Greener Grass

I was reading an article about various panels and guests at this year's Comicon in San Diego and really for the first time in 10 years I was almost sorry I had moved from SoCal. I would love to see some of these panels and while I can most likely watch them later on youtube, its really not the same thing as being there in person and enjoying it with a whole bunch of other like-minded people. Thinking of that made me think about other things I miss from SoCal, and I came up with this list:

1. Disneyland
2. Good Mexican food
3. LA Art Museums
4. Tam O'Shanter (favorite restaurant that still exists)
5. Local gaming cons
6. So Cal Ren Faire
and now I add
7. Comicon - I would so go if I still lived there.


We have amusement parks in in PA and NJ, although I haven't actually been to any of them, which is rather surprising given my love of rollercoasters. I think we were just too poor and had other interests (EQ/WoW) so we never got to them, and now of course, can't go until the kids are old enough. Still, nothing is quite the same as D-land.

I've been to a couple of Mexican restaurants here, but lets face it. There are very few Mexican immigrants in this neck of the woods, so not only are there very few who could cook authentic Mexican food, there's very few who'd even want to eat it. I even have trouble sometimes finding enchilada sauce in grocery stores. At least I finally found a place to buy good chorizo sausage - the Amish market. Go figure.

Philly has an art museum too, but its not as good as MOMA or LACMA. Plus its expensive, although maybe the LA ones have raised prices too.

Still haven't found a "go to" restaurant that I love as much as Tam O'Shanter. I say "of restaurants that still exist" because my very favorite in Pasadena, Maldonado's, closed about 10 years or so ago. Whenever we visit SoCal, I try to go to Tam O'Shanter, best prime rib, best souffles, but we don't always make it. Some day, I hope to find a good "go to" restaurant here in Philly too. One that has good food that I can't get most anywhere else, and isn't too expensive.

Surprisingly to me, Philly doesn't have any gaming cons. LA has 3, at least. The closest is the Age of Enlightenment Con, which has a few games, notably one of my favorites, Age of Renaissance. However, that con runs during the week (plus the weekend), so I can't really participate, since I kindof have to work. The LA cons were always just weekends only, the 3 big 3-day holiday weekends during the year. I miss both the people there and playing the games. I had a whole lot of fun at those cons.

Philly has a ren-faire, but its much smaller than the SoCal one. Less shows, shopping, activities, food. Plus, beer is limited to one small area, you're not supposed to carry your drink with you throughout the faire. I'm not a huge beer drinker, but its that state of mind I miss. Without the beer, you get a lot less of other "ren-faire" type things, like the overall bawdiness and crazy fun that people have. Still, they have a nice end of the day production and sing along, which makes one want to stay till the end, which I hardly ever did at SoCal's ren-faire, unless I was with certain friends.

But, there are some things I like about Philly that LA doesn't have:

1. Seasons - I do like having an actual winter (at least when we don't have 3 huge snowstorms with 2+ feet of snow that wreck our travel plans). I love seeing the fall colors and so much green in the spring/summer.

2. Amish markets - Yes, CA has its own farms, but I really love the locally grown produce and butchers here and Amish food. Between Costco and Amish market, I rarely go to the grocery store now.

3. Eagles - One big thing about moving away from LA was the likelihood I'd find a place with a pro football team for whom to root. Luckily, I landed in a place with a very strong fan base for nearly all sports, including pro football, with a team that was finally pulling itself out of the basement and making the playoffs almost every year. Its been great rooting for the Eagles and really being able to get behind a pro team. LA never had that for me, outside the UCLA Bruins (which I do miss being able to watch the games all the time).

4. Better public transportation - Unless LA has drastically improved, at least Philly has more frequent buses and a more extensive train/subway/trolley system, so I never have to drive to work. Its also fairly easy to get information about schedules and routes. SEPTA is not perfect, but its a lot better than LA's system.

5. Proximity to Europe - This is probably the main reason we live on the east coast. Gotta be closer to Stephane's family, both for telephone calls (6 hours difference is big enough, 9 hours would be seriously problematic) and travel.

6. Proximity to NYC - We've only visited NYC a few times, but I like having it a 2 hour train ride away. I'm hoping that once the kids are older, we'll go more often to see plays/musicals as they don't come to Philly all that often. Plus I want to check out their museums. Similarly, its nice being a bit closer to other cities, like Wash DC.

7. Housing - Philly never went "really big" on housing prices, so we were able to afford to buy a house when our finances finally enabled us to do so. After the big bust, our housing value hasn't fallen as much either, its really been right at what we paid, give or take 5-10,000, which is a lot better than other parts of the country. Another add to the PA side is houses with basements. Its nice having all that extra room in the house (which storage wise, helps replace the fact that so few houses have garages - what's up with that btw, when there's so much more weather to put up with here).

8. Driving - This one is right on the cusp. Yes, there are less people here than in LA, so yes, there's less people on the road. But, the roads are smaller. Our freeways tend to be 2-3 lanes wide, compared to 4-5 lanes wide, but they still get crowded. Many surface streets have just enough room for one lane of parking and one for traveling, meaning you have to pull over when cars are passing in opposite directions. OTOH, most places are closer, so I don't have to drive as much. Everywhere in LA is an hour from anywhere else. In Philly, its about half that. My only gripe with Philly driving is that outside Center City, the roads are not grids, they curve all over the place. Buying a GPS was a must since we usually had no idea how to get somewhere if our main road was closed or there was an accident and trying to figure it out on the fly usually made us even more lost. But generally, with fewer people, it at least seems like there's fewer people on the roads.

9. French wine - granted we have to pay a bit more for any alcohol due to PA's blue taxes, but its still generally easier to get french wine here than in CA.


There's a lot that about equal for both. LA has the Rose Parade, Philly has the Mummers. Both have close beaches, although all are free in LA, whereas only a few are free in South Jersey (but we're not really beach people anyway). Both have a lot of well respected colleges and universities, perhaps a few more on the east coast, but I think they are more expensive here as well. CA does have a very good and affordable public university system, which isn't really matched here. Essentially, there are things I miss about living in LA, but then again, I'd miss it if I had to move from Philly too.