Things to do in Northern California?

[Sigarms]

88, Carson Pass, is where my ancestors winched their wagons up the canyons with block & tackle. After enduring the 40 mile desert out beyond where the Carson River disappears, and 3 months on the trail. Mom, b 1910, heard the stories first-hand from her elderly grandmother.

You’re very blessed to have that family history in the US

Both sets of my grandparents came off the boat in the early 1900’s as young adults from Eastern Europe, both grandfathers died mining coal before I was even born.

However, that is what makes our nation truly great. My grandparents wanted a better life for their own families, probably no different than yours I’d guess.

 

[ultrarunner]

Truly many wonderful places in California and neighboring if nothing more than the variety…

I’d say the only thing that has really changed over the years is the population…

Old enough to remember grade school and how half the class were new arrivals staking a claim to the California dream…

In my neighborhood we were the only 4 generation Californians with everyone else coming from every corner of the U.S… East, South, West and North… lots of defense, tech and aerospace back then.

Enjoyed your travel log very much… nothing like seeing the State through a first time visitor… one of the reasons I hosted foreign students…

 

[Sigarms]

Enjoyed your travel log very much…

Thank you. I actually enjoyed keeping it up. I noted I'm getting old and this is the first time I’ve accessed this forum remotely.

I’ll definitely keep my family up north updated on our trip on Facebook when I get home (how I keep up with extended family now), but I don’t feel like telling the world we’re not home when we really aren’t home

Ended today like we started it, with a trip to the Calaveras big tree state park. We did the south hike this morning, lot longer than the north side.

Park is really laid out nice with good trails. All of us enjoyed it both times we were here. I can see where a annual park pass could be a must for the locals.

California is a big state and we still had more than a couple of things we didn’t get to, and that’s with 10 full days here. One thing you have to remember if you fly in, running around all day “on vacation” is hard to do EVERY single day while you’re on vacation. Some aspects, it’s worse than work IMO in trying to both plan and pace yourself.

Biggest thing I got from our trip is now when I think of California (and no offense to those that live theses areas) I won’t just think of Los Angeles or San Francisco. Oh, and all the great produce here you can pick up and everywhere it grows.

 

[Sigarms]

Wasting time at the airport…

Sacramento is NOT what I expected (stayed there last night for early flight).

We ended up changing hotels, first one was way to interesting for our tastes, added it was cooler outside than in the room).

Not certain if I mentioned it, saw some homeless camps when we flew in. Goes with living in a city I understand.

Long story, had to drive to the rental agency last night to the airport due to thier mid informative website per operating hours.

VERY interesting drive.

Have time, so I looked something up out of curiosity and my observations…

Winston Salem, population 260k, total homeless population about 600.

Sacramento, population around 550k, total homeless population over 9k.

Looked, highest percentage of homeless in a city in NC is Asheville, with around 480 people with a total population of 94k.

If you do the numbers percentage wise, it’s no contest with Sacramento “winning”. Also blows my mind when Calaveras county has a TOTAL population of 45k.

I always thought San Francisco had the “homeless” issue?

No matter what your religious beliefs, kind of a downer when you leave an interesting hotel with no AC and people living in the street (should have kept my mouth shut when I asked my wife if she didn’t notice some of the hookers at the first hotel lol). Took me a while to figure out why I was smelling the faint odor of weed at the place as well. Just interesting when you see signs for weed driving and then it hit me, it’s completely legal here.

I did ask a nice worker at the airport how they afforded to live in California. She told me she couldn’t and you have to have a bunch of roommates. I’d like to think we do well financially as a family, just don’t think we could afford to live here

Side note- good thing we got to the airport early. My wife’s soap apparently tested positive for explosives. Same soap she brought out here.

 

[Hughman]

Enjoyed following along. Sounds like you got to see and do a lot in the short time you were here. It's true, there's a lot more to California than SF and LA.

 

[ultrarunner]

Residential Real Estate still selling with low inventory but that is changing… some prices down as more decide to make a move…

Seen quite a few rent houses hit the market as owners say no more to years of eviction freeze with no rent coming in…

 

[California]

Yeah. Homeless in California is a severe problem with no solution in sight. People move west - or get bussed! - apparently expecting life on the street and public services will be better than where they came from. Cost to the taxpayers for services to the homeless is astronomical in proportion to anything accomplished. Its money poured down a black hole with nothing to show for it.

Beware the explosive soap! We came home from India and waited until the luggage pickup area was completely empty. Then we were taken to an interrogation room, still hadn't seen our luggage. DHS swabbed my camera and put the swab in a test machine, it tested positive. Finally after endless, pointless interviewing, I thought to explain we had been heavily exposed to choking fireworks smoke, so dense that visibility was less than a block, during Diwali a week-long fireworks festival, in New Delhi. That worked, they let us go. Welcome home?

 

[ultrarunner]

A lot of street people around and know a few as regulars

I’ve asked why California and like many it’s the mild climate with months of little to no rain…

One vet from
Michigan and another from Minnesota said winters are brutal…

 

[Sigarms]

One last dumb question for California people.

This has me scratching my head.

See attached. What kind of gas nozzle do gas stations in California use and what advantage does it offer vs what I consider a "normal" gas nozzel is? Is it basically the same gas nozzel? I just had never seen one and it caught my eye the first time I used one.

Just stopped for gas this morning to run some errands around the house, and the the gas nozzle I used this morning in NC was the same as the one in Nevada.



See attached.

 

[California]

Gas nozzle: vapor recovery. As your tank fills and pushes air out, that air and gasoline vapor is sucked back to the gas pump instead of vented to the air. Another Clean Air measure.

Intended to mitigate this: The dome in the middle left is the State Capitol building in Sacramento as seen from 30 miles up US50 on a hot summer afternoon (Photo 2011).