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Beautiful to see nature replenished! Phoenix is way too hot for too much of the year, and it's getting expensive to where the trade off of leaving California isn't very good anymore. Same for places like Nashville, Miami, Austin, and Dallas. Still a little bit less expensive but not enough to make up for the loss of mild climate, low humidity, national park access, scenery, etc.
Photos like these remind us of how blessed we are in every part of California, and that while everyone's backyard maybe a little bit different, all these places are accessible to all of us. Sac is heavily connected to the rivers and the Sierra; the Bay Area has Napa, Sonoma, redwoods, Santa Cruz; LA has Malibu, Santa Monica, the San Gabriel mountains; San Diego has La Jolla, Julian, Temecula Wine Country, the Cuyamacas; and all of SoCal has Palm Springs while NorCal has the high desert in Reno and Burning Man. And we all have yosemite!
For sure, fer sure, but all add,
Sacramento is very well connected to Napa, Sonoma and Marin as much and likely more so than San Jose-Silicon Valley; it's easier for us to get there for sure. Especially the Napa Valley.
Our closest Ocean Beaches are in Marin, not Santa Cruz nor the Peninsula as most think, but still quite doable for a day trip.
And,
Sacramento has their own Wine Country(s) in Amador County, the Delta (Sacto County), and Placer/El Dorado.
I would say SoCal does NOT have easy to Yosemite nor Mammoth.
But, NorCal lacks good access to Desert Variety like Coachella, Palm Springs, Joshua Tree, Anza-Borrega.
Nor, warm summer beaches like in SD and OC. Instead, we have hot summer lakes. :-)
There isn't any place like the Gold Country (Sierra Foothills) in SoCal. Slightly similar, but not really.
Stinson Beach is actually our favorite beach in all of CA, although many European friends and family have repeatedly expressed that they liked South Tahoe beaches in summer better than even SoCal beaches (cleaner water, no marine layer, warmer afternoons, more sun (but cold nights)). In any case, Sacramento is well connected to both. SoCal is a good five to six hrs to Mammoth but still the most popular for serious skiers, more than Big Bear even though it's closer (and this was a great winter for snow there too, huge bases).
Really, every part of California has access to the same things but in different proportions -- NorCal has more wine country, more mountains, but fewer sandy warm beaches, and desert access being linked to high desert and little glamour. SoCal has the reverse proportions but the same things available. We all get to enjoy such variety.
I really don't know the northern third of the state very well at all..m
Sacramento is very well connected to Napa, Sonoma and Marin as much and likely more so than San Jose-Silicon Valley; it's easier for us to get there for sure. Especially the Napa Valley.
Our closest Ocean Beaches are in Marin, not Santa Cruz nor the Peninsula as most think, but still quite doable for a day trip.
And,
Sacramento has their own Wine Country(s) in Amador County, the Delta (Sacto County), and Placer/El Dorado.
I would say SoCal does NOT have easy to Yosemite nor Mammoth.
But, NorCal lacks good access to Desert Variety like Coachella, Palm Springs, Joshua Tree, Anza-Borrega.
Nor, warm summer beaches like in SD and OC. Instead, we have hot summer lakes. :-)
There isn't any place like the Gold Country (Sierra Foothills) in SoCal. Slightly similar, but not really.
I like central coast beaches a lot in California, less crowded natural scenery and not too bad a drive from Sacramento. My new outdoor patio set arrived and such perfect weather today for poolside al fresco dining!
Looks like we may have a cooler than normal summer too. I’ll just use my garage gym more and dine in backyard more. All good.
I like central coast beaches a lot in California, less crowded natural scenery and not too bad a drive from Sacramento. My new outdoor patio set arrived and such perfect weather today for poolside al fresco dining!
Looks like we may have a cooler than normal summer too. I’ll just use my garage gym more and dine in backyard more. All good.
Sounds like a good plan, Papi!
The Central Coast can be pretty chilly this time of year.
Monterey Bay is where the Central Coast begins, but Sant Cruz is still considered a NORCAL Coastal town, the southernmost Norcal town.
High Temps Today
Sacramento - 77F - Sunny
Monterey, Seaside, Pacific Grove are the first Central Coastal towns - 54F
Carmel - 55F
Morrow Bay - 58F
San Luis Obispo 62
Pismo Beach - 59F
Santa Maria - 61F
The Santa Barbara Channel south of Point Conception and the city of Santa Barbara is where SoCal begins.
I love the drive from Santa Cruz to Santa Barbara. Although Santa Cruz is on Monterey Bay, in every way it is a NorCal town, but when you get to the bottom of Monterey Bay in Monterey-Pacific Grove you get that distinctive Central Coast feel all the way down to San Luis Obispo (SLO).
SLO is truly a combination of NorCal and SoCal in one, but still distinctly Central Coast. It is not until you get to Pismo Beach that you get your first elements of SoCal, but still a Central Coast town.
By the time you get to Santa Barbara you know you have arrived in SoCal, but folks much further south may feel its the beginning of the Central Coast. The key that Santa Barbara is in fact SoCal is the California Current is distinctly warmer and calmer and the rest of the Southern coast is far to the east compared to the Northern and Central parts.
As you move south on the California Coast you end up in the Desert. Basically San Diego with its Mesas and Canyons is where the Desert meets the Ocean. Arizona on the Ocean.
If you draw a line directly north up from San Diego (longitude 117.16W), you would end up near Winnemucca, Nevada (longitude 117.73W), In other words, the South Coast-San Diego is 400 miles EAST of the NorCal coast-Eureka. When comparing the coasts of SoCal and NorCal, don't forget to think in terms of East and West, not just North and South.
Only down side travel wise on west coast is travel to Europe or the Caribbean which is painful due to connecting flights and longer travel times.
My wife talks about that all the time with our looming move back to NorCal, as she's from Europe and we fly over there every year or so. Difference is exaggerated though.
We used to fly SFO to Eastern Europe thru Paris/Munich and it would take about 17 hours.
From JFK to Eastern Europe it takes about 13 hours.
Layovers can change that but the difference isn't that great.
I won't argue a straight shot, JFK to Heathrow is much quicker than LA or SFO.
The longitude makes a huge difference. Here in San diego, it makes our sunrises very early and our sunsets very early. So much so that despite being farther south than the bay area, the sun still sets earlier in winter, and we really have short days. However, winter sunrises still end up being annoyingly early. Nobody would benefit more from year-round daylight saving time than we would.
Regarding Santa Cruz vs Monterey, it kind of feels opposite to me, which just shows how subjective impressions can be. Santa Cruz is South facing, so it's much warmer than Monterey, it's less foggy, less windy, and there are palm trees and exotic plants all over the place. Monterey, the other hand, feels more like San Francisco with the dark, twisted Cypress trees, the wind and fog, and the rugged coastline. So to me, Monterey always feels more cold and Northern compared to Santa cruz. The exception is the winter. During dry weather patterns, Monterey can really warm up like SoCal. Santa Cruz can also, but Monterey usually beats it out. Seen lots of 70s and 80s in Monterey in the winter over the years, even though it seems perpetually stuck in the 60s in summer. For summer beach going, Santa Cruz is the NorCal version of SoCal. The backdrop of the Santa Cruz mountains is definitely different though.
SLO is a great town, definitely very Central Coast feeling. To me, it feels like a NorCal inland town moved closer to the coast. The coastal scenery by Pismo Beach and SLO really reminds me of inland NorCal, which is always a little weird being coastal on the central coast.
Santa Barbara is a beautiful place, although last time we went like a year or two ago, it seemed much quieter, less vibrant, and more vacant than it did 15 years ago. A lot of shops and restaurants seem to have left downtown after a series of fires, floods, and the pandemic, and I think it's going to take a little while to rebound. And the drive from San Diego can be excruciatingly long with traffic. I think it took us 5 hours. I know from an old friend in Palo Alto years ago that it only took 4.5 hours from there, even though I'm sure it's a farther drive. I think without traffic, it's supposed to take about 3.5 hours from here, and it honestly doesn't seem totally worth it unless you're driving up the coast anyway.
The Central Coast can be pretty chilly this time of year.
Monterey Bay is where the Central Coast begins, but Sant Cruz is still considered a NORCAL Coastal town, the southernmost Norcal town.
High Temps Today
Sacramento - 77F - Sunny
Monterey, Seaside, Pacific Grove are the first Central Coastal towns - 54F
Carmel - 55F
Morrow Bay - 58F
San Luis Obispo 62
Pismo Beach - 59F
Santa Maria - 61F
The Santa Barbara Channel south of Point Conception and the city of Santa Barbara is where SoCal begins.
I love the drive from Santa Cruz to Santa Barbara. Although Santa Cruz is on Monterey Bay, in every way it is a NorCal town, but when you get to the bottom of Monterey Bay in Monterey-Pacific Grove you get that distinctive Central Coast feel all the way down to San Luis Obispo (SLO).
SLO is truly a combination of NorCal and SoCal in one, but still distinctly Central Coast. It is not until you get to Pismo Beach that you get your first elements of SoCal, but still a Central Coast town.
By the time you get to Santa Barbara you know you have arrived in SoCal, but folks much further south may feel its the beginning of the Central Coast. The key that Santa Barbara is in fact SoCal is the California Current is distinctly warmer and calmer and the rest of the Southern coast is far to the east compared to the Northern and Central parts.
As you move south on the California Coast you end up in the Desert. Basically San Diego with its Mesas and Canyons is where the Desert meets the Ocean. Arizona on the Ocean.
If you draw a line directly north up from San Diego (longitude 117.16W), you would end up near Winnemucca, Nevada (longitude 117.73W), In other words, the South Coast-San Diego is 400 miles EAST of the NorCal coast-Eureka. When comparing the coasts of SoCal and NorCal, don't forget to think in terms of East and West, not just North and South.
Crazy fact: San Diego was the cloudiest city in the entire lower 48 in the month of May, far cloudier even than Anchorage, AK and only barely beaten in the entire 50 states by a small Alaskan outpost. Insanity!! In the last two weeks, we only had partly cloudy skies for a few hours on Saturday, and the rest of the time, it's been overcast day and night. And I think the previous two weeks were similar. I can't even remember. It just seems like it's never going to end. Luckily we aren't quite as prone to SAD as when we were younger.
We've also only reached 70° twice in the last month. Our pool temp is still in the 60s.
And despite this neverending gloom, San Diegans have always struck me as being totally entrenched in the year-round good weather narrative and still find ways to spin it in positive ways. This is something I've noticed over the decades. Even if we're having record-breaking floods, they will say, well, we're lucky not to live in icy Minnesota, or if we're having a heatwave, they will say, well, it's much worse in Phoenix, isn't it? There's a lot of relativizing the weather down here so that we always believe we have the best weather in the country at all times.
In the urban parts of the Bay Area, I've always noticed the opposite. People seem to catastrophize benign weather and act like it's the absolute worst anywhere. I remember on BART, tons of people would regular carry umbrellas in the middle of summer, even though it wouldn't rain for months on end. I also remember a friend of ours who moved to San Francisco in the mid-90s, right during one of the record-breaking rainy periods, and even though he subsequently lived through far more drought than flood years, he always thought of San Francisco as a very rainy city, which it's totally not compared to most places.
Growing up in Walnut creek, however, nobody ever really talked about or noticed the weather very much unless it was extremely unusual. And I think Sacramento is probably the same. Nobody thinks about it all that much, and going back to the original topic of this thread, that's probably a major reason why the climate is so underestimated. People don't realize that for several months in spring and fall, it's got some of the nicest temperatures and sky conditions in the entire country. They also don't realize that in the summer, Sacramento has the highest sunshine probability on Earth, or that it's a blessing to have the early morning cool down for a few hours, or that the low humidity and afternoon breeze adds significantly to the evening comfort level on a good number of days, or that even during extreme heat waves, the warm summer evenings are wonderful for hanging out outdoors without mosquitoes.
So don't take these wonderful sunny late spring days for granted!
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