Flat Land? Depends on your perspective...

One of Ina's first comments about California was that it is very flat. She is used to rugged fjords and mountains at home.

She is basically correct. We have small mountains in Orange County and bigger mountains to the north near Los Angeles.


This is a picture in the Los Angeles area with mountains in the background. In the Winter, there is often snow towards the top of these mountains. On most Winter days, we can see the mountains in the distance. In the Summer, the haze and smog often hides the mountains from our view.


In Orange County, we have local hills and two mountain peaks. The two peaks look like the saddle on a horse, so together we call the peaks "Saddleback Mountain". We get snow on these peaks maybe two or three times per year.


This is a typical picture from the Orange County area. We have rolling hills and flat lands for houses. Saddleback Mountain is in the background throughout most of Orange County.

So Ina's perspective makes sense. She is used to a rugged landscape and a lot of the area here is flat with mountains and hills in the background.

Last week, we met another exchange student that is new to the area: Simone. She is from Denmark (note: a flat country with no mountains). Ina and Simone spent some time at a local mall to get to know each other better. I picked them up and on the drive home we could see the mountains by Los Angeles in the distance. Simone's comment: It's so nice to have mountains to look at so that everything doesn't look so flat.

A different, but still valid, perspective! Are we flat or not?

By the way, I got the photographs for this post from a nice website from a local blogger. He has a camera that takes panaromic pictures and posts them to his blog. He has a lot of fun California photos there!

The website is: http://geraldsfuller.com/the-panorama-page/

- Rob