scrubbedexpat099

Mine was knee high, so much rain this year, in the ned gave up trying to repair the old mover and bought a new one.

sir_eccles

I looked under the bottom of the bucket the other day, it said "made in china".

london_calling

Is it? Only I'm struggling to think of anything the US has that Europe does not. Ok, enormous deserts. I'll give you that one.

SultanOfSwing

No, it's not necessarily 'better'. The US and Europe complement each other though, rather than compete. They're both of a similar size, both have a varied geography and climate, each one has things the other doesn't. Then on top of that, the rest of North America, South America, Africa, Asia and Oceania offer the same.

But as you say, there is the desert, which itself contains gems like the Grand Canyon, Arches National Park, Monument Valley and the Saguaro cactus. Also, there are the giant Sequoia Redwoods in California that really have to be seen to be believed.

london_calling

Completely agree with that. I haven't seen much but the desert around LA is spectacular.

Oh I forgot firearms, SUVs and obese people. America probably has more of those too.

scrubbedexpat099

Uk is doing very well on obesity.

SultanOfSwing

I haven't been to the desert yet myself, but it is on our 'to do' list. I think, after a trip back to the UK next year, our next US holiday will be to the Grand Canyon and possibly Saguaro National Park as well.

We just got back from a trip to San Francisco and the Central Valley though, Yosemite and Sequoia National Parks are just mind bogglingly beautiful places.

london_calling

You're not wrong. 67% overweight!

How obese is the UK? and how does it compare to other countries? | News | The Guardian

markonline1

Yosemite and the Sequoia National Parks are the foothills of the Sierra Neveda's though are they not. The Central Valley of California is actually a desperate place. Bakersfield, Fresno, miles of nothing. I took the I5 up through the Central Valley on a trip from Vegas to San Fran and it was the worst experience of all my trips here. The drive through the dessert from LA to Vegas on the other hand, is superb. Done that drive countless times, it never gets old.

SultanOfSwing

Yeah, they are in the Sierras. We just stayed in the valley because we were also visiting relatives of my stepson during the trip. Not much to see in the valley itself, plus the drought has hit the area hard. Should have been a touch more accurate there, I suppose! The mountains are just brilliant though.

Driving through the Altamont Pass towards Oakland en route to San Francisco on our last day was pretty cool, I thought. Think it's I-580, or maybe I-205. It was weird how quickly the temperature dropped though, from 106 in the Pass, to 68 once we were on the Oakland Bay Bridge .

San Francisco is lovely though. Well, what we saw of it, we only spent one night there but had a nice dinner and a walk around Fisherman's Wharf/Pier 39. It turned out to be the same night that bird got killed on Pier 14, which apparently scared the shit out of my wife's boss, though we were completely oblivious to it at the time.

kimilseung

I have my first trip to American desert in a few weeks. But its in Washington state, famed for its rain, but this bit of Washington, East of the mountains, is a bit different.

markonline1

Yeah, San Francisco and the mountains of California really are a spectacular part of planet earth. One of the many reasons I fell in love with the place. Apparently, it's about a 3 hour drive to Yosemite from my place. I really should do a mini road trip. The temperature drops are a weird phenomenon of the CA coast. We can visit my FIL in Gilroy which is about 20 miles away and pushing 110 degrees. We drive back to Monterey where it's back in the mid to high 60's and you can feel the temperature drop as you describe. It's very strange.

Deserts shouldn't be such spectacular places, but I guess because we have none in the UK, and it's easy to picture people traveling through them on horseback all those years ago like in the movies, I find them great places.

SultanOfSwing

I think it's the geography. That central lowland area just traps in all the heat, then there's relief at the coasts, or up in the higher elevations (in Sequoia when we went, it was 104 at the entrance, which is around 1,400', then in the Giant Forest, at 6,000', it was 72 and raining ).

Great trip though, I'm glad we went. We're already planning our next trip back.

markonline1

The main reason is that pesky marine layer you get at the coast. Stops the temperature ever getting above mid 70's, although that's a blessing.'the amount of pilots we get fly in from the central coast and the first thing they always mention is how great the weather is in Monterey.
If you do San Francisco again, and you should if you only spent one night there, make sure you explore more of the city. It has a lot more cool stuff to offer than fishermans wharf

SultanOfSwing

That does sound good. I do often miss living by the sea for that temperature regulation. All we have around here is lakes, and all they do is inject the air with moisture so it gets unbearable when it gets above 85 ...

We'll be back again I'm sure. We just had to cram a lot into just 4 full days and the two parks were the main event this time.