Where are you from?

[SheLion]

I live a few miles north of Annapolis, Maryland. Maryland is in the mid-Atlantic region, which means it's on the Atlantic (east) coast of the US, and in the middle, north to south. Annapolis is the state capital and sits on the western shore of the Chesapeake Bay. (The portion of Maryland on the other side of the bay is actually referred to as the eastern shore by Marylanders.) Annapolis is the self-proclaimed 'Sailing capital of the world' and also the home of the United States Naval Academy. The Maryland capitol building in Annapolis is the oldest capitol still in continuous legislative use and is the only one to have ever served as the nation's capital. So, a lot of history where I live.

In terms of weather, we usually have 4 seasons: hot, humid summers; cool, crisp autumns; cold winters (some snow, usually not more than a few inches at a time); and cool, rainy springs. The nice thing about where I live is that in 20 minutes I can be on the shore of the bay. If I drive about 3 hours east, I can be on the shore of the Atlantic ocean. And if I drive about 1.5 hours west, I can be in the Catoctin mountains. Another hourish west of that and I'm in the Allegany mountains. Both of those ranges are part of the Appalachian mountains. The Appalachians are the oldest mountains in the US, and according to a website I just looked at, the oldest in the world as well. I'm also a 20 minute drive and a 30ish minute Metro train ride from the National Mall in Washington, DC. (I could, of course, drive into DC but I don't unless I have no other recourse. The traffic is horrible and I get terribly lost. )

Maryland is the fifth state in which I've lived. I was born in Michigan (in Flint, actually, which is more well-known now due to the shameful water crisis). Spent my childhood in Florida and then went back to Michigan. After high school I ended up in California and then North Carolina, courtesy of the US military, and finally landed in Maryland. After the husband retires, we're planning on relocating but have yet to decide where to go.

 

[Guspuppy]

Man I am so resonating with so many of these posts! I grew up and currently live in NW Pennsylvania, probably an hour south of mx6inpenn. I've been to Allegheny National Forest many many times to hike and camp, and I'm going to bet the first picture of the rocks is on the Minister Creek hiking trail. She did a great job of describing our area and weather so I don't need to repeat.

In 2003 I flew into London, spent a day, and took the night bus to Edinburgh and rented a bicycle. I then proceeded to spend 10 days biking 300 miles around Scotland, ending up in Glasgow before returning by bus to London to fly home again.

I lived in Brainerd Minnesota in the winter of 2004-05, and it happened to be the coldest winter in 10 years or something, with temps getting at one point to -50°F. My bed froze to the wall in my apartment!

I climbed Mt Elbert in 2014 as part of a tribute by my best friend's family on her dad's birthday a year after his death. Everything after about 13,000 feet was HARD. My fingernails were blue from lack of oxygen by the time I summited!

I've been to all 50 states and a few countries besides, so I won't bombard you with details, but these are just some of the things that came to mind as I read through people's posts on this thread. So great! Thank you LilyJo for starting it!

 

[KristaY]

What a fun and informative read this has been, LilyJo!

I live in the northwest corner of Arizona, which is in the American southwest. I live 60 miles from California and 30 miles from Nevada, so this is called the "tri-state area". People often hear "Arizona" and immediately think "HOT". Well it's not, unless you live along the Colorado River or Phoenix area. I live in the high desert (4000 ft and above) so our temps are mild in summer and cold in winter. Right now there's 18" of snow in the mountains 12 miles up the road from my house and the high there was 28 F.

2 hours to the east is Flagstaff, AZ which is the coldest city in our state. It sits at 7,000 ft elevation and currently has 4 ft of snow throughout the city! I think the high there today was 12 F. In our last storm (2 days ago) the ski resort above Flagstaff got 72" of snow on top of the 100" they got in the last month. Skiers and snowboarders are having a grand time!

30 minutes to the west of me, at 500 ft elevation is the Colorado River and the boarder between AZ & NV. The high there today was 63 F. It's not uncommon to see 135 F in the summer but the media won't ever advertise that, lol. It's bad for tourism. The only thing that makes it bearable is the VERY low humidity which is normally about 10-15%.

Arizona has the most diverse topogrophy in the US - elevations range from 500 ft to almost 13,000 ft so within a couple of hours you can drive from many feet of snow to tee shirt weather. We have drought tolerant cactus and cold-loving lodgepole pines. We also have a large diversity of native critters. Heat-loving rattlesnakes (13 different species) as well as elk, deer, bear, mountain lion, bobcat, javelina, antelope, big horn sheep, turkey and many, many more. Most of these live around my area and are common to see.

The most interesting thing to me, living in the American west, is how relatively young our part of the world is. Our oldest buildings are only about 150 years old. We don't have the centuries of history that our friends across the seas know and live in. Even the eastern part of the US has much more history than we do. AZ only became a state in 1912 which is a baby compared to most parts of the world!

 

[Scooter]

The most interesting thing to me, living in the American west, is how relatively young our part of the world is. Our oldest buildings are only about 150 years old.

When I was younger I had a good friend from Ireland who had moved to the United States. I mentioned to him once that my family had lived in the South for about 250 years...he rolled his eyes and said, "That's nothing. My family has lived in the same house for 400 years!"

Yeah, "American" culture is a blip in the grand scheme of things.

 

[leilaninoel]

I'm born and raised New Hampshire. I live in the southern part of the state, which is comprised primarily of suburbs and woods. The further north you go in NH, the deeper into the mountains you go. It's beautiful here - people often come in the fall for the foliage. Winter this year is fairly mild - not too much snow or freezing cold yet. Last year was bitter cold, though - down to -20F, or -29C with the wind chill, or possibly even lower. Summers are hot and humid - not unusual to hit 100F or 38C during the hottest months.

However, the Cajun people (my people) are warm, friendly, never met a stranger, invite you to their house for supper on first meeting sorts of folks. So they more than make up for the weather.

My mother is actually from Newfoundland, which is a very similar culture - it's just one big family there. The hospitality in Newfoundland actually garnered some attention after 9/11, enough so where they wrote a musical about Gander and the hospitality they showed to all the passengers of planes diverted to Gander.
Weather is very nasty on "The Rock" where my Mom is from - summer was all of a few weeks long. In the winter they used to get their mail by dogsled, and in the groceries came by ship year round.

 

[CTAnton]

I'm really enjoying this thread...here's my 3 cents(adjusted for inflation).
I'm born in Brooklyn, which is a suburb of New York City. Supposedly a large percentage of the American population can trace it's ancestry back to Brooklyn. Raised on Long Island which, geographically, is interesting in the fact that the last glacial period stopped there and dumped it's boulders on the north side while the smaller particles washed out to the south. One of the major highways in the area follows the top of the "rock pile" left by the glacier and you can see the land slope out to the south.
I moved a whopping 2 hours away and have spent half my life in Connecticut. The usual 4 seasons for this part of the world with some nice topography where I live...streams coming down the hills, beaver ponds and a lot of woods. Bears and coyotes bobcats and I'll go out on a limb and say I saw a ropey tail going into some shrubs once which would be a mountain lion. This state was once a major industrial center, centered here largely because of free water power. They were and still are called mill towns .One town near me is still nicknamed "Hat City" being a center of hat manufacturing in it's day.
Nice to know I'm not the only one with roots in Newfoundland. My mom was from there and met my dad there during WWII . He was from Brooklyn. After the war they wrote letters for 4 years to each other, at which time my mom came for a visit and never left. Dating before the internet....

 

[Marshall]

Born and raised in St Petersburg Florida, followed my girlfriend up to New Jersey where we lived for about 5 years. Took that long to convince her to marry me We then moved to Tennessee, settling in a town just outside of Nashville.

Neither of us had been to Tennessee before but it sounded nice. We searched MLS books I talked a Realtor out of to get ideas, came to Tennessee for a one week trip to look around, went back to Jersey packed up and moved here over 25 years ago.

 

[nutterly_uts]

Get a great sense of where people live as well as where you are from and what life is really like, for us in the UK those distances just seem incredble - if I have to go to Edinburgh or Glasgow I would think twice about driving as it takes about 8 hours but it seems as though thats nothing compared to the distances some of you have!.

I have the flip attitude.. when your island is only 9 miles long and 5 miles wide, getting off the rock is a big deal, so what does it matter if you drive an hour or 9 once you're off it!

 

[Millie]

I live in the western part of the Finger Lakes of New York. The Canadian border is about two hours away and New York City is five hours away. We have four seasons, very similar to the weather described by others from the northeast. Today it is snowing.

I live in a beautiful old farmhouse surrounded by wooded hills and farmland. This is not the touristy part of the Finger Lakes! On our Main Street we have a burger joint, a tattoo parlor, a gas station and a firehouse. All other businesses fled many years ago. Our main source of entertainment comes from the volunteer fire department - they host craft fairs, balls, a town wide yard sale and other events. A church nearby hosts historical reenactments and demolition derbies in the summer.

I have lived in New York for most of my life, but in this part for only two years, and I'm still getting used to the culture. Everyone owns a gun or twenty for hunting deer and bears and fowl. Most people have lived here for many generations, and I've been told I'll be the new person in town until I have great grandkids here! Locals don't just ask where I live, they want to know exactly which house I live in, and they can report on the history of my house over the last hundred years or so. At first this was alarming to me, now I enjoy the stories.

There are many Amish folk in the area, and I am still thrilled everytime I see a family drive by in a horse drawn carriage. On Sundays a group of forty or so bikers on Harley Davidsons swoop through town. On the 4th of July neighbors all around set off real professional grade fireworks! Being surrounded on all sides by thundering blasts echoing through the hills, it is easy to feel some of the adrenaline and imagine the fear of America's early wars.

P.S. I have also seen the rock from mx6inpenn's photo!

 

[MySoapyHeart]

I am from Norway, born and (g)raised.
I live an hour or so from our main capital City of Oslo.

Norway is a country of ever changing seasons, so we always have something new to look forward to. Like, 4 times a year! Spring, Summer, Fall/Autumn and Winter.

I live in a place that have access to nature within a coupple of minutes, no matter where I turn. Deeps woods, lakes and waters, trails and whatnot. I don`t have the health to go out and enjoy it at the moment, but if I could it would take me no more than 5 minutes until I was deep in the woods, heading towards a trail that can take me as far as I can go. Love that!

My favourite is Fall. It has that... New-Fall smell. Do you know it? It is when the air gets visually more crisp and clear, like the clouds releases a boost of moist oxygen that travels down to the ground and filters away and binds dust and partickles that normally cloud up the air. It is quite strange. Along with it you get the woodsy notes of every tree that surrounds you, along with the grassy smell of wiltering leaves, wet grass and damp soil.

The wind is making the trees sing their special Fall-song they only perform once a year, because half of the leaves have branched out so to speak, and left their former habitat and decided to paint the ground we walk on with the brightest of colors for each and every step we take. Yellow brick road, indeed...

Sometimes we can pick up the most pristine leaf, and admire the colors, then let the wind take it on a ride to next location for someone else to find.
I love the wind in fall, it gives off the most soothing sound ever. A calming wooshing sound that increases and decreases as the wind moves through every remaining leaf and bare branch...

Right now though, we have winter.

Frozen lakes with bright blue and crackling ice that is absolutely safe to use, but still gives you that tickle in your tummy. What if...

Where we live people are ice skating or playing Hockey, doing cross country skiing - on or off the ice - every day these days. The skiing on the lake itself depends on the ammount of snow that are on the ground.
If the lake has a big enough layer of snow on it, the Municipality uses a snow mobile and make a special trail or loop if you will, for cross-country skis. It takes people around an hour to finish the complete loop. Some does that two times to get more time outside.

Norwegians are very interested in the outdoors, and the only time of year going DOWNHILL is a good thing, is in the winter.

At least if you have the correct skis to go with the terrain...

 

[earlene]

Locals don't just ask where I live, they want to know exactly which house I live in, and they can report on the history of my house over the last hundred years or so. At first this was alarming to me, now I enjoy the stories.

When the folks in town ask where I live (not anymore, but they used to), I had to tell them the old 'so & so place'. Our house was built and lived in by the man who founded the high school and was the first Superintendent of Schools in our town.

However, only the older people knew that. The teen-agers who go to the school he founded have no idea where he lived a hundred years ago. :think:

 

[Deola]

I'm not so sure if there is any other person from Nigeria here. I'm from Ondo state, a south western state in Nigeria. I live in the state capital but my hometown is right next to the capital. Here is the view of my hometown from the popular idanre hill

 

[Kosam]

Greetings from Chicago! Today is cold -8 but sunny

 

[Pepsi Girl]

Where do I live well it's not the end of the world but you can see it from my house!
I'm in the USA in the far NE corner of Oregon. Oregon is in the NW part of the US. We live on a ranch at the top of a mountain with the closest neighbors a mile away. We live 7 miles straight up hill from the closest town and it is population of 1200. It has a food market a post office and a drug store what more do you need. It's terrible cold in the winter and sunny and warm in the summer!

 

[Scooter]

Where do I live well it's not the end of the world but you can see it from my house!
I'm in the USA in the far NE corner of Oregon. Oregon is in the NW part of the US. We live on a ranch at the top of a mountain with the closest neighbors a mile away.

Oh I am so jealous. When I was much younger I lived on a ranch in the high desert located in the Inyo/White mtns... that little strip of California right on the NV border. Such gorgeous country... from CA, up through OR and then eastern WA. The mountains change names but the beauty is all the way up.