So I went to the two places that Inc had recommended on another thread to look at patio material.
Cougar Stone in Placentia (where Jefferson Rand gets their stone) is like a giant outdoor stone yard. They only carry flagstone (no travertine). They have some displays of finished product, but mostly it is just giant heaps of stone without any real organization. After a while, they all looked the same. The salesman wasn't that helpful. He told me to just look at a book on a table. The only thing he did, however, was to bash travertine and ranted about how horrible it is... slippery, porous, will crumble, etc. I asked him, well then why do all of my neighbors have it? He said they will have major problems in 5 years. It seemed like he had an axe to grind, because he muttered something about travertine being dumped by foreign countries into the US market. When I asked about his product (presumably American?), he said quartzite requires no maintenance and will last forever!
I left and then went to MS International in Orange. It was a completely different experience, and I highly recommend visiting this place. Firstly, the place was packed. I had trouble finding parking. They have an indoor showroom, with large displays of travertine, marble, sandstone, etc. In another room, they have all types of tile, countertops, backsplashes, etc. Outside, they have slab after slab of prefab countertops.
I was about to leave when I saw a sign for outdoor landscaping. I almost totally missed it because to get there you have to pass through a locked half-door. It looks like you are not allowed to go through (because you pass through offices and a break area) but it is totally ok. You pass through a large building full of granite slabs, and then outside they have multiple displays of patio material with fountains, ponds with koi, pools, decks, etc. Don't miss this part. It is really interesting. You can see how all the material has held up over time after being exposed to the elements.
After seeing all of this, however, I am still undecided about what material to use for my patio.
I like the look of travertine, but don't want to deal with the maintenance. Concrete pavers look good too, but I heard those have to be maintained as well (refilled with polymeric sand every few years). I also don't want to deal with the weeds growing though the pavers. So that basically leaves flagstone, which the Cougar Stone guy said is maintenance-free but the Go Pavers website said that is not the case:
http://www.gopavers.com/flagstone-mega-lafitt/
So now I'm totally confused. I'm looking for patio material that will require the least maintenance as possible. Any opinions?