Fun facts about where you live!

[DianaB]

Ok Janet, this is for you.

This is her library. Isn't it a beautiful building? There's also some facts about her community.

http://www.epodunk.com/cgi-bin/genIn...?locIndex=5360

This is a school. It looks a lot like a school we have in my town.

http://www.historiclandmarks.org/Sit...-Frankfort.jpg

This is her courthouse. It's very beautiful too!

http://www.indianalaw.to/clinton-cou...-frankfort.jpg

Here's a neat fountain!

http://search.msn.com/images/results...onfountain.jpg

Here's the Roundhouse!

http://search.msn.com/images/results...undhouse-1.jpg

So......How'd I do?

[gja1000]

I love Austin. I came here 23 years ago expecting to only stay 5-6 years, and here I am, 20+ years later.

Austin doesn't "feel" like Texas - yes, you may see some cowboy boots and hats, but Austin is much less "cowboy" than either Houston or Dallas.

Austin is a very laid back, funky, city with a small town attitude. A common bumper sticker that you will see around town says, "Keep Austin Weird". Another bumper sticker you might see is "Titty Bingo" - which is the name of a local band.

Many of the old hippies that didn't stay in California, came to Austin - some of them are my good friends. There is a wonderful feeling of acceptance here. My husband and I noticed immediately that we could go into a place of business, e.g., a restaurant, and someone would be dressed up in a suit and tie and next to them was someone in shorts and flip flops and it seems perfectly normal and no one thinks anyone else is over/under dressed.

Austin is considered by many as the "Live music capitol of the world". And indeed, you can find live music most anytime of the day or night in most any part of the city. We have large beautifully decorated guitars placed around the city to symbolize our love affair with music.

It is said that famous people who have homes here, e.g., Sandra Bullock, Lance Armstrong, Walter Cronkite, and Dennis Quaid, love it here because they can be out and about and no one bothers them. I heard Jesse James (Sandra Bullocks husband) in a TV interview, say that he loves Austin because he doesn't get stopped by the cops when they see all his tattoos.

Yes, Austin City Limits is filmed right here in the middle of town on the University of Texas campus. While it looks like the bands are playing outdoors, it is really just a pretty small room with a backdrop of the city lights. Yes, we have to regularly replace the green Austin City Limits highway signs on the roads into the city. The tickets are free and it really is a wonderful way to see some great acts up close and personal.

Austin is home to one of the worlds largest colonies of Mexican freetail bats (they come here from Mexico in the summer). They live under the bridge on Congress street over the Colorado river. When they fly out in the evening to feed, you will find hundreds of people down by the river banks watching the large black cloud of bats emerge. It takes them all about 15-20 minutes to fly out. It looks like a large wavey black cloud.

The restaurants in Austin are very very good - if not, the restaurant doesn't last long. Everyone loves to go out to eat and there is usually always a long wait at almost any restaurant in the evenings on the weekends. Many of them also have live music venues. Janis Joplin sang at Threadgill's restaurant back in the 60's before she was famous. Russell Crow and his band and Dennis Quaid and his band play at Stubb's BBQ joint.

I could blab on and on about Austin, I really do love this place.

Here's a website where you can learn more about my favorite city.

http://www.austintexas.org/

[Lindsey]

Originally Posted by DianaB

Ok Janet, this is for you.

This is her library. Isn't it a beautiful building? There's also some facts about her community.

http://www.epodunk.com/cgi-bin/genIn...?locIndex=5360

This is a school. It looks a lot like a school we have in my town.

http://www.historiclandmarks.org/Sit...-Frankfort.jpg

This is her courthouse. It's very beautiful too!

http://www.indianalaw.to/clinton-cou...-frankfort.jpg

Here's a neat fountain!

http://search.msn.com/images/results...onfountain.jpg

Here's the Roundhouse!

http://search.msn.com/images/results...undhouse-1.jpg

So......How'd I do?

Good sleuthing Diana That courthouse is really beautiful.
Janet, it looks like a great place to live!

[Lindsey]

Gayle, that was a really good review of Austin It's great that you love it there. It's huge, isn't it? Probably huge to my standards How many people live there?

[Lindsey]

I'm going to start out with just some facts about the province, since I've pretty much lived everywhere here
Saskatchewan covers an area of 588,276.09 square kilometres (227,134.67 sq mi). It has over 100,000 lakes. Yeah, really Anywhere you live, there's a lake or two nearby. In the small town where I grew up, there were 2 lakes within 20 minutes, and another 2 within about 40 minutes of my parents' house. We had a cabin at one and we could just head out after work or school and spend the evening out there. Saskatchewan is named for the cree word kisiskāciwani-sīpiy which means "swift-flowing river" That refers to the Saskatchewan River, which spans across the whole province, and into Manitoba and Alberta. The north of the province is covered in boreal forest, and the rest of the province is pretty much flat farmland. It's a joke around here that in Saskatchewan you can watch your dog run away for days Temperatures here can go from -55 C in the winter to 40 C in the summer (-67 F to 104 F). We produce more than 54% of Canada's wheat for export. Wascana Park in Regina (our capital) is almost 4 times larger than Central Park in NYC.
There's a lot of history that my family was involved in here in the prairies but it's probably more interesting to me than to you guys One of my ancestors was a land suveyor and surveyed one of the first settlements in the prairies, the Red River Settlement in Manitoba. Another of my ancestors was good friends with Louis Riel who was a huge player in Saskatchewan's history, for whom the Riel Rebellion was named for. During the rebellion, he was grazed on the head with an arrow, and after that always wore his hat cocked to one side to cover the scar
Now for my city, Saskatoon! It's the largest city in the province, with a population of over 233,000. It's known as Bridge City (with 7 bridges spanning the Saskatchewan river, which runs through the middle of the city), Toon Town, or The Paris of the Prairies. Saskatoon is named after the saskatoon berry, which is very prominent around here. Everywhere you go, there's saskatoon berry jam, saskatoon berry pie, saskatoon berry salad, anything you can make with them is made!
We are home to the University of Saskatchewan, where I attended for 2 years. There is a ton of great research that goes on at the university. We have the synchrotron (The Canadian Light Source) which I believe is the only of its kind in North America. It basically splits atoms. It was a $179 million project, but I hear it works great
Queen Elizabeth got the key to the city after visiting last in 2005. Prince Charles was here in 2001 and I think that's it for recent royalty visits.
In 1982 this guy tried to buy the St Louis Blues (hockey) and bring them to Saskatoon, but the NHL prevented it, saying Saskatoon was too small. However, we can still lay claim to Gordie Howe, who is one of the best hockey players ever There are a whole bunch of Saskatonians who have and do play in the NHL. Hockey is pretty much a big deal out here We also have had a few Olympic gold medalists. John Deifenbaker, former Prime Minister, came from Saskatoon.
Here's some pictures!
Saskatoon at night:
http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedi...line_Night.jpg
The U of S.. all the buildings look like this. It's the most gorgeous campus I've ever seen. This building in particular... well I happened to pass out while working on a chem lab in the basement... 911 was called and there was an ambulance and everything! just a little side story haha
http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedi...horvaldson.JPG
Here's the Bezz... fully known as the Delta Bessborough. Probably the classiest place to stay in the city. I know I could never afford it!
http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedi...ugh_rear_2.jpg
Another cool night picture:
http://www.tourismsaskatoon.com/gallery/images/60.jpg
And here's a pretty winter picture:
http://www.tourismsaskatoon.com/gallery/images/74.jpg
Have I written enough of a novel yet? Okay I'm done now

[Tiramisu]

I live just outside the Houston city limits, in Harris County, Texas, and my mailing address is Houston. There's a jillion fun things to do here. Of course, I do very few of them. We enjoyed the great zoo and Astro World while the kids were growing up. We are about 50 miles north of the Gulf of Mexico coast.

Do I live in he biggest city of the group? At heart, I'm a country girl from back piney woods Louisiana.

[DianaB]

Wow!! These are all so interesting!!! Your city is very beautiful, Lindsey. I love the first night time picture!!!! I'm going to remember this as a place that I would like to go to!!!

[Janet]

Originally Posted by DianaB

Ok Janet, this is for you.

This is her library. Isn't it a beautiful building? There's also some facts about her community.

http://www.epodunk.com/cgi-bin/genIn...?locIndex=5360

This is a school. It looks a lot like a school we have in my town.

http://www.historiclandmarks.org/Sit...-Frankfort.jpg

This is her courthouse. It's very beautiful too!

http://www.indianalaw.to/clinton-cou...-frankfort.jpg

Here's a neat fountain!

http://search.msn.com/images/results...onfountain.jpg

Here's the Roundhouse!

http://search.msn.com/images/results...undhouse-1.jpg

So......How'd I do?

The library hasn't looked like that for over 20 years...it's all been modernized, but I couldn't find any pictures.

That school will be tore down my October 1 .

The courthouse is beautiful and I grew up in our park and I've never ever seen that fountain. It must be an old picture, because I know every inch of that park. That is the roundhouse. The town is trying to find enough funds to turn it into a museum of sorts.

I think I have a very nice hometown. I just couldn't find any updated pictures of anything except the courthouse. I may go out this weekend and take a few pictures. I've been wanting to, but whether I have time is something else. I want to go shopping and I want to go to the festival too.

I'll just have to see what I can come with.

Thank Diana for doing this. It has got me to thinking...and that's a good thing..LOL.

[DianaB]

I found another cool site with pictures. It shows the Christmas star and our downtown area. The Missouri-Pacific Depot is where Janet and Marilyn bought their purses from. It's been converted into a flower shop. The Cox motel was owned by my parents and they lived in it while they ran it.

http://www.thelope.com/2007/12/star-of-fredonia.html

[Janet]

I am really liking all the pictures of everyone's town/city. So beautiful and interesting.

[Lindsey]

Oh I just thought of another interesting fact I'm sitting here watching Gene Simmons Family Jewels and I remembered that his wife, Shannon Tweed, is also from here. She went to high school with Kyle's aunt. Gene and Shannon were both here for a visit last week, and they went to a radio station and dropped off a signed guitar that Gene used on tour, to be auctioned. It went for $2,000!

[Janet]

I love watching his show. I watched it for a couple hours yesterday.

[Dobie]

One fun thing about Rhode Island is that Mr. Potato Head is the tourism ambassador.

[Lindsey]

Originally Posted by Dobie

One fun thing about Rhode Island is that Mr. Potato Head is the tourism ambassador.

lol! That's awesome!

[gja1000]

Hi Lindsay,
I think you mentioned that Austin was too big and asked about the population. Yes, it is big, but it doesn't "feel" big - I know that sound silly, but true.

The population of Austin proper is only about 600,000 - but the metropolitian area, including all the suburbs is much bigger.

I think the reason it "feels" smaller is that it works hard to keep its small town "feel".

For example, we celebrate Eyeore's birthday - yep, once a year, we have a big festival in the park! We also have Spamarama - where everyone enters their "best" (ahem) spam recipe, complete with the finished product and judging for winners. Once a month, we have the Citywide Garage Sale downtown. It's really more like a big antique sale. All you have to do is say to someone, "Are you going to the Citywide?" and they know exactly what you mean. The first Thursday of each month - we have First Thursday (real unique name, I know) where a downtown street turns into a giant sidewalk sale/street festival. Thousands of people come down to shop, eat, mingle, listen to music and just have a great time. It's things like these that help Austin to keep its small town "feel"

The city revolves around the University of Texas whose campus is almost right downtown. The capitol (Austin is the capitol of Texas) is on 12th street and the campus starts on 15th street. The University has an enrollment of about 50,000 students per year. I think the U keeps the city "young".