Monday, June 16, 2008

Welcome to the Golden State

Welcome to California! I'm feeling a little bit woozy so hold on. You're in for a whirlwind trip. There's no way I can cover it all so if you're going to Cali check out their vacation site. But, let's just establish... they have a lot of beaches!

First Stop: San Francisco and home of the Forty Niners and the Golden Gate Bridge. Visit the animals at the San Francisco Zoo For the festival lover in me there's Pier 39- a festival marketplace with shops, restaurants, seals, and street performers. And there's always a history lesson at Alcatraz.



Second Stop: Just across the bay to Oakland. Home of the Oakland A's and the Oakland Raider's. Native author Jack London now has his own square that is quite popular. We're not going for a history lesson, we're going for shopping and entertainment. And don't forget the animals at the Oakland Zoo.



Third Stop: Let's head east to Sacramento, the capital of California. Home of the NBA Sacramento Kings. In case you didn't get enough animals at the first two zoo's... yep, the Sacramento Zoo is always a good spot for the family to go. If you're looking for a western experience you can try out JB Ranch (I had to put that in because my youngest is called JB :))



Fourth Stop: Bundle up because we're headed for Lake Tahoe! From skiing in the winter to... what's that? A whole list of festivals in the summer! Okay, I'm afraid of being cold so let's drop down to...

Fifth Stop: Death Valley. We can go see Scotty's Castle and Rhyolite Ghost Town. There are lots of things to do but seriously, we can't stay long because it's way to hot at temperatures of 120 degrees in the summer.

Sixth Stop: Sequoia National Park. Get ready for beautiful nature and some monster trees. We're going to do a lot of hiking and camping. We can check out Crystal Cave with beautiful stalactites but be sure to store your food. The bears like it.



Seventh Stop: City of Angles, Los Angeles. LA is the second largest city in the USA so we could probably spend a day just in the city. Home of the Lakers- they won game 5 tonight but they're still down. Will they win another title? We have to go to Disneyland and Universal Studios for non-stop thrills and fun. And I'm sure Hollywood is it's own ride!



Last stop: San Diego Home of the San Diego Chargers , Padres, lots of beaches for surfing, golf. How many zoo's does one state need? Well, I guess the animals like it in California! Visit them at San Diego Sea World and the San Diego Zoo. Here are 25 fun and free things to do while San Diego.



Places we didn't get to: Napa, Santa Barbara, Monterrey,Palm Springs and oh so much more!!! And, omg, I am craving some fresh seafood after viewing tons of pictures of it!

Some quick fun facts: California is the most populated state in the USA and the third largest. Mount Whitney is the 2nd highest point in the USA at 14, 494. And first with the lowest point at -282 in Death Valley. California produces a long list of crops from pistachios to avocados to mushrooms and too much more to list! The state bird is the California Valley Quail, the state flower is the golden poppy, and the state tree is the Sequoia.



All Californians meet on the Roller Skate Deck on Friday, June 20th to tell us what makes California the Taste of USA!

4 comments:

Anonymous said...

Sadly, I've never been to California.

It is on my list but something tells me it will be years before I can add a Taste of Cali to the mix.

Anonymous said...

CALIFORNIA!!! my home state! i was born in riverside, california; which is about an hour south-east of los angeles. (long story short) my parents are both from cali, divorced when i was 4, and my mom and i moved to oregon (then eventually we made it out here to indiana of course)! my dad still lives in riverside, CA though. i go to california all the time to visit him and my family! so california is near and dear to me i could say. i am actually gettin closer everyday to spending 3 weeks in southern california. i will be going out there on july 18th, and returning just days before my 21st birthday (aug. 16th! WOOHOO)...anyways, cali is a nice place. but i would never move back there permanently; at least to the area my dad lives. so.cal. is so polluted in many ways...ill just leave it at that. northern california is BEAUTIFUL tho, with the redwood forests and tall mountains. the one AWESOME thing about cali, tho, is the SUN of course!!! thats where i get my love of the sun i guess, being a california native i suppose!

well thats it for me, i have to run to the store for my mom!

Anonymous said...

A few years back, I took my 1st trip off the east coast and flew to visit a friend in San Diego.

We went to the San Diego Zoo, which was unlike any other zoo I had every been to. Everything was in a habit close to it's natural habit that it was hard to remember you were in a zoo. We also went to Disney in LA (I think) which was really fun..neat to see the difference between it and the one in Fl. On our way home from there we stopped in LaJolla. The beaches there are much different then what I'm used to-lots of cliffs and seals everywhere!

What a fun trip!

Anonymous said...

Iowa, I dated someone from Iowa for many years and he and his family didn't tan well.
That's all I have.