writers Week and Artists Week, and the Adelaide Fringe Festival, which is huuge - Edinburgh Fringe in Scotland is the only one larger (we suffer from a tyranny of distance). We also host WOMAD, a world music and dance festival held in particular countries aross the planet, initiated by Peter Gabriel. With all that music, it's quite appropriate that we're also a sister city to Austin, Texas (I went to SXSW in 2002 - fantastic!). Um, there's a big car race too, but I just don't get it. Early next year we're hosting the World Police and Fire Games - all those big strong cops and fireys - swoon!:D
An hour north and south of here is the Barossa Valley vineyards and the McLaren Vale vineyards respectively - a trip the locals make quite regularly! The TDU runs through both these regions, while the Aust champs are in the Adelaide Hills (which also boasts a very strong viticulture history).
We enjoy what is termed a mediterranean climate - long hot summers, balmy autumn (fall) and spring and quite cool winters (which feel bloody cold to me!). Thousands of bikers for about nine months of the year, from the hills to the coast. Then hundreds.
And why are we known as the City Of Churches? South Australia was the only free colony settled in Australia - the others began as penal colonies for the British. Lots of very radical thinkers flocked here from all over Europe, and one of the cornerstones of the colony was that every person, regardless of their religion, had the right to worship whom they pleased, and to build places of worship to that effect. Hence, amongst the first substantial buildings, were mosques, synagogues, temples, and eastern and western churches. Very soon, tis true, the public houses far outnumbered the churches, but the sobriquet is about the variety, rather than the number, so all's well! If you ever decide to come to the Tour Down Under (remember there's a century for the public to ride over the same route as the pros), give me a hoy.
