aimeelee

Traffic, huge industrial section, gorgeous mountain backdrop but you hardly notice them because of all the factories. If you go to denver, at least treat yourself to Ft Collins and Loveland which are not far away. Those are wonderful towns in every respect.

I guess this is what Heaven would look like. You cannot believe your eyes when you see these huge , perfectly kept gardens of absolutely gorgeous flowers. At least in the 1960’s they looked perfect!!

We went around 1964 and Loved it. The high rise buildings that were so impressive, the ocean views, the high speed trains that took us to many different parts each having its own “culture” such as chinatown, the friendly people—fabulous place.

I have not been back to SF in decades but I remember little snippets about it that make me smile. We had a cute hotel room. There were gorgeous flowers all over the grounds and across the street. In the bathroom was a tiny window that overlooked a small backyard-the yard of someone’s house. Right in the middle of that yard was a LEMON TREE. I almost fainted. That little cutie was about 3 feet tall and loaded with lemons.
We enjoyed Fishermans” Wharf, it was fun but I don’t recall much. I do remember members of the same sex walking down the street with their arms around one another. Never have seen that since. Possibly in Key West?
We walked down a street and saw someone asleep on his coat right on the sidewalk. It seemed so odd to me. Then we walked into a small, casual chinese place with red booths and had the most fantastic chinese dinner. Next night we tried another one a tad more expensive and I’m telling you it was fabulous food.
They had these baldheaded guys sitting on blankets chanting; I can’t spell the name—Hare Krishnas? A man (not a Krishna)asked my husband for a dollar and my husband gave him five dollars. The guy almost broke into tears (he was about 25)and said he’d meet us right there the next night to pay us back but my husband just smiled and said that was ok.
We were sort of newlyweds then; I had no idea that that was going to be one of the happiest times and best trips of my life. I still love San Francisco and I have many ancestors buried in northern California.

My tip is try to avoid it. Each time we go through it on our way to Kansas City and Colorado we have to drive through and around and sometimes get lost in this dull, unattractive state.
Sure, they MAY have friendly people; but they’d be MORE friendly living where it’s pretty.

Hard to remember much about it except it wasn’t crowded at all back then. Couple DOZEN people waiting for Old Faithful to erupt; that was exciting. Then we walked very close to the
boiling water places (geysers?)scattered around the ground. We took a ferry over there; my daughter was two. Now she’s 40. I hear it’s really crowded now. The pine trees and scenery were gorgeous.
This is about all I remember. Except for the moose. There was a moose in the woods close to the road and lots of people were taking pictures of it. Now I have deer which are a lot prettier.

Looks dirty now, scary as the dickens at night—do NOT walk alone at night. But in ‘55 it was lovely: clean, safe, a family place to stroll the boardwalk and gaze at the THEN CLEAN BLUE OCEAN.
Just plain tacky.

This and Dollywood are swarming with cars. Yes, they have lots of fun shows and wildly decorated buildings housing food and entertainment but , come on; who wants to live in a circus atmosphere?
You should visit it once but your driving skills and your road rage better be under control.

We just got home from KC yesterday! Has a lot of industry, factories, traffic (not too bad)but the neighborhoods are really nice, clean and quiet. HOmes are expensive here, we’ve had some excellent food and they have hundreds of restaurants to choose from. If you can afford the housing and like what big cities have to offer I wouldn’t mind living here. But I’d not choose it over smaller places like Prairie Village, Kansas Loveland, Colorado or Tyler, Texas. They have a lot of snowfall-more frequent than actually deep snow- but they sand the streets. It’s basically another big city.
KC Masterpiece has good bbq but not as good as what my son in law makes in his smoker.
Was there mid August and the weather was perfect; not hot at all. In winter when we were there they had flurries on and off; you didn’t even notice when driving.

If you can locate booger hollow you’ve found some of the most beautiful mountain scenery in the state.
Jonesboro is like a cozy , small town from the past. We stopped there to get some money from the bank. Little Rock is not pretty, I’d say, but it IS hilly which is nice. It’s sort of boring in LR.
Eureka Springs is GORGEOUS-Go to The Historic District and walk and window shop. Talk about winding roads-wow. Reminds me of a little european town.
Fayetteville is gorgeous-most of it-Bella Vista and Rogers are FANTASTIC and I’d love to live there. Growing like mad. Hot Springs I would term: rundown, dull, but quirky. Nice , small mountains. And I mean SMALL mountains. Russellville has more going on than Hot Springs for sure. Hot Springs has like 2 nightclubs—and one is called BOOGIES. I’M SERIOUS. It’s a real dump on the outside but I’ve heard it’s nice inside.
Arkadelphia is just a very tiny town, not much going on, lots of “antique” and junk shops. Very good buffett there.
Again, find Booger Hollow and you’ll see what really pretty scenery is that doesn’t terrify you like the Rockies terrify some people.