Originally Posted By alexbook >>Balboa even noted it from the fires the natives were using to cook with.<< I don't think it could have been Balboa. Maybe Portola?
Originally Posted By ssturgeo "I mean, the weather? You mean the weather that prevents special holiday fireworks from being performed and the earthquakes that shut down the entire park during an operational day?".. Gosh, I will trade with you any day...grew up in California...live in Indiana now...sub zero winters...snow, ice, blizzards...scraping car windows, gloves, boots, hats, wool clothes, summer days with 80-90% humidity...and pop up thunderstorms almost daily that make picnics, days at the pool, etc., etc. very hard to plan. Tornado warnings in fall and spring...sitting in the basement waiting for the all clear..hail that dents your car... Give me high winds (that I cannot even detect) and a fireworks cancellation or an occassional earthquake ANYTIME!! I have 96 days til I fly to Calif. for my annual three week visit...104 days til DL...and I CANNOT WAIT!! It is the perfect place to me...and I have lived all over the U.S. and in England!! Sharon Next Trip Nov. 16-22
Originally Posted By Mr X Yeah, commenting on the (near perfect) SoCal weather was a major indicator to me that Mouse just wanted to go negative...for whatever reason, that's a BIG stretch. SoCal weather is near idyllic. And besides, I wouldn't really refer to Earthquakes as "weather" anyway, but in any case pretty much everywhere has their severe weather/natural disaster issues. Earthquakes here, hurricanes there, tornadoes, severe winter weather. That's just life.
Originally Posted By davewasbaloo >>> in any case pretty much everywhere has their severe weather/natural disaster issues.<<< Not so much in the UK (occassional floods aside), and not many critters either. That said, we don't see the sun much, and rarely on a weekend. I would rather have a California climate. And I would rather be in an Earthquake than a hurricane or toranado
Originally Posted By Mr X ***And I would rather be in an Earthquake than a hurricane or toranado*** Well, I'd rather be in none, personally. Depending on the severity, any of those events will leave you equally homeless and/or dead.
Originally Posted By Mr X Interesting point there though, Dave. I wonder if having relatively few natural disasters is part of the reason the U.K. was able to dominate most of Europe for such a long time.
Originally Posted By davewasbaloo True, but if you had to choose one. Maybe growing up with quakes, but being scared witless in my first toranado and many hurricanes, I would prefer the earthquake. And although we don't have severe weather in the UK (unless rain 280 days a year counts), I miss the California climate.
Originally Posted By davewasbaloo Perhaps, the Uk had a number of natural resources which helped, calm climate, and being an island helped too.
Originally Posted By Mr X ***Maybe growing up with quakes, but being scared witless in my first toranado and many hurricanes, I would prefer the earthquake.*** I've been a touch too close to all three at times (fortune has favored this foolish guy though...always close but never directly affected thank goodness), and if I never experience any again that'd be fine with me. I used to think quakes were "fun" (assuming they were small ones...coming from the East Coast it was interesting), but now that I have a family and live in a place where there have been just a few too many HUGE ones just offshore or whatever...no thanks.
Originally Posted By ABBY The only thing that would make it better is if it were in Northern California That way I could go ALL THE TIME and maybe even get a job there j/k Southern California is great ! If there was any way I could swing it I would move there.
Originally Posted By TINK-MOBILE You all are surely Blessed to have Disneyland in South Cal, we all want to thank you for that cause we love it too, , you also want to know something that we all are Blessed with.. GREAT FRIENDS HERE ON LAUGHING PLACE .COM...no matter the issue we care bout each other Big time, westsider, sub, mousemerf, we like Dave and others live a fair distance away, we are coming on AUG 16TH TO THE 26TH OR 27TH hope we can meet up, for sure Sub, we will see you...looking forward to it, could you let me know the photo pass specials on now...take care..tink..-Mobile...
Originally Posted By Dabob2 Having grown up in SoCal in the 60's and 70's, and visiting every couple of years lately, I can very much attest that the air quality has improved greatly. I grew up on the LA/SB county border, and MAN my eyes used to smart pretty much every afternoon in the summer. Lungs would hurt too. I grew up in the shadow of the San Gabriels, and it was always easy to tell the air quality, simply by looking north to the mountains. If you could see them clearly, it was either winter or the Santa Anas were blowing. If you could see them through a haze it was a moderate day. If you just saw a gray curtain and those 10,000 foot high mountains were invisible, (though you were only about a mile away from the foothills!) you knew your eyes would be smarting by the afternoon. I haven't seen air that bad in at least 15 years. My friends who still live there confirm it: it's far from perfect, but it's waaaaay better than it used to be, and what makes that more impressive is how many more people (and cars) are there compared to 30 or 40 years ago. More people/less pollution. Don't tell me environmental regulations don't work. As for the climate, it's just about the best on the planet. It's officially known as a Mediterranean Climate, which is recognized as the most desirable, and which less than 5% of the planet enjoys (much of the Mediterranean coast, obviously, plus California near the coast, and small parts of the Australian, South African, and Chilean coastlines.) <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mediterranean_climate" target="_blank">http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/M..._climate</a> No place on earth has perfect weather, but SoCal's is about as good as it gets, and if WestSider wants to express his enjoyment of it, I don't understand the whole "Debbie Downer" wet blanket thing.
Originally Posted By phruby I guess some people are never happy. It really is a great place to live. I can't remember the last time there was a smog alert not related to wildfires. But does the light seem dimmer now then when we were kids? It could be that alien-government conspiracy stuff.
Originally Posted By Mr X ***I can't remember the last time there was a smog alert not related to wildfires.*** I sure wish that were true where I live! Sounds like SoCal has definitely cleaned up their act smog-wise, that's good to hear! I remember being there back in 1990, and I was with an outdoor group (a drum corps), and we were staying at a school at the base of a hill or mountain but we never even knew it was THERE until the next day! That's how awful the pollution was, AND being a group that practiced outdoors my lungs DID hurt that day, a real eye opener!
Originally Posted By wonderingalice I'm another former So. Cal.-born Disney Dork and I would give anything to be able to live there again (IF ya'll could lower those dang taxes and the price of houses! ;-) I miss it so much sometimes, I ache to be there. Raised in Torrance, my family uprooted us to Las Vegas in 1969 when I was 11 (and yep, those ol' Smog Alerts were a real drag... I remember those throat/lung pains during after/recess in elementary school) on an incorrect thought from their realtor that our neighborhood was going to the dogs shortly. Of course, it's STILL a beautiful area after all this time, DARN IT! *LOL* A few miles up the 405 to Disneyland or even fewer miles down Torrance Blvd. to Redondo Beach... And here I am at 50 years old - in the desert. Granted, we have a good life here, but the heat of summer is outrageous and the winters are much colder and windy. (Yes, folks... Bring a sweater if you visit LV in January/February. We laugh at the tourists in shorts and T-shirts walking the Strip on the news during those rare and very brief, but COLD, snow days. *LOL*) Anyway, I'm rambling and the only word I'll say about Florida and why I don't care if I never visit WDW - HUMIDITY. If it's in the cards, someday we'll retire to So. California. If we can't then we WILL vacation there as often as possible.
Originally Posted By wonderingalice Hey... Take that "former" out of the first sentence... It doesn't make any sense. *LOL*
Originally Posted By friendofdd Having lived all over the western USA, we chose SoCal as our retirement place specifically because of the climate. I would be very happy if the population of the area were smaller, but cannot begrudge others making the same choice as I. As far as the haze is concerned, I believe some of it existed when LA was just a village. Something to do with onshore breezes and "catch basin" mountains. No doubt industry and traffic has contributed most of it today, but it is greatly improved over the first time I lived here in the early eighties. Having Disneyland here is GREAT!
Originally Posted By TP2000 As someone who has lived in the deep Southeast before and remembers the daily afternoon downpour and thunderstorms that sweep through April through October, I really don't know how Disney World is able to run their parks when they are practically shut down every afternoon during the peak summer season. Look at these short tourists videos on YouTube of people dealing with the daily torential downpours at Walt Disney World, and feel very lucky to live in SoCal while you watch... <a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4zBxVfUPuMY" target="_blank">http://www.youtube.com/watch?v...xVfUPuMY</a> <a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mxaxcdchSa4&feature=related" target="_blank">http://www.youtube.com/watch?v...=related</a> <a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8Jl6LEb4kEY&feature=related" target="_blank">http://www.youtube.com/watch?v...=related</a> I agree with Westsider, the climate here is glorious and this summer in particular has just been spectacularly beautiful. Warm, dry, sunny and stunning.
Originally Posted By TP2000 As for the earthquake last Tuesday, it was rather moderate and most reports are that the rides at Disneyland were closed for about an hour. Considering that major shopping malls and stores near Disneyland were closed for the rest of the day, I'd say that's pretty good and a testament to the earthquake planning Disneyland has done to protect people and assets. But when the Big One hits that will be a different story. And if it really does take out SoCal it will have an economic impact that will ripple around the globe and send the entire country into a recession. You can't have the seventh largest economy on the planet, and a state that is responsible for 13% of the GDP for the United States be destroyed or shut down indefinitely without major, major impact to the global economy. When the Big One hits and the business of California grinds to a halt, the entire country will be negatively impacted for at least several years.
