Ca natives who have moved to another state: what do you miss? (San Diego: neighborhood, buy)
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Yeah, all of that except the tri tip. The beef here is grass and grain fed and where we buy it there are no additives, hormones, antibiotics, etc., just pure, lean black angus real beef for real people! We can always get tri tips and they're a staple on our grill. I'm also surprised by the vartiety and freshness of the produce we get here but it doesn't quite measure up to California's.
Don't have them fancy garlic, orange, crayfish an' asparagus type festivals here but we'uns got Hillbilly Days an' Bluegrass an' hunt deer to feed the po' folks!
The only place we can get tri tip here is at Costco. The beef in Texas really isnt that good. The good stuff comes from up north. Im sure your produce isnt much different than here in Tejas, when I go home is when I realize how huge the difference is.
We also have a high end market here called Central Market, great store, but they have excellent produce and they have signs for each item saying where they are from. A good 80% from California.
I miss the mountains of California more than the ocean.
I do miss being able to buy tri-tip,it is so hard to find here and when i do it is double the price! But when i go back "home" i load up and pack it in my suitcase
I do miss great mexican food and fresh ocean air. I really miss Big Sur,Calif. I was 26 miles away and spent a lot of time camping there through out the years or taking a drive down for a picnic.Nothing like getting close to Pfeifer State Park and the smell of the river and tree's -it is magical!
I miss the "mindset" of Calif. people,or as someone else said "thinking outside the box".
I miss being able to buy alcohol any darn time i feel and in a grocrey store,not in a ABC store where i feel as if i am going into a porn shop or something!
Fresh produce and fresh fish is really,really missed.
oh those darn ABC stores, we had them in VA as well. We would get most of our booze in DC, but of course we could have gotten busted for bringing it into VA.
I hadn't thought about the fresh fish, but you know everyone keeps talking fresh produce. We get it here in AR, we got it in NM and certainly in Va. I know some things are grown in NC as well. Unless you lived in the central valley or somewhere near El Centro how much fresh produce did you get in Ca except during the summer? I grew up there and we didn't have any garden from early Oct until June plus the tomatoes etc home grown were actually not nearly as good as the ones we grow here.
Here in AR we get tri-tip most of the year and it really isn't very expensive. What do you call double the price? In fact our meat here is outstanding..
Nita
I miss the mountains of California more than the ocean.
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I do miss great mexican food and fresh ocean air. I really miss Big Sur,Calif. I was 26 miles away and spent a lot of time camping there through out the years or taking a drive down for a picnic.Nothing like getting close to Pfeifer State Park and the smell of the river and tree's -it is magical!
I miss the "mindset" of Calif. people,or as someone else said "thinking outside the box".
Yes, once you've experienced it, its hard to get that out of your mind. Big Sur is one of my favorite places in the state. Plus I grew up in a beach town with the Pacific Ocean as my backyard. So while living in Colorado I really felt like a fish out of water as the years progressed. The smell of the salt air, the ocean breeze on my face, the sand between my toes, the seagulls flying by, the sound of the waves crashing on the beach, the fog horn at night, sunsets over the ocean, walking along the beach with my family. That stuff was permanently etched in my mind and as I told my wife in my blood.
Having the mountains nearby was just icing on the cake. And Colorado has gorgeous mountains. However living a mile high plus as a starting point was quite a bit different than along the coast. From the coast in California we could always visit the mountains, then we return to home to the sea. Before moving back I told my wife Colorado would be perfect if we could just move our home to the coast.
Derek
Last edited by MtnSurfer; 07-14-2010 at 10:10 AM..
Location: Grosse Ile Michigan and Sometimes Orange County CA
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I forgot one - roads with no potholes. - Funny in CA you cannot drive fast becuase there is too much traffic and too many lights. Here you cannot drive fast becuase the potholes will rip apart your suspension. Where can I find good roads and no traffic/lights?
Also in the winter I miss daylight. It is dark until 9 a.m. and gets dark again by 4:30 or 5 p.m. (maybe earlier). Thus, I leave for work in the dark and return home in the dark. Winter is neat at first, but it gets old after a few months. I sometimes miss the consistenly good weather. My wife hated it, she likes variety and we sure get it here. I have seen the temperature change from 20 - 30 degrees in a day or two. I have seen every kind of weather imaginable in one day (clear sunny warm, cooler, cold, rain, snow).
It is intersting that so many people comment on the fresh produce/fish/meat. I found the opposite. Here fresh produce comes from our back yard or a roadside stand and fresh fish conceptually comes from our front yard (if we can learn how to catch it). It is available everywhere, often for free becasue friend grow or catch too much In California we had too much hothouse produce and the broccoli was turquoise instead of green (why is that?). Really fresh meat, produce, and fish is available everywhere. Many produce places throw away or give away food that is not sold within 24 hours of harvest. Winter of course is a different story. Sometimes the produce departments at the local groceries get a bit sad looking in the winter. Most of what we do have in the winter comes from South America, unless we freeze or can some local produce from the summer/fall.
We dearly miss having citrus fruit in our back yard. We had plums, loquats, lemons, apricots, oranges and an apple tree that never produced anything. Most of that will not grow here (apples actually do very well and we planted some, but the trees are not big enough yet).
We miss birds of paradise too. We are trying to figure out how to grow one inside.
Magnolia trees also. I am not sure if they grow here, but we never see them.
I also miss my 80+ rose bushes. Again they grow here, but they do not grow well and they do not bloom all year round. Here, they are more work than they are worth.
We miss swimming in the winter.
We can buy booze anywhere and we have a big discount market called Meijers (like a costco) that is open 24/7. We can also step across to Canada and pick up discounted liquor at the duty free store.
I miss scuba diving.
We are missing the hordes of stray cats everywhere, but we do not miss them. Here the coyotes, owls, eagles foxes and racoons kill them off. We rarely see stray cats (or dogs), but in California stray cats were everywhere and even came into our house at times.
However after thinking it trough a bit the two things that I miss the most are hiking inthe foothills/mountains and real skiing (i.e. Mammoth).
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However after thinking it trough a bit the two things that I miss the most are hiking inthe foothills/mountains and real skiing (i.e. Mammoth).
Interesting. Our two favorite places in the State are Eastern Sierras and Big Sur. Mammoth skiing and snowboarding is second to none in my book. Although Tahoe has some really nice resorts as well. But that whole Eastern side is simply amazing year round. The Fall is becoming my favorite season there now.
Location: Grosse Ile Michigan and Sometimes Orange County CA
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That first picture makes me want to grab a pack and start walking. I love vistas like that.
I actually thought that Beaver Creek in Colorado is better skiing than Mammoth. Vail is really good too, but too crowded and developed. I prefer Mammoth over vail. Other than comparatively lame places that is the extent of my skiiing venues, so I cannot compare elsewhere. However it was great to have Mammoth so close. Now I must fly to ski.
I haven't left the state and don't plan too, so I'm a bit off topic. However, I love the diversity of the land and people. Many states can't quite compare on this front. Yesterday, I was on Palomar Mountain, it was an easy drive. The beach is near, big cities are near, isolated areas are near my house. I could go on and on; California is a special place.
oh those darn ABC stores, we had them in VA as well. We would get most of our booze in DC, but of course we could have gotten busted for bringing it into VA.
I hadn't thought about the fresh fish, but you know everyone keeps talking fresh produce. We get it here in AR, we got it in NM and certainly in Va. I know some things are grown in NC as well. Unless you lived in the central valley or somewhere near El Centro how much fresh produce did you get in Ca except during the summer? I grew up there and we didn't have any garden from early Oct until June plus the tomatoes etc home grown were actually not nearly as good as the ones we grow here.
Here in AR we get tri-tip most of the year and it really isn't very expensive. What do you call double the price? In fact our meat here is outstanding..
Nita
To answer your question,i lived on the Monterey Penninsula.Right next door to Salinas Valley,lettuce capital of the world.Not to mention the lettuce produced by Earthbound Farms in Carmel Valley.The lettuce that i buy is always old,you can tell the difference immensly.
Artichokes grown locally in Castroville,here the cost is double.Yes, some things are grown in N.C-- even in my backyard i have my own zucchini and tomatoes!
Tri tip is about $3.49 a pound at Costco in California.My father watches the sales before i go there and has picked it up for as low as $2.99 a pound in a local grocrey store.Here,2 stores used to carry it and now they dont.It was around $7.99 a pound.Rumor has it Costco here in N.C has it now so i will be checking it out.Most people here have never heard of it.Our N.C friends love it and always ask for us to BBQ it. Our Calif. friends are so happy when we BBQ for them too cause they dont buy it here.
Yes those darn ABC stores,geeze i hate them but dont go very often!
gosh I feel so lame because so many of you are all poetic about the breeze/salt air on your face, the ocean etc...and I miss carne asada lol.....in all honesty, I haven't really missed any scenery. I guess since leaving we've made it our business to see EVERYTHING in all the new places we've lived. We take the weekends and go for little road trips and see something new/historical. We've been to beaches along the east coast now and the Gulf and they are beautiful....
I do miss things like familiarity like what I knew all my life. If there's something I need, I always knew instantly where to go to get it unlike now I have to drag out the phone book....I really miss Disneyland, Sea World and the zoo, always had memberships so spent tons of time there...in fact when we were getting ready to move I was really sad about not getting to go to these places on a reg basis anymore.
Someone mentioned Tri Tip, why is that only found in Ca? We miss it as well and were just talking about it recently!
Yes, once you've experienced it, its hard to get that out of your mind. Big Sur is one of my favorite places in the state. Plus I grew up in a beach town with the Pacific Ocean as my backyard. So while living in Colorado I really felt like a fish out of water as the years progressed. The smell of the salt air, the ocean breeze on my face, the sand between my toes, the seagulls flying by, the sound of the waves crashing on the beach, the fog horn at night, sunsets over the ocean, walking along the beach with my family. That stuff was permanently etched in my mind and as I told my wife in my blood.
Having the mountains nearby was just icing on the cake. And Colorado has gorgeous mountains. However living a mile high plus as a starting point was quite a bit different than along the coast. From the coast in California we could always visit the mountains, then we return to home to the sea. Before moving back I told my wife Colorado would be perfect if we could just move our home to the coast.
Derek
Now that you say that, the fog horn in P.G comes to mind! That is a cool sound.I hear you on that,"if we could just move our home to the coast"!
I do like it here in N.C though. I dont miss the coastal fog in the summer and DONT miss "seagulls"
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