Those Long Beach guys are going to be in for a surprise in February when they get off the plane from SoCal and face the midwestern winter winds and temperatures. I lived in Seal Beach (a very nice small town) next to Long Beach CA for many years and am familiar with the mindset  Typical Jan/Feb daytime coastal temperatures there are low to mid 60's with cloudy mornings and sunny afternoons with an occasional wind inversion that will bring temperatures up to anywhere from 75-90 degrees for a few days.  Night time temperatures are usually 50's and you're usually comfortable with a windbreaker.  Long Beach, obvious by the name, is "coastal", but many of the kids are from inland where the temperatures are typically much warmer. 

While many of them are familiar with the concept of cold, it was usually from experience driving up to Big Bear Lake in the Sierras (2 hr drive from LB) where the base lodge elevation of the lake and ski areas is at about 6,700 feet....and the peaks are around 13,000.  The thing about Big Bear Lake though, is that if you get too cold, you didn't have a play a game there, you simply drive back down the hill to where it is warm.  When you get February cold in Nashville, there ain't no driving out of it.

Many of our guys, on the other hand, are from Mass, NY, CT and are of the mindset...."45 degrees in February, wow, I don't have to wear a coat!"

I'm looking forward to it already.

I LOVE Seal Beach! Spent a few days working at the Naval base there earlier this year ... such a cool little town.

ORDore wrote: I LOVE Seal Beach! Spent a few days working at the Naval base there earlier this year ... such a cool little town.

Next time you're there, you'll have to check out Grandma's Ice Cream store.  It used to be at the corner of Ocean Blvd and Main Street with a view of the park and the ocean, but rent was high and margins on ice cream aren't so great so they moved "inland" a couple blocks and are now near the bank near the intersection in the middle of main street. 

There's a couple great seafood restaurants along Main Street that are very well regarded in the area.  If you're around on a Tuesday, Don Juan's Taco House, kitty corner across from Hennessey's, used to have Chile Relleno and taco specials on Tuesdays. 

Seal Beach is notable for a couple reasons.  First, the GPS satellites that we depend on so much were built there by Rockwell International and second, the 2nd stage of the Saturn Rockets used for the Apollo moonshots were built across the street from the GPS facility on the northern side of Seal Beach's Naval Weapons Center. 

It's was remarkable to see aircraft carriers navigate the small inlet to dock and unload munitions there.  The homes in Seal Beach seem to be right up along the inlet with very little security set-back.  For those not familiar with the area, the oceanfront is long and straight and the inlet for the ships is perpendicular to the beach and very narrow The weapons center covers a lot of ground, but the coastal access part is very small.  

Very few of the homes in Seal Beach are above 2 stories tall and when the carriers came in they towered above the small town.  I had an army friend who was in strategy and we used to talk about "future" and strategy informally and I'd say "what does the Army really need in the future to support battlefield operations overseas?" and he didn't hesitate for a second, he said "What we need is an aircraft carrier with wheels"....it always struck me as funny because the view of the aircraft carriers coming into the inlet seemed as if the carriers were crawling through the town on wheels.....like a giant New York City Skyscraper turned on it's side and driving up "Main Street" of a small country town.

which I understand is no more.

ClassofClyde wrote: which I understand is no more.

That's too bad that it's not there.  I read it was demolished for condos.  The land was worth a ton of money so I can see how it happened, but it's too bad they couldn't have preserved it as a landmark.