Why you love where you live...

[mgdavis]

Presented as a short pictorial essay. Lets keep it around a half dozen pictures or less, captions or short explanations welcome.

I'll start:

Local Wineries (I prefer the breweries, but I neglected to get a snapshot of one today)


Curvy roads, perfect for motorcycles


Water everywhere, keeps things green


Numerous parks


And, finally, we're surrounded by mountains.






Your turn.

[Mabs2]

Well, our neighbors keep us up til 2AM most nights.

There are no restaurants save a pretty good Mexican place and a good Chinese place...the rest is fast food.

The only stores are two grocery stores and a Wal-Mart.

There are lots of beautiful fields around town slam full of trailers.


Clear out a bunk, I'm moving in with you.

[K Frame]

I pretty much hate where I live.

I live outside of Washington, DC. At least I'm in Virginia and not that communist hell, Maryland.

It's flat down here, flat as a damned pancake. I like seeing ridges. Not the kind of ridges you're seeing, but the Appalachian Mountains. I'm in the frigging Piedmont.

Traffic sucks beyond all recognition down here.

It's so hot and humid in the summer that in the days before DC, European nations considered it a tropical posting.

Did I mention that the traffic sucks?

Yes, there are some good things.

I have a good job, and I'm only 2.5 miles from the office. Yes, the traffic sucks, but at least I'm not really in it.

I've also got a nice house in a nice neighborhood.

But the traffic sucks, and it's hot and humid in summer.

And cold and humid in the winter.

But, another positive is that I've got a lot of my best friends from college down here.

But trying to visit them is tough because the traffic sucks....

[Jamisjockey]

yeah, the traffic sucks here.
I like how centrally located we are here.  Mountains, ocean, big city and hillbilly heaven all within a few hours.  History galore.  Mild winters and mild summers.  Sorry, but this *expletive deleted*it ain't humid.  Move to south Texas for awhile and report back.

[K Frame]

You haven't been here through one of our bad summers yet.

The last two have been mild.

2003 was a corker.

1993 was horrific, one of the worst ever recorded in this region.

And this isn't exactly a Southern state, either.

I've had friends from San Antonio visit and complain mightily about the heat and the humidity.

And what are you complaining about, kept man? All you have to worry about is mama pulling in the green so you can lie around the house eating bon bons and watching your stories. 

[Regolith]

I;ve only got one picture uploaded, currently.  Maybe I'll ad some more in the future....




That picture was taken on the mountainside just above town.


Edit:  Here's another one, taken back when I lived in the dorms:

[cassandra and sara's daddy]

ii love it here cause i've never had or needed a key  i live in the woods a couple hundred yards from the river. good schools  and i don't have to deal with the traffic much  i'm about 20-25 miles from mikes hell

[thebaldguy]

Who said I love where I live?

Living in the inner city of Minneapolis has it problems. The cold winters suck for starters. Crime is up. Both sales taxes and property taxes are up. Businesses have closed up downtown for lack of business. People and families are leaving the city for the suburbs. New businesses are popping up in the suburbs, and the city is slowly dying.

So why do I live here? My girlfriend and I have good jobs and our commutes are very short (less than three miles each way). We have friends and family here. We grew up here. We got our house cheap and it's nearly paid off. I would like to live in Texas (no state income tax!) for my winters in retirement, and maybe someplace on a lake in Minnesota in the summer.

Retirement is less than 17 years away. Hopefully.

[Art Eatman]

Hmmm.  Well, benchrest on the front porch.  500-yard range at the house.  Over 60,000 acres of vacant private land to varmint hunt on.  Some really great neighbors.

A whole bunch of good, fun folkswith whom  to sit and drink beer and do the BS gossip/conversation thing.  A goodly number of pickers and singers in the area...

, Art  

[tokugawa]

MG, You must have taken a ride around the canal today, eh?  I am stuck at work but it is still a great day- no commute and got to watch the wife washing her 1200 bandit. Summertime is on the way. You live in K County?  Saw the Central Valley rd sign.  I remember 'ya from the Utah class.

[Harold Tuttle]

well,
I'm outa here! fetid DC swamp and socialist Maryland, see ya!
I am moving back to my olde stomping grounds, State College, PA

I got a good job and I bought a new home:


The State rifle range is 2 miles from my house,
work at PSU is 7 miles via a good bike trail system &
the commute during rush hour is 10 minutes via car.

[K Frame]

Harold, that's GREAT!

Get me your information.

Mom is in Lewistown, which isn't far from where you'll be.

[cosine]

The thread starter asks an interesting question, one I've never given much thought. I do like where I live, although I'm not sure I'd say I love where I live, but I never given it much thought as to why I like it here.

[RadioFreeSeaLab]

My backyard:

San Diego at night

[RadioFreeSeaLab]

My long time girlfriend.  She keeps me company at my Thinking Spot.

Shelter Island, my favorite beach, cause it's usually deserted.

Miguel's, my favorite place to eat.

A sign on a ship that was tied up at the harbor.  I wonder who Chuck is.

[Sergeant Bob]

Harold, State College is a pretty nice area. I used to drive truck through there quite a lot. The Susquehanna river isn't too far away and it's some beautiful country.

Mgdavis, thanks for posting those post cards for us.

I live in Southern Michigan, pretty flat land but I've got 17 acres of prime hunting land and am 10 miles from the nearest traffic light. It is so peaceful here that most of the time all you can hear are the birds singing and the frogs croaking. I've been to much more beautiful places, but I have my own little peace of Heaven right here.

[RadioFreeSeaLab]

The Gaslamp.

[mgdavis]

MG, You must have taken a ride around the canal today, eh?  I am stuck at work but it is still a great day- no commute and got to watch the wife washing her 1200 bandit. Summertime is on the way. You live in K County?  Saw the Central Valley rd sign.  I remember 'ya from the Utah class.

I'm in Bremerton. Had a whole day to myself, so I headed south to US-101, then rode that up and made it to Port Townsend. There was a fair bit of reconstruction on 101 because of the winter storms, so things got a bit backed up at some points. You said you ride a DR?

Sgt Bob, I'm glad you like the photos. The first four were today, the various mountain pictures were from last fall and winter. That first mountain picture, with the lake, is (IMO) the best picture I've ever taken. I'd love to get Oleg up into that same spot to do his thing, we'd really have some spectacular landscapes to see then.

[Manedwolf]

New Hampshire still has its history, and is proud of it, and its traditions. In a lot of ways, it's what America probably was long ago. People say "Good Morning" to strangers in the street, they hold open doors, they respect privacy, and they're not afraid of guns. And scenes like these are not uncommon in winter and fall.



The wild places are still just that in NH, and full of some magical, hidden scenes that just make you pause.





Fall is absolute magic. The trees explode into golden yellow, flame orange, and intense red everywhere. Tourists come here just to see, because they can't believe the colors in the photos are really that intense. They are.



The town I live in was incorporated in 1750. They've never forgotten that fact, even in their current architecture.



I like it.

[LadySmith]

No photos because I'm a lousy photographer. But here's why I love where I live (even though it's in CA)...
Sitting outside watching the sun set, looking over to my right and seeing a bobcat pick its way through my back yard. Looking over to my left and seeing a family of wild boars meandering across a hill.

Coming home and finding deer in my driveway.
Hearing the screech of various birds of prey overhead.
Being able to see the stars at night.
Listening to foxes and coyotes sing.

Not having neighbors.

Being visited by wild turkeys, cottontail bunnies, lots of songbirds and ground squirrels.
Being accepted by them. They won't come near me, but they don't run from me either.

Oh, and my moat is cool. I'm thinking crocs someday. 

[roo_ster]

Hmm, I have lived many places and currently reside in Richardson, Texas.

While Richardson is a nice enough city that diligently fights off entropy in ways others do not, it really is not much to look at.

Lets face it, Dallas, Ft Worth, & surrounding towns are located smack dab in the middle of the southern Great Plains.  "Plains," as in pretty bland topography.

So, folks don't come for the natural beauty.  They usually come to DFW for work, becasue knuckleheads in other states run off their best & brightest up & comers who desire something other than a socialist paradise.

Some of Richardson's high points are:
1. Better than usual public schools.  Useful for property values and those willing to send their kids to gooberment indoctrination centers.
2. City passes & enforces property maintenance rules to keep the housing stock from sliding downhill.
3. Older neighbors
4. Richardson PD is staffed with decent, professional folks (at least those I have dealt with).
5. I live 15 minutes from work & my wife is 15 minutes form school
6. It is in Texas

I can say, however, that I have more affection for Texas than I do for Richardson.  When I moved here and encountered native Texans, I realized that I fit in without having to do anything but be myself.  Unlike some, I have no desire to change Texas to be more like California, NY, or anywhere else.  I want it to be MORE Texas-y, not less.

I could list the good points, but time is running short.

[stevelyn]

I don't particularly like the rain-soaked blowhole where I currently live and woud gladly trade it for 40 below temps and clouds of vampire-like mosquitoes of the Interior.

However, I am far enough off the beaten path that the rest of the outside world pretty much finds it take too much effort to screw with us, and I can have all the salmon, halibut and crab that I want.

[K Frame]

I could get into living in Mange, New Hampster, or Verminmont. I love New England.

[Manedwolf]

I could get into living in Mange, New Hampster, or Verminmont. I love New England.

Vermont is nice except for Brat-boro, which is infested with entitlement hippie liberals.

Some of the coastal areas of Maine, the little coves with houses tucked in them and a lighthouse's beam sweeping the sky out on a point, are right out of a fairytale.

(Though those tend to be handled by Sotheby's when sold, if that gives you an idea of the price now!)

[mtnbkr]

I actually really like the Mid-Atlantic (minus the folks in MD, but the region is nice).  I live far too close to Irwin at the moment and traffic in NoVa sucks but I like my proximity to the mountains and coast. 

If I had my way, I'd have a few wooded acres in SW Va with a 2500sq/ft ranch style house tucked away in a "hollar".  I'm a Piedmont NC native and have lived in TN and Va, but my favorite is the SW Va/East TN/NW NC portion of the Appalachian mountains.  I could be happy with WV in a pinch as well.

Chris