50 States, Day 179

  50 States Day 179

 

"Happiness is not something you postpone for the future; it is something you design for the present."

~Jim Rohn

Today we painted the babies'room and you don't care! So I present, for your reading pleasure:

 

East Coast vs. West Coast or Atlantic vs. Pacific (And shame on you for not caring.) 

 

Besides the obvious (like what the sun does over the water), what's the difference between the coasts? At least California vs. New Jersey. The West Coast features sandy beaches and high cliffs. To the East, the beaches are whiter sand with more rocky areas.

 

The West consists of Spanish style houses; stucco with red tile roofs. Fast forward three time zones and you've got Cape Cod, with white decks. The sunset side of the continent is a labyrinth of streets, winding up hills and through canyons. It doesn't take long to leave the humid, temperate seacoast and find yourself in the desert, wondering where all the moisture went. On the right coast, flat flat flat. The beaches are particularly flat, with a windrow of sand covered with beach grass separating beach from...not beach. Get away from the shore and enjoy the deciduous trees that this time of year are turning a plethora of pleasant colors.

Driving in California is a white knuckle, two fisted affair, with six lanes of traffic and freeways intersecting freeways. Turnpikes run up and down the East with two or three lanes and the next exit is in Bolivia. People speak with New York type accents. The accent in Cally is more habla espańol.

The little towns on the Cape Cod side of things roll up the sidewalks off season. Yet Atlantic City keeps the Boardwalk unrolled. Little towns of the west seem to cater to tourists more in the winter, and big cities like San Diego and Los Angeles keep on rocking. New York too. 

San Diego keeps a fair amount of homeless people around. I'm sorry, that's not politically correct. That makes it sound like they don't, won't or can't have a home. Bums is probably a better term. Kidding! But they hang around the beaches of San Diego. If I were a bu-homeless, I wouldn't be in Minot, North Dakota right now.

If you're interested in surfing, the Atlantic Ocean features waves, I mean sometimes as high as eighteen inches. Right. No surfing. The surfers hang-I mean, hang ten-on the left coast. Why the different tidal actions, I don't know. Ask the moon. The Atlantic is warmer than the Pacific. Ask the sun.

What do both coasts share in common?

Gorgeous beaches. Not everywhere. You have to find them. Water, all the way to the horizon, making one believe that the world is flat. (Is there still a Flat Earth Society? Used to be.) Friendly people. I've found the Easterners to be friendlier.

Unaffordable houses. Who buys them? Maybe fifty people share one house. Oh, they do. They're called condos. Lots of houses get split down into multi places on both sides of the country. They rent them out, either to tourists on a daily/weekly basis, or to locals with leases. And you can see older ones that have been remodeled to death. Probably a rat maze inside, every person thinking he has a better idea than the last of how to improve the place until you have to put the toilet lid up to put the oven door down.  Nice, ritzy houses too. Man, some people have some joints. On both sides. The houses aren't the only expensive things, either. You make a hundred grand on either coast and at the end of the year will wonder where it went. Here's the clue; it went everywhere.

Both utilize Neanderthal methods of collecting money called toll roads, the Left Coast doing social engineering that complicates the matter. You have a fuel efficient car with a fuel efficient pass? You get in the left lane and go faster. You have a hybrid with fuel saving tires, painted yellow with six people in it? You can weave and cut people off and change lanes indiscriminately. Wait a minute. Everyone does that.

Nothing like water and sand to get people outside. Whether Atlantic or Pacific, people get out and bike, run, walk or drag their animals around. Outside is where it's at! And each side features awesome vacations possibilities: Bar Harbor, Newport Beach (West) Newport (East), Atlantic City, Monterey, Long Beach on either side as well. Grab a tube of sunscreen and head East or West.  

But this time of year, make sure it's to the South.