Your city/hometown

[shadon]

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"

[mmelindas]

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!

[Deanna]

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.

[mmelindas]

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? We'd love to see photos of your hometowns, too!

[Kimmyt]

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!

[miffy'sFuji]

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".

[betagirl]

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.

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

[betagirl]

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...

mmmmmmmmmmmm fish tacos! Love em.

[KnottedYet]

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.)

[kaybee]

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

[CorsairMac]

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.

[DirtDiva]

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

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

[SJCzar]

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.

[snowtulip]

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.

[ladyfish]

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!!