Thinking about moving to Sacramento from SD * How do you like Sacramento? (San Diego: to live, beaches)

[Chimérique]

Originally Posted by RosieSD

That's in Davis, on the UC Davis campus, not in Sacramento. And, it just opened last month (November).

It doesn't matter to me that the Shrem and Manetti Art Museum is on a UC Campus.

BTW:
UCSD is 14 miles from downtown San Diego
UC Davis is 15 miles from downtown Sacramento.

UCLA is 17 miles from downtown Los Angeles.

[WizardOfRadical]

Davis is a nice culture cluster in a college town type of way. It's a nice compliment and alternative to the core.

Davis has a very funky high end college town, surban, exurban farm town kinda vibe. It is definitely not a low brow, Midwestern college town type of vibe. I would put it on par with UCSD.

Sac State is still mostly a commuter school, though they have added more campus living options. But it is just a run of the mill Cal State, not a wild party school like SD State.

[b.hughes]

Originally Posted by RosieSD

While it's nice that Sac has a new art museum within driving distance, as I said, we have 7 art museum within San Diego city limits.

To be fair Sacramento's city limits are also less than 1/3 the size of San Diego. I think the point may not be a comparison of how many museums can be counted up in each city but rather of artists per capita. My guess would be that the artists per capita in the city of Sacramento is higher. A lot of this is due to it being a comparatively affordable urban city in California.

[Chimérique]

Originally Posted by RosieSD

Just out of curiosity, how long does it take to get from downtown Sacramento to the mountains that get 3x as much snow as San Diego's mountains?

I'm assuming you mean the Sierra Nevadas.

If we're just talking atltitude, I'm 30 minutes from downtown and our house is around 3500 foot elevation. Directly behind us the mountains rise to 4000 foot elevation. You can be at 6500+ about an hour from San Diego.

I'm curious how the "foothills" of Sacramento compare distance wise. And, also, how long does it take to get to the Sierra Nevadas where the deep snow is from downtown Sac?

What I like about Sacramento is you can be at 2000 to 4000 feet in 1/2 hour, but the elevation does not matter to us as much because we are so much further north than SD, we don't need to be that high in elevation to find dense forest and a lot of snow unlike SoCal. Within 2 hours Sacramento city is within 6,000 to 10,000 plus elevation.

Within 1 hour to 2 hours depending on where you are in the Sacramento Area, you have 10 major Tahoe Ski resorts, several are world class resorts.

Yeah we have distinctive seasons.

5pm
Portland - 36F
Sacramento 47F
San Diego - 58F

11pm
Portland - 31F
Sacramento 35F
San Diego - 50F - At sunset Sac was colder than SD was at 11pm

[WizardOfRadical]

Sacs change of seasons is way more destinctive than SD. Winters are much cooler, summers warmer, and spring and fall that is a tug of war between the two.

SD has winter days that don't feel terribly different from July days at all. A mellow day with a 78 degree high.

Sac is much more sunny too. Outside of tule fog and storms, Sac is not a gloomy place. No such thing ad may grey or June gloom in Sac.

[RosieSD]

Originally Posted by Chimérique

Like I said I'm original from SD. I know what's there, but thanks for letting others know, especially folks from the Bay or LA who seem downplay whatever is not in there city/region.

Nobody, certainly not me, has ever tried to downplay what culture is in SD. Rather, I'll pointing out things that people don't know about the Sacramento Valley.

Got it.

I have nothing against Sacramento either. I have friends who live there or who have lived there in the past, and always liked visiting Sacramento. A big plus is certainly the cost of housing, which the OP explained was a primary motivator in considering a move from SD to Sac.

But I am curious about my other question --- how long does it take to get to snow from downtown Sacramento? And how long is the drive to the ocean? I have never gone directly from Sacramento to the Sierras or from Sacramento to the ocean, so I am honestly curious. Thanks.

[Chimérique]

Originally Posted by RosieSD

But I am curious about my other question --- how long does it take to get to snow from downtown Sacramento? And how long is the drive to the ocean? I have never gone directly from Sacramento to the Sierras or from Sacramento to the ocean, so I am honestly curious. Thanks.

To find snow all season long you need to be above 4,000 feet about 1 hour from downtown Sac. Less than 1/2 hour from eastern suburbs of Sac. Cross-country Skiing can be found just over 1 hour drive time. Downhill/Alpine skiing/snow boarding 2hrs. During ski season we go up once a week on average.

As low as 1,500 to 2,500 feet you have the very pretty towns of Auburn(I-80) and Placerville(highway 50) which often get at least 1 decent snow day per year, they get a ton of cold rain, 40 inches. By the time you have driven 1 1/2 hours you will see solid white snow all over. Tahoe area resorts average 6,000 feet at the base up to 9,000 plus feet at the top. All these resorts are within 2hours.

Pacifica is the closet and best place to surf from Sacramento - under 2hours. We do it as an day trip when we go to the ocean, bring the surf boards, dogs, leave before 9am(to avoid traffic, and guarantee a long solid day on the ocean/coast). Other options Stinson Beach, 2hours(Marin County, north of the Golden Gate), or Santa Cruz 2hours, 15mins (love that town). The city beach in SF (Ocean Beach) is under 2 hours as well.

Within an hours drive you can be at the Berkeley and Emeryville marinas for Sailing, Boating, Fishing on SF Bay. Again, we do this as a day trip, and leave early.

We get our dose of the ocean or high elevation mountains about once a month. If we were just another hour further in either direction we wouldn't do it as much.

*Today, we were going to drive up to the snow, but changed our minds and took a wild ride on the American River right here in Sac, with a canoe, didn't go far as it was sort of scary. The River is very high and fast with debris(big tree branches) from the storms. We cut the canoe ride short, and took a long walk instead with the dogs along the River. I've been trying to enjoy our beautiful river in the Winter as much as I enjoy it in Summer. A very different experience, with Canadian waterfowl on their winter migration south and 45 degrees days, versus 95 degrees in the summer and a flotilla of rafts and partiers with squirt guns.

[tstieber]

Originally Posted by Chimérique

To find snow all season long you need to be above 4,000 feet about 1 hour from downtown Sac. Less than 1/2 hour from eastern suburbs of Sac. Cross-country Skiing can be found just over 1 hour drive time. Downhill/Alpine skiing/snow boarding 2hrs. During ski season we go up once a week on average.

As low as 1,500 to 2,500 feet you have the very pretty towns of Auburn(I-80) and Placerville(highway 50) which often get at least 1 decent snow day per year, they get a ton of cold rain, 40 inches. By the time you have driven 1 1/2 hours you will see solid white snow all over. Tahoe area resorts average 6,000 feet at the base up to 9,000 plus feet at the top. All these resorts are within 2hours.

Pacifica is the closet and best place to surf from Sacramento - under 2hours. We do it as an day trip when we go to the ocean, bring the surf boards, dogs, leave before 9am(to avoid traffic, and guarantee a long solid day on the ocean/coast). Other options Stinson Beach, 2hours(Marin County, north of the Golden Gate), or Santa Cruz 2hours, 15mins (love that town). The city beach in SF (Ocean Beach) is under 2 hours as well.

Within an hours drive you can be at the Berkeley and Emeryville marinas for Sailing, Boating, Fishing on SF Bay. Again, we do this as a day trip, and leave early.

We get our dose of the ocean or high elevation mountains about once a month. If we were just another hour further in either direction we wouldn't do it as much.

*Today, we were going to drive up to the snow, but changed our minds and took a wild ride on the American River right here in Sac, with a canoe, didn't go far as it was sort of scary. The River is very high and fast with debris(big tree branches) from the storms. We cut the canoe ride short, and took a long walk instead with the dogs along the River. I've been trying to enjoy our beautiful river in the Winter as much as I enjoy it in Summer. A very different experience, with Canadian waterfowl on their winter migration south and 45 degrees days, versus 95 degrees in the summer and a flotilla of rafts and partiers with squirt guns.

I happen to think that best beaches in summer are not on the Pacific but on the south shore of Lake Tahoe. And many family and friends from out of the country have agreed. And that is for anywhere in the state!

Sacramento's proximity to world-class skiing though is really almost unmatched in the world. There are other cities near skiing, but you can't be in a Mediterranean City, picking oranges from your tree, and drive to that kind of skiing that quickly. It truly is the best of all worlds.

As I don't ski, I'm happy just going up to the snow a couple times a year to play, and San Diego happens to be perfect for that, because our local mountains are so close that compared to when we lived in the Bay Area, I can get into the snow much faster. However, we have no nearby ski resorts as our mountains are not tall enough for that. Arrowhead and Big Bear would be the closest, and that's about a two-hour Drive. So if you are a huge ski enthusiast, Sacramento would be one of the best places in the world to live.

[tstieber]

Originally Posted by Chimérique

5pm
Portland - 36F
Sacramento 47F
San Diego - 58F

11pm
Portland - 31F
Sacramento 35F
San Diego - 50F - At sunset Sac was colder than SD was at 11pm

Again, you are comparing Lindbergh Field in San Diego , which is a coastal location with the warmest microclimate in the region. I live in San Diego city as well, and by 6 p.m., it was 46 in our neighborhood. It's Not Unusual for us to be 10 or 15 degrees colder than by the water, even though we are not too terribly far from the water in terms of miles. Just keep that in mind when comparing entire regions because of the significant microclimates. We had subfreezing temperatures in many parts of San Diego yesterday morning, but nowhere near that at Lindbergh Field. The next three days are going to be in the seventies though, so there's the little winter advantage!

[tstieber]

Originally Posted by Chimérique

tstieber,
You mention how SD by the bay and ocean is milder/warmer than inland SD. The same applies to Sacramento, not because of a bay or ocean, but because the foothills near Sac are higher in elevation and with the NorCal latitudes all points north of Sac with low elevations, and all points east and north of Sacramento coupled with higher elevation mean a lot more rain, cold rain, and usually mean snow above 4000feet, usually 3 times the amount of snow than mountains near SD.

You don't have to go very far to get even colder wetter weather near Sac as opposed SD, where as if you go north into OC and LA the weather is as warm or warmer. The Desert may bring SD colder temps in the winter, but it's still fair and clear not stormy, nor is it solid snow white like when we go east towards Tahoe.

Another difference is if we stay in the Sacramento Valley and go north, just 20 miles for example, its wetter, greener, the rivers, creeks, lakes are full; when its not raining its more likely to be colder and/or foggier too.

Totally agree on all these points. San Diego, even though it's the farthest South in the state, it's actually not nearly as hot as Orange County or Los Angeles to the north, so it's hard to find cooler weather. I find that the difference in Latitude accounts for approximately 2000 feet of elevation based on the natural landscape. At 6000 feet down here, we can about the amount and frequency of snow is 4000 feet in the Foothills near Sacramento, and at 3000 feet, the Oak and grass landscape is similar to a thousand feet in Northern California. I guess by the time you get to Portland, you get snow down to sea Level at times, and there really isn't any of the California landscape anymore. The Northwest is in a whole league of its own when you start looking at record cold and snow.