This is the OFFICIAL California thread for the board! Please direct all questions or comments pertaining to:
>Cities in California
>Natural areas in California
>Cultural resources in California
>Festivals/Events in California
>Rants/Butthurt regarding California
to this thread and only this thread.

Resources:
https://www.visitcalifornia.com/
https://www.tripadvisor.com/Tourism-g28926-California-Vacations.html
https://www.parks.ca.gov/
https://www.sftravel.com/
https://www.discoverlosangeles.com/
https://www.sandiego.org/
https://www.nps.gov/yose/index.htm
https://www.californiabeaches.com/
https://www.amtrak.com/where-we-go/amtrak-california

As a certified Californian™ and steward of the thread, I will answer any questions you have to the best of my ability.

How long do I have to wait after moving there to receive reparations? Is there a period of residency or can I just show up? I am only a quarter black do I get the full amount?

Ah, the beautiful putrid shores of the Salton Sea!
California is such a state of contrasts. Californians think it is perfectly normal to have tweakers living in dismantled cars two kilometers from posh $3 million dollar homes with immaculate landscaping.

Pic unrelated to story. It's from a separate roadtrip through Death Valley in 2016. The Eureka Dunes are based, amazingly desolate and yet there are still tracks of insects and snakes all over the place.

I got a job in Death Valley National Park just prior to the Big Coof. It sucked. Everyone was a medicated zombie. Management was a complete clusterfuck, but because everyone was a medicated zombie, nobody cared about anything. I would take edibles and walk naked out in the desert behind the resort beating my meat in the wintertime sunshine. That was the best part of the job. The one time I tried to make friends and hang out with some of the camper people, their psychotic rescue pitbull nipped me. It loved to bite people when they were least expecting it. They would half-heartedly smack it as punishment, which it couldn't care less about.

A week after I started work, the Filipina MILF who managed my department came up with the genius idea of creating a graveyard shift and putting me on it to do such lovely tasks as scrubbing each tile of the buffet floor by hand with a sponge. That's how people reward you for being a diligent worker; they give you the most degrading mule work that nobody else would consider doing.

That was the last corporate job I've ever held. The levels of California cuckery became unbearable.

>>2791264
>That's how people reward you for being a diligent worker
You spent your time walking around high and naked beating off and they didn't promote you?

>>2791264
>walking around naked in the dunes

I did this in the Kelso Dunes once. Shit was pretty cash (but I got a freckle on my dick).

Once the apex of contemporary culture, California is now highly associated with all the most extreme insanities of the US, be it rampart homelessness, opioid abuse, tech billionaires, or rampant inflation. A California SE can easily make 160k/year yet will live in squalor off of that, because a tiny bottle of fresh squeezed orange juice is $20 and rent prices are all but designed to put you on the streets. Couple that with the risk of getting detained and kept in a third world prison if you travel into any part of the country from abroad just because you forgot to bring your birth certificate, 36 months of payment slips, and physical proof that you have to care for your cancer sick relative back home and it is but a shadow of its former glory.
Why would anyone go there?

>>2791417
It just depends what youre visiting for. Pic related is what im looking for out of California. If you visit the big cities on a low budget, youre probably going to have a bad time, sitting in traffic while wondering why youre even here.

As far as the Trump administration detaining people needlessly for crossing the border or whatever, thats a different story.

Regarding living here, California is a major hub for commerce. If you can get a good job here, your ceiling for making money is pretty high, but the cost of living in the cities is also high. If you make 160k you can easily live comfortably unless youre a total retard.

Visiting San Francisco from Ireland, relatives have warned us about saying at a hotel on the intersection of Post St. and Jones St.

We'll be spending most of our time outside the city except for coming back in the evening, how dangerous is the area? Is it better to just stay further out or what neighbourhood is considered most safe.

>>2791890
You didn't post a picture.

I'd like to spend 2 weeks exploring cali this fall. Is it actually worth checking it all out or should I just stick to certain parts?

>>2792191
>checking it all out
california is so huge that you could spend 10 years 'checking it all out', and still have stuff to do
its a really ridiculously huge state with a ridiculously huge amount of natural wonder

My advice is stick to a certain part you want to see and experience, it's so big that travel time becomes an issue quickly if your itinerary is spread too thin.

I don't know what you like to do, but if you haven't ever experienced 'volcanic alpine nature', then I recommend the mount shashta city area, mccloud, and then a day trip to lavabeds national monument to check out the totally alien landscape and lava caves (bring your own high powered flashlights/headlamps, the ones they rent out suck, or at least used to last time I went).

It's not a good place to be if there are any wildfires going, but if there aren't fires is probably one of the most beautiful areas in the state IMO.

>>2791890
>detaining people needlessly for crossing the border or whatever

Illegally entering a country would get anyone almost anywhere in the world arrested and deported. You need to stop pretending that enforcing immigration law is somehow unnatural, unusual, or bad.

>>2792247
I've been to craters of the moon if that counts. Usually I enjoy hiking, but also sight seeing. Usually If I do like 6-8h hike my legs and feet need the rest so I like to not just focus entirely on hiking (depends on elevation).

>>2791214 (OP)
How the fuck do I find a studio apartment in San Diego that isn't $2k/mo? Is it even possible?
Do I have to fuck off to an LA ghetto if I want to move to Cali?

>>2792344
Why would you want to live in the city of gays?

>>2791903
it kinda sucks. complete shit to the south and west. have to go due east and hit financial district to stay remotely ok.

avoid the tenderlojn at all costs. open air drug use and every level of depravity. you WILL see someone defecating in public.

>>2792345
good weather mostly
I lived in south florida for 7 years before moving back to the midwest
I miss being able to wear a tank top and shorts year round but soflo is so hispanic and retarded that I have no desire to go back
faggots are about on par with the collective single-digit iq of floridians

>>2792355
Move to Texas

>>2792357
considered that actually but I'm a bit of a pothead on weekends so somewhere with medical or rec is preferred
I was looking at arizona as well but desert nice weather and beach nice weather are on different ends of the spectrum

>>2792359
>but I'm a bit of a pothead
Please stay out of Cali, we don't need more of your kind.

>>2792363
wasn't asking for permission but if it's any consolation I don't smoke it and don't leave the house high

I'm going to San Jose for a weebcon next week for 4 days, what is there to do/eat downtown?

>>2792345
That's SanFran
>>2792357
Texas has very shit weather, are you joking? lmao
>>2793638
If you do a con properly you'll have the bare minimum energy to see anything else.
>eat
Lots of good mexican and there's a tiny japantown with a few good places. Just use Yelp or google maps. People here are pretty active on those and opinionated too. We can't tell you more if we don't now your preferences, budget, and whether you'll have access to a car.
>to do
Nothing. San Jose is basically a giant suburb. There are the typical tourist traps like a science museum and Winchester Mystery House, but again if you don't have access to a car it's pointless to make recommendations.

If you're going to Orange County, here's the list I put together after living here for a decade

Cheaper/Budget Friendly-

Bike the Balboa Pier to Huntington Beach
See a band at the Garden Amp or the Observatory
Hike the Pacific Ridge Trailhead down to Crystal Cove
Anaheim Packing District
Learn to Surf at Doheny State Beach or Newport Beach Pier
Kayak the back bay in Newport Beach
Shop Downtown San Clemente
Laguna Beach Main Beach
Crescent Bay Beach, a good cove beach in Laguna
Shaw’s Cove, another good cove beach in Laguna Beach.
San Clemente Pier, there are a lot of nice shops on Avenida Del Mar
Huntington beach Main Street and Pier, lots of shops, outdoor market on the weekends
Green Cheek Brewery Costa Mesa, do a brewery crawl to the 5 breweries on that street
Food: Chan Chan, Sup Noodle Bar, Pizzeria Fuoco, Wursthaus, Pizza Port, In and Out, Mitsuwa Market Costa Mesa Food Court, HiroNori

Pricey-

Disneyworld
Knotts Berry Farm
Hive and Honey rooftop bar
Take the ferry to Catalina Island
Food: All that BBQ, Tsurhashi, Manpuku,Nep Side Door, Houston's, Haidilao, Kaori Sushi Fullerton

Should I vacation to socal or norcal or split and do both?

How retarded would it be to move to San Francisco as a remotechad software dev

>>2791214 (OP)
>be travelling in Nigeria
>meet hot as fuck local
>we fuck like rabbits
>find out her family is rich and her dad sends her to Berkeley to study
>girl fell in love with me and invites me to stay with her
>dad literally pays her rent for an entire apartment there
>all I have to pay for is food, ubers and my flight there
All I plan to do there is gym, eat and bang her. Wtf is there to even do in Berkeley? On one hand I love American food and I'm tired of terrible African cuisine but I've been to the US and really didn't like it. The lack of walkability really turns it into kind of a shithole. If I go it will likely just be for one month before I get bored of her and fly back to Africa. What are your thoughts? I have about 2500 us dollars per month to spend.

>>2794768
>finally get remote dev job
>decide to move into one of the most expensive cities in the US

>>2794774
>>be travelling in Nigeria
>>meet hot as fuck local
Lol. Lmao even

>>2794774
The Bay Area is much more walkable

>>2794863
Berkeley sure as hell more walkable than freakin Lagos, and it's full of social activities. Smells like LARPing...

Say I was looking to spend a month, or two, or three, in California. Where should I be looking for extended stays? Ideally safe areas where I can park my car and not get it stolen/broken into and so forth.