This week's Zoom call, led by Thomas J. Nelson, REALTOR ® CRS,ABR,PSA,RCS-D, CFSP , focused on California. Thomas' love of his state was evident as he talked about various parts of California. Our homework this week was to talk about our takeaway or takeaways from the meeting this week.
So first, I've only been to California once in my life, and that was nearly 50 years ago when I took a trip to visit a friend in Chula Vista. I remember at the time thinking the area was just so beautiful and clean and the weather was perfect. But except for landing in California airports on my way elsewhere, that's the only time I stepped foot in the state.
So before this week's call, I thought California was as different as could be from where I live now in Montana. Blue versus red state. Mountains, lakes, and gorgeous land with few people versus crowded cities with lots of homeless. Places to hunt, fish, and enjoy nature versus wealthy people shopping on Rodeo Drive. That of course is a bit of an exaggeration, but you get the picture.
And then the zoom call happened and here's what I found out.
First, who would have thought? One of Thomas' first slides showed that the California state animal was a grizzly bear. Huh? I didn't believe it, so had to look it up myself. Well, guess what, the grizzly bear IS the California animal, and the grizzly bear is also the Montana state animal. Wow! I had no idea. Go Grizzlies!
And then, Thomas shared a bit about a place he lived in for a while called Lake Berryessa, the largest lake in the Napa Valley. It's located in the Vaca Mountains and is a place for hunting, harvesting and eating animals and fish. Wikipedia indicates the lake includes bass, catfish, carp, pike minnow, crappie, bluegill, trout and salmon and the area has bears, deer, mountain lions, coyotes and more. Mountains, lake, hunting, fishing, wildlife - that sounds just like Montana!
I was also very interested in the Humboldt Redwoods State Park and I did some online searching about the park. It includes about 17K acres of old-growth redwoods which apparently is the largest expanse of ancient redwoods anywhere on Earth. There is a 32 mile Avenue of the Giants and the park is open all year long. Weather ranges from the 20s to 60s in the Winter and 50s to 90s in the Summer. And camping is available as well - totally doable at any time of the year. Also, a fun fact that I discovered after the call was over - banana slugs, North America's largest slug and the second largest slug in the world (growing up to 8") is found in the redwood forest. Now there's something to look forward to seeing!
And those are my three takeaways from our recent California overview. It is a much more robust and interesting state than I originally thought. Thank you to Thomas for pointing that out!
A final note. If you have not yet attended a Tuesday 2pm Eastern time Zoom call, please do! Everyone is invited and the get-togethers are a stress-free way to get to know fellow ActiveRainers better, and to learn something new. Every Sunday you will find a featured post with the speaker for the following Tuesday. We'd love to see you there!.
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