Your city/hometown

Hey ladies,

As i was biking this evening, i thought about asking you lovely ladies about your city or hometown.(I know i mentioned something like this in the SS thread but will put it here...)

Is there something well known or special about your town/hometown? I know very little about many of your hometowns and would love to know more..I know i could google but i'd be here for a while....(Curious about missouri for some reason...)

So i'll start...1-from what i understand Perth is the most isolated capital city in the world. 2Western australia has 12500km of coastline...!!! 3-The rabbit proof fence is/was situated in WA & is the longest in the world...

c

My hometown where I was born was supposedly the place that Ben Franklin flew his little kite thinger?

I don't know much about the town I live in now, but the next town over and the town that I really really wanna live in, is the town where The Blob was filmed! The theater in the movie that everyone runs screaming out of is the still in operation and every summer they have a Blobfest where theres a parade and people dress up as characters and then they load people into the theater and watch the film and re-enact the running-from-the-theater scene. I'm totally gonna go this year.

K.

Also: I saw Rabbit Proof Fence and OMG was that the saddest movie ever...

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Curious about missouri for some reason...)

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I grew up in Camdenton, Missouri. There really isn't much to brag about, but it is on the RAAM route and the people are extremely friendly. That's the aspect that I miss the most about the Mid-West.

[QUOTE][I don't know much about the town I live in now, but the next town over and the town that I really really wanna live in, is the town where The Blob was filmed! The theater in the movie that everyone runs screaming out of is the still in operation and every summer they have a Blobfest where theres a parade and people dress up as characters and then they load people into the theater and watch the film and re-enact the running-from-the-theater scene. I'm totally gonna go this year.
/QUOTE]

I have lived in Phoenixville, PA for the about 10 years (yup, home of the blobfest!)...I love it here!

Hometown : Milwaukee, WI

Everyone thinks beer, brats, and Friday Fish Fry when discussing Milwaukee but there really is a lot more.

We are also known as the City of Festivals. We have a beautiful lakefront area which hosts a different ethic festival every weekend of the summer.

Our main festival, Summerfest, which runs for ten days from the end of June into July is really worth coming to town for. There are multiple stages with all different types of music going on all day. It really attracts some great acts. A few years ago Billboard Magazine even rated it as the best music festival in the country.

We also have a first class zoo and excellent museums. Our art museum got a fabulous makeover with an new addition designed by Santiago Calatrava.

i was born and raised in herkimer, ny.... in the mohawk river valley of upstate new york.... right smack in the middle of the state!

herkimer was named after a revolutionary war general.... his home is still a popular place to visit on the mohawk river/barge canal..... the whole area is rich in history.... a lot of people don't realize that upstate NY has a lot of agriculture and dairy farming... most people think of NYC when you mention NY (hubby fell in love with the area when he visited.. all the older colonial homes.... the green grass... trees.... cows.... far from what he stereotypical pictured for "new york") even though we lived in the middle of town, we was fortunate that our grandparents had a small "hobby" farm with a few cows.... my sister and i would spend our younger summers at their house during the day... playing in the hay barn... in the neighbors corn fields... with the cows! (one of my most traumatic memories was walking through the middle of a neighboring barn and a cow with runny poop splattering ALL over me! UGH! yes... i was a priss even back then and that was VERY traumatic! another traumatic memory.... when i found out that one of the little cows had actually been purchasefd for and meat! i NEVER ate ANY of it! if my mom was cooking that meat.... i got to eat spaghettios.... i look back now and wonder how i would have known the difference?????? but she appeased me for some reason and didn't make me eat it!)

we are "famous" for herkimer diamonds..

we are close to remington guns (in ilion... where my mom grew up) and utica.... which, of course had the fx matt brewery.... home of utica club beer *rolls eyes* and the boilermaker race.....cooperstown and the baseball hall of fame is also just a short drive away... all in all... a nice area to grow up in and to be able to go back and visit!

oh... we're also an exit on the new york state thruway! lol!

I actually grew up in the bayou country of Louisiana. Sure do miss crawfish! I married a Georgia boy, and for the last 20 years have lived in or near Dalton, Georgia, the Carpet Capital of the World. Most of the carpet made in the United States is made in a three-county area centered around Dalton. Shaw, Mohawk, and Beaulieu are headquartered here. However, neither DH nor I work in the carpet industry.

The Tour de Georgia will roll through here next Friday, and BRAG begins here the second weekend in June. We're 25 south miles of Chattanooga, TN, and 90 miles north of Atlanta.

KB

I'm in San Diego, CA. Famous for surfing, fish tacos, near perfect weather, the start for RAAM every year, and Hotel Del Coronado. Also a military town with both Miramar Naval Base (where Top Gun was filmed) as well as Camp Pendleton...

every fall the Blue Angels fly over my office for 5 days during the air show... I sit in the grass outside and eat lunch so I can watch them without fighting the crowds!

We have wonderful riding routes... inland is plenty of climbing and you can ride the coastline from LA to San Diego cycling along the water most of the way... really neat to be riding and watching the surfers catch waves!:)

I grew up in Redlands, CA. Known for lots of WASPs, old victorian mansions, and the Redlands Bicycle Classic. ;)

Hometown: Victoria BC
http://www.tourismvictoria.com/

Originally a Hudson's Bay Company trading outpost and Gold Rush staging point in the 1800's, Victoria was built largely by Chinese and Kanaka labourers and ruled by the British. Today Greater Victoria is the capital of British Columbia and a city of 350,000 laid-back, slightly off-centre folks, most of whom have ended up here on the island to escape from the harsh climate in the rest of Canada, as well as ex-pats and wanderers from all over the world.
Some of our most notable events are the Swiftsure and Victoria-to-Maui yacht races, Tall Ship Festival, FolkFest...a celebration of multiculturalism, and the Victoria Cycling Festival (yay! :D )
Hope you can visit sometime!

Popoki... also the Gardens! I love Buschart Gardens (sp?)... and Stanley Gardens in Vancouver... as well as Capilano Suspension Bridge... Victoria and Vancouver are both just gorgeous!

...Yes, I have lived in 57 places in my 62 years... :eek: I consider a lot of places my "hometown".. but I spent most of my life in one place, Asheville, North Carolina...up in the Appalachian mountains, close to the Blue Ridge Parkway of western North Carolina....probably the most gorgeous mountains on earth... http://www.exploreasheville.com/

Asheville is famous as being the home of THOMAS WOLFE, a famous author whose stories made the theatre screen in "Cat on a Hot Tin Roof"... He wrote "Look Homeward Angel" and "You Can't Go Home again".... ;) http://library.uncwil.edu/wolfe/wolfe.html

Asheville was voted the "Best City to Live in" back in the late 90's because of it' s mild climate, lots of beautiful mountains, low cost of living and tourist attractions (golf, hiking, great dining, mountains). People flock from all over in the fall to view the incredible colors of the Blue Ridge Mountains. It used to be one of TWO International Weather Records Centers in the US, but after the cold war, those centers were dispearsed all over because of security reasons. The military depends on those weather forcasts!

It's home to the famous Biltmore Home and Gardens, an amazing estate....
http://www.biltmore.com/

I loved living there and have a lot of memories. Billy Graham used to come to my high school and he lives in a small community nearby, Black Mountain, NC.

I imagine biking would be so much fun there, because of all the tree-shaded roads and gentle hill. :D

Oh, the southland, how beautiful... here are some shots from the Bayou country that I took from the cab of our truck when were there...(no more trucking for us, a year was enough...)

I grew up in Mustang, Oklahoma. The Chisholm Trail passes through at the Western edge of town (a whole 12 square miles of town). It's also where Kendall Cross, the Atlanta Olympics gold medalist in wrestling grew up (he was on the same team as one of my brothers). We've also had a few famous football players come through here, but I can't think of the names right now, which is completely unheard of for someone who went to OU. Oh well, I'm not that crazy about football anyways ;)

My hometown is Newton, MA. Known for being the birthplace of the Fig Newton cookie and having a great school system. I have also lived in Miami, FL (ugh), Tempe, AZ, Philadelphia (briefly), and Tyngsborough, Boxborough, and now Concord, MA. The Old North Bridge (the "shot heard round the world") is 3 miles from my house. I live in a town where tourists come from all over the world! Still can't get used to it.

Hey Caligurl, I have been to the Herkimer Diamond Mine! My mother is from Middleburgh, NY. Not exactly next door, but in the area.

Ok, Rochester is the home of Kodak. We also have one of the largest Lilac Festivals in the country every May, beautiful sight! Susan B. Anthony and Frederick Douglass lived here. We are also the home of Wegmans grocery stores, if you've ever been in one, you know how wonderful they are.

famous for fog, and currently rain.
known for the Summer of Love, Gay liberation, and good coffee.

"If you're goin' to San Francisco,
be sure to wear some flowers in your hair"

Here are some photos we took of some of the places you all are posting about... Are any of these familiar to you? The restaurant and arboretum are in Milwaukee, the Rocket shot is in Alabama, the elevated highways are in Louisiana, and so forth.... The mountain that's snowy is out side and west of Denver....Enjoy!

My hometown, Santa Rosa, CA, is probably best known as the home of Charles Schultz & Snoopy's Home Ice. Among cyclists, it's known as the place Levi Leipheimer currently calls home and the Amgen Tour of California finished it's first stage here to amazing crowds. Among gardeners, it's probably best known as the home of Luther Burbank. For those Hunter S. Thompson fans, he was treated at our Memorial Hospital when he got stomped by the Hell's Angels.

We were blessed to be able to travel from coast to coast, except for then NE states and I have photos of so many places to share...do any of you know these places or scenes?

Hey, why don't you all post photos of your favorite places? :D We'd love to see photos of your hometowns, too!

mmelindas, I have a friend that lives in Asheville! I hear it is one of the greatest towns to live in if you're into the outdoors.

Mmmm....don't tease me with NC climbing!

Here's another entry for San Francisco...

I was born and raised here as was my dad.

Some famous San Franciscans include Ansel Adams, Gracie Allen, Mel Blanc, Jack London, Robert Louis Stevenson, as well as Clint Eastwood, Bruce Lee and Joe DiMaggio.

We're famous for Lombard Street, which actually isn't the crookedest street in the city...Levi's jeans (the jeans were patented in 1873), Victorian houses, Golden gate Park (which is 147 acres larger than NYC's Central Park), the Golden Gate Bridge, and Alcatraz (the prison on an island in San Francisco Bay that once housed Al Capone).

The city is 7 miles x 7 miles, barred from expansion by water on three sides. Our population hovers around 750, 000. There are nearly 17,000 people per sq. mile here.

The United States claimed San Francisco in 1847 during the Mexican American War. Two years later, with the discovery of gold in the California foothills, the population exploded. Railroad barons made their home in San Francisco (Mark Hopkins, Leland Stanford)

In April 1945, the UN Charter was signed at the United Nations Plaza, Civic Center.

We're about to mark the 100th anniversary of the April 18, 1906 earthquake. The city's flag depicts the rising phoenix, and our motto is, "Oro en Paz, Fierro en Guerra" : "Gold in Peace, Iron in War".

I currently live in Oak Park, IL. Home of Frank Lloyd Wright and birthplace of Ernest Hemingway. It's the first suburb due west of downtown Chicago. I lived here for a few years, then moved for a while. I just moved back and am so thrilled. This is my favorite part of the Chicago area. I grew up in Lisle, IL (another suburb further west) which isn't nearly as exciting. :D

Other Oak Park tid bits:

It was settled in 1833 and started out as 172 acres. Most of the homes here are from the turn of the 20th century.

Birthplace of Carl Rogers (Clinical Psychologist) and Betty White (from the Golden Girls)

Other famous Oak Park residents:
Ray Kroc (founder of McDonald's corporation)
Mary Elizabeth Mastrantonio
Kathy Griffin
Johnny Galecki
Carol Shields
Bob Newhart
The voice of Homer Simpson, Dan Castellaneta
Comic book artists Chris Ware and Gene Ha
Former "Frasier" star John Mahoney
Ben Weasel.

Notable former residents include:
Tarzan creator Edgar Rice Burroughs
Chemist Percy Julian
Poet Charles Simic
Ludacris

Will host some events of the 2006 gay games.

Known as "boys town west" in some circles

None of the entire geographic area of Oak Park is covered by water

Great town to bike in, in my opinion :D

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Originally Posted by bikerchick68

I'm in San Diego, CA. Famous for surfing, fish tacos, near perfect weather, the start for RAAM every year, and Hotel Del Coronado. Also a military town with both Miramar Naval Base (where Top Gun was filmed) as well as Camp Pendleton...

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mmmmmmmmmmmm fish tacos! Love em.

I live in Seattle. Yup, it rains here all the time. Sprained my ankle once from slipping on algae growing on a wet sidewalk. My old Subaru had moss growing on it, never came off even when I drove on the freeway.

The best time to buy a house here is Jan/Feb, when the new folks get sick of the rain (no sun since October) and sell fast so they can leave. I grew up here and actually like the rain and gray skies. To each her own...

Oh, and Seattle has one of the highest rates of skin cancer in the nation. Cuz we're all on the pale side regardless of ethnicity, then when it's sunny we all go outside and get sunburned. And we have the highest per capita ownership of sunglasses. (I bet you can figure that one out.)

Hey Melinda, did you ever drive I-10 between Baton Rouge and Lafayette over the Atchafalaya Swamp? We used to call it the "Cajun Autobahn" because it was hard to enforce the speed limit on a 21-mile-long bridge, and everyone took advantage of that fact. Sunrise over the Atchafalya is still one of my favorite scenes.

KB

My City:

Albuquerque, New Mexico (yes we're in the United States).

Although Albuquerque (Abq) is celebrating it's 300th birthday this year, New Mexico hasn't been a state for 100 yrs yet. Orginally started by the Spanish Inquisitors -oops...I meant missionaries, you can still see parts of the orginal settlement in Old Town where the cathedral was built in something like 1723 and is still in use. Old Town is built in a series of "squares" out from the church and quite a few of the shops/restuarants down there are in original homes. We also have parts of the city that were built in the mid-late 1800s as "railroad" homes and a "wealthy" area built in the early 20s. Although the center of town is 5000' above sea level we let Denver call itself the "mile-high city" coz we felt sorry for them! (ok...that last part isn't true - we don't know Why Denver got the title...maybe because people keep forgetting New Mexico is on This side of the border). The western side of the city is fronted by volcanic cliffs and is the site of Petroglyph National Park. There are also 5 volcanos known as the 5 sisters located there which are considered dormant. The eastern side of the city is hemmed by the Sandia (means watermelon in Spanish) Mountains. They are considered the "foothills" of the Rockies and when the setting sun is just right - the mountains turn a bright watermelon red. We are also host to one of the largest hot-air balloon festivals in the world the first full week in Oct when we host anywhere from 750-1000 balloons for a week-long festival. Our avg temps in the winter range from 35-55 and in the summer from 85-110 with an avg humidity in the teens or lower. Most days we have clear skies with little or no cloud cover and the skies are blues you can't even imagine.

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Originally Posted by Dianyla

I grew up in Redlands, CA. Known for lots of WASPs, old victorian mansions, and the Redlands Bicycle Classic. ;)

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Dudette! I was conceived in Redlands, CA. Well, it's where my parents lived at the time - I never asked for details. :p

Hey there mmelindas,

I do recognize the two Milwaukee pictures. The one labeled restaurant is actually the Calatrava addition on the museum. The one that is called arboretum is one of 3 domes in a county park that each house different types of plants...a tropical dome, a desert dome and one that changes with the seasons.

Wow, everything Corsair said (she makes it sound so great)! Born and raised in Albuquerque. We made it in the top five of new bicycling meccas because of our diversity of mountain biking and road riding routes. My favorite thing about abq. include the smell of roasting green chile in the fall and the sound of the sandhill cranes.:D

Hometown: Phoenix, Arizona. Home of the Wrigley Mansion (yes the gum people). Close to Goodyear, home of our own Ironwoman--Denise! Famous for saguaro cactus, mexican food, and HOT summers.

Current town: Springfield, VA: home to all sorts of US history, and next door to places like Washington DC, the Pentagon, George Washingtons home, George Mason's home (that one may actually ring a bell since the GM Basketball team made the final 4).

Other homes: Augusta, GA home of the Master's Golf Tournament (my favorite), Leavenworth, KS (known for all its prisons), Taunton, MA, Biloxi, MS (before the gambling casinos took over), Karlsruhe, Germany and Darmstadt, Germany, Killeen, TX (home to Ft. Hood, the largest Army Base--not known for much else!!)

I thinks that's all so far. Probably several more moves in the future!!

Leave it to me....I am NOT a Milwaukee native and hubby was driving all over and I took shots and forgot half of what he said it was.... he's the native Wisconson guy...I hail from or claim Washington state, since I lived there 27 years..:D

Yes, We did drive across that long bridge but in a Swift Semi, so we were governed at 65...Louisiana is awesome, so sad that the hurricaines destroyed so much.... some of the pictures I have of NO and places around there are places that no longer exist...:o

Seattle, is one place I would only like to visit..because of all the rain. I am an east-sider in WA, from Yakima, Moses Lake and Spokane, all places I have lived in the 27 years....

Here are some shots of other great WA state places.... Oh, and thanks for the corrections on the Milwaukee photos...my DH would cringe from my misnaming them..... :eek:

Actually, since DH and I now call our RV home and plan to start touring the US in 2008, I am planning on visiting the great places you gals wrote about -- CorsairMac did a great job promoting her state and area but DH knows all that great stuff because he lived there for 8 years in Las Cruces..... :D wheee!!!

The USA rocks!! Canada, especially the western part where Popoki Nui lives is gorgeous too..... why not post some photos with hometown description. I plan to make special note of all the places you mention and show me photos of, on our RVing tour starting in 08'

I wanna see photos!!!!!

I grew up in Whittier, California. Home of "Tricky ****" Nixon (infamous past president).

Lived in Berkeley, California during the height of the Vietnam War...People's Park...protests...

I now live on the other side of the continent in Sandwich, Massachusetts on Cape Cod. Sandwich is the oldest town on Cape Cod, settled by the first early-arriving exiles from England.

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Originally Posted by bikerchick68

Popoki... also the Gardens! I love Buschart Gardens (sp?)... and Stanley Gardens in Vancouver... as well as Capilano Suspension Bridge... Victoria and Vancouver are both just gorgeous!

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...bikerchick...did you actually cross the Capilano Susupension Bridge?? Wow...you're made of stronger stuff than me. I made it about ten feet before freaking out...I just can't deal with the height!
D'oh...I forgot about the Buchart Gardens! :eek: Pretty spectacular, for sure. Did you visit in summer with the fireworks? This past winter they put in a refrigerated outdoor skating rink...now we can ice skate among the palms and cedars. Bizarre but neat :D

I live in North Georgia. I have lived in several areas in GA but mainly grew up in Athens. Athens is the home of the University of Georgia and is a neat place to live....if you like college students. North Ga is home of the famous Brasstown Bald climb of the Tour de Georgia. I have never even attempted to climb it. I actually tried to walk up it and pooped out so I watched the race from where I stopped :) Ga is also famous for peaches and peanuts. I enjoy riding around here because there is still a lot of "country" in this area and really all over Ga. I am very accustomed to heat and really whiny if I am cold. And yes I have the awful wicked southern accent!

Jessica

This is too good an opportunity to pass up for my first post -
I live/work just outside the Hanford Nuclear reservation. WWII, plutonium was mined in Oak Ridge, shipped to Hanford Washington and refined then sent to Las Alamos and blown up.
We have over 80% of the world's (the whole world's) radioactive materials burried right here.
Come visit, you'll go away glowing from the experience :D .

Sue

That's pretty funny, Sue. I assume, and am hoping, it is actually safe right?

Jessica

I grew up on a farm in Paso Robles (central coast of CA). Its big wine country now, but when I was a kid all there really was to do was ride my horse!

Now we live in Mill Valley, just over the Golden Gate Bridge from San Francisco. We live in a redwood forest on the shoulder of Mt. Tamalpais with hundreds of miles of great biking roads and mountain biking roads and trails around us.

Mill Valley is in Marin County, which is the birthplace of mountain biking. Mill Valley is the town where the character BJ Hunicutt from MASH lived. It is a pretty small town (about 13,000 people) with about five coffee places, some great and some so-so restaurants and two local bike stores. It is also the place where rock stars seem to retire. There's a great music club here and locals Bonnie Raitt and Huey Lewis will often show up to perform. Grace Slick lived here for ages and Sammy Hagar's daughter is in my daughter's class at school.

I've also lived in San Diego/La Jolla and Maine.

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Originally Posted by Waverly

That's pretty funny, Sue. I assume, and am hoping, it is actually safe right?

Jessica

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That's a good question :eek:
There are the "downwinders" who claim to have higher incidences of cancer and have been trying to sue the government for the past 50 years. There was the pathologist I sat next to on the plane when I moved here who told me he was comparing pathology samples from here to the rest of the country (and they are different) and there was an article in the paper last year with the title "Water in the 300 area mostly safe" (I work in the 300 area). I never read the article, just liked the title.
It is mostly safe here, no worse than riding your bike in traffic. Much safer than smoking. It's all relative. And it's really a nice, family-friendly place to live. Clean up efforts are in full-swing, now if we can only convince those selfish New Mexican's to take our wast it would all be good :rolleyes: (I grew up in NM, the WHIP program was very controversial. Now I've heard the other side - and everybody is wrong on both sides).

Sue

I grew up in the San Fernando Valley, CA, home of the original "valley girl." We are known for Mulholland Drive, movie stars, and cruisin' on Van Nuys Blvd. Charles Manson lived where I "mountain biked" as a kid (he was in jail by then). Both Kevin Spacey and Val Kilmer went to my highschool, but a few years before me. Like, totally fer shure.

I now live just over the hill in Simi Valley, Ventura County, CA. Home of the Lone Ranger, Little House on the Prairie, Star Trek, and many other film sites. Currently overcoming its bad rap for aquitting the police officers who beat Rodney King which sparked the Los Angeles riots in '92. Ronald Reagan Presidential Museum is here too, you may have seen it when he was buried here.

As I get stronger I look forward to longer rides north into Camarillo, Santa Paula, Ojai. I hope someday to ride home from Monterey.