Travelrific® Travel Journal
Picture postcards in prose.™ Check out the blogroll on the front page for official merchandise and other resources!Archive for california
Where California Began
By Linda Tancs
One of the most familiar landmarks in San Diego, California, the Junípero Serra Museum stands atop the hill recognized as the site where California began. Indeed, at that site in 1769 a Spanish Franciscan missionary, Father Junípero Serra, with a group of soldiers led by Gaspar de Portolá, established Alta California’s first mission and presidio (fort). Alta (Upper) California was a region comprising California and other states that was ceded to the United States at the end of the Mexican-American War in 1848. The missions of Alta California were founded for the purpose of Christianizing the American Indian population in those vicinities. Using Spanish Revival architecture, the museum was built to resemble the early missions that once dominated the landscape of Southern California.
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A Gamble in California
By Linda Tancs
Designed for David and Mary Gamble of the Procter & Gamble Company, The Gamble House in Pasadena, California, is an outstanding example of American Arts and Crafts style architecture. Designated a National Historic Landmark in 1978, it is the most complete and best-preserved work of American Arts and Crafts architects Charles and Henry Greene. Every Tuesday enjoy a picnic on the terrace for Brown-Bag Tuesday and a docent-led, 20-minute tour.
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Ranch of the Little Cottonwoods
By Linda Tancs
Rancho Los Alamitos (Ranch of the Little Cottonwoods) in Long Beach, California, traces its history from the time of ancestral Povuu’ngna (the sacred birthplace of the native Tongva people of the Los Angeles Basin) through the Spanish-Mexican era of land concessions and grants to generations of the Bixby family, the ranch’s last private owners. Along with the ranch, the still sacred and historic land includes stunning gardens created by Florence Bixby between 1920 and 1936 with the assistance of such notable designers as the Olmsted brothers, Florence Yoch and Paul Howard. Admission is free, and educational programs and events for all ages throughout the year feature topics as diverse as agricultural and domestic skills, Native American, Japanese and Hispanic culture, the history of landscape design and an annual ranch-style Christmas program.
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Hooray for Hollywood
By Linda Tancs
At the Hollywood Museum, you’ll find 100 years of entertainment history under one roof. Boasting the largest collection of Hollywood memorabilia in the world, its sprawling four floors are a treasure trove of one-of-a-kind costumes, props, photographs, scripts, stars’ car collections and personal artifacts, posters and vintage memorabilia from favorite films and TV shows. The museum is housed in the historic Max Factor Building, named for makeup king Max Factor. You won’t want to miss his world famous makeup rooms where Hollywood’s biggest stars got ready for their close-ups.
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A Pan-Pacific Centennial
By Linda Tancs
There’s a celebration afoot as San Francisco’s Conservatory of Flowers remembers the centennial of the city’s 1915 Panama–Pacific International Exposition. The exhibition depicts the old fairgrounds, graced with model trains wending their way through graceful garden landscapes dotted with the fair’s most prized monuments such as the Tower of Jewels and Palace of Fine Arts. The historic world’s fair signaled the triumphant recovery of the city from the devastating 1906 earthquake. The special exhibit runs through April 10.
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A Maze in San Jose
By Linda Tancs
The Winchester Mystery House is undoubtedly one of the world’s oddest mansions. Located in San Jose, California, it sports miles of twisting hallways and secret passageways in the walls. Once the personal residence of Sarah Winchester, the widow of gun magnate William Wirt Winchester, the house grew–literally–out of her belief that the spirits of those killed by a Winchester rifle were summoning her to build a haven for them to roam as a sort of penance for the damage wrought by the family business. The story goes that so long as construction of the house never ceased, Mrs. Winchester could rest assured that the spirits would not exact revenge on her. The unrelenting construction over 38 years resulted in a sprawling Victorian mansion containing 160 rooms, 2,000 doors, 10,000 windows, 47 stairways, 47 fireplaces, 13 bathrooms and six kitchens. A 65-minute tour through 110 of the 160 rooms will expose its bizarre attributes, such as a window built into the floor, staircases leading to nowhere, a chimney that rises four floors, doors that open onto blank walls and upside down posts.
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World’s Largest Corn Maze
By Linda Tancs
Thousands have braved the maze at Cool Patch Pumpkins, site of the world’s largest corn maze according to Guinness World Records. Sixty acres’ strong, each year’s design gets ever more challenging. The maze (and pumpkin patch) are open now through early November. Located in Dixon, California, look for the famous Milk Farm landmark sign visible from Interstate Highway 80 between First Street and Pedrick Road.
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Baker’s Hot Attraction
By Linda Tancs
Known as the gateway to Death Valley, Baker is a tiny desert town in California with a big boast. It’s home to the world’s tallest thermometer, measuring 134 feet. The top temperature it can display is likewise 134 degrees Fahrenheit, recorded at Death Valley in 1913. So what’s the highest temperature it has actually displayed? That would be 127 degrees, recorded in August, 1995.
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Suspension in San Francisco
By Linda Tancs
Who hasn’t marveled at San Francisco’s Golden Gate Bridge, one of the world’s most iconic suspension bridges? However, it isn’t the city’s only suspension bridge of distinction. Just across the bridge in the Marin Headlands is another suspension bridge leading to Point Bonita Lighthouse, the only American lighthouse to be reached by a suspension bridge. Still active, the lighthouse is part of the largest urban national park in the United States, the Golden Gate National Recreation Area. Think the best photographic views of San Francisco and the Golden Gate Bridge are from Battery Spencer in the Marin Headlands? Some say the view from the lighthouse is the real sweet spot.
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Jewel of the Missions
By Linda Tancs
The legend of the swallows is a captivating facet of Mission San Juan Capistrano in California. According to the tale, a priest at the mission became very upset when a local innkeeper kept destroying the nests that cliff swallows were building in the crevices of the inn’s roof. He invited the swallows to build their nests instead at the mission, established in 1776 by a Franciscan priest. And the invite did not go unheeded. Old mud nests clinging to the stone church, the swallows arrive to rebuild their homes every year in March–on the nineteenth day, as a matter of fact–St. Joseph’s Day. The event is marked by an annual celebration at the Mission on 19 March that includes ringing of historic bells, live mariachi music and a special guest lecture on cliff swallows. The birds leave for their winter home in Argentina in October.
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