Your city/hometown

[mmelindas]

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..

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...

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.....

[mmelindas]

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..... 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!!!!!

[wavedancer]

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.

[Popoki_Nui]

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!

...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! 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

[Waverly]

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

[TsPoet]

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 .

Sue

[Waverly]

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

Jessica

[maillotpois]

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.

[TsPoet]

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

Jessica

That's a good question
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 (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

[fatbottomedgurl]

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.

[fixedgeargirl]

My hometown is Crested Butte, CO, the Mountain Biking Capital and home of the Mountain Bike Hall of Fame. Also the home of the most lift-served extreme skiing (when there's enough snow ) and over 45 km of groomed nordic trails. The area was once summer grounds for the Ute Indians, who were smart enough to leave in the winter ! Originally a supply town for surrounding precious metals mines, the primary industry became the mining of anthracite coal after the fall of the silver standard. The Big Mine closed in 1953 and many of the second generation Slavic and Croatian immigrants were forced to leave to find work. Mid-westerners tired of regional heat began to snap up the cheap ($500 in some cases!) homes to use as summer residences. This began the shift to resort-town status, with the ski area opening in the mid-60's. Crested Butte Mountain Resort is now the locus of industry in town.

It is stunningly beautiful, there is only one (two lane) highway into town, and in the winter it is the only way in and out. The town is surrounded by National Forest and BLM lands, open space abounds!

I currently reside in Austin, Texas, the Live Music Capital of the World. It's not bad for a city . Lots of trees and public parks. A definite live-and-let-live attitude prevails. It's historic for all kinds of reasons. I've only been here 18 months, compared to 30+ years in CB, so I'm not nearly as well-versed in ATX lore . It's also very, very, very HOT in the summer. Lots and lots of triathletes of all stripes here, as well as an active and large cycling community. The heart of the city is the Town Lake Hike and Bike Trail, 10 miles long in the center of the city and attracts runners, riders, strollers, picnic'ers and others. Austin is also home to the largest urban bat colony -I think- in the world. An estimated 1.5 million Mexican freetail bats call the Congress Avenue Bridge home from late March until October. People from all over the world gather at dusk to watch the dramatic emeregence of a million bats taking off downriver on their nightly hunt for insects.

Other places lived: Bellingham, WA and Upper Skagit Valley, WA.

[fixedgeargirl]

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 official NGS elevation marker for Denver is on a step in front of the capitol. Official elevation: 5280 feet above sea level.

[DrBee]

I live in North Georgia. I have lived in several areas in GA but mainly grew up in Athens.
Jessica

Jessica - 2 cool things about Athens are REM and the B-52's

[DrBee]

I grew up in northern Maryland (Baltimore County) - moved around a lot within the county. Maryland is known for it's steamed blue crabs and the world's best crabcakes. Yummmm - how I miss them.

For the past 5 years I've lived in Cleveland, MS. The MS Delta region is known for catfish (which I work on) and the blues (which I know very little about, but like the music). We have super hot summers which last forever, have high humidity and gigantic mosquitos (that take multiple hits to kill - seriously) and wet and not so cold winters.

[NorCalGal]

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.