San Francisco, California - Overview

San Francisco is on the coast of California about 400 miles north of LA. It is situated along the shore of a large bay sheltered behind the California Coastal Mountains. The city is renown for its steep streets with panoramic views of beautiful San Francisco Bay and the surrounding mountains. It has a very moderate climate with warm summers and chilly winters but without extremes. Constant breezes off of the Pacific Ocean keep the summers from becoming too hot and also prevent freezing winter weather. Take a sweater, as the evening breezes can be quite brisk all year round!

Cable Car
Photo Credit: © Corel

San Francisco was built by "forty niners" with gold fever

Oakland and Berkeley, California lie just across the bay from San Francisco and are easily accessible via the Bay Bridge. The more famous Golden Gate Bridge spans the narrow inlet that extends from the Pacific Ocean into the bay. The Golden Gate Bridge connects San Francisco with a mountainous peninsula called the Marin headlands that is primarily known for beautiful scenery and expensive homes with spectacular views. Sausalito, a small village on the bay shore of the Marin headlands is famous as a local artist's community. Alcatraz Island with its abandoned prison is situated in the middle of San Francisco Bay. The city of San Jose lies about 30 miles south of San Francisco at the southern tip of this extensive bay. The area near San Jose and Santa Clara is known as "Silicon Valley", home of the largest concentration of electronics and computer firms in the USA.

San Francisco was founded in 1776 when father Junipero Serra constructed the mission San Dolores to Christianize the local native Indian population. At the same time, Spanish troops constructed a Presidio, or fort, to protect this colony for the Queen of Spain. By the middle of the nineteenth century, the village of Yerba Buena, consisting of whalers, traders, adventurers and pirates, occupied the present site of San Francisco. In 1848, gold was discovered in the foothills of the Sierra Nevada Mountains about 100 miles to the east. By 1849, San Francisco was inundated with "forty-niners" as the gold seekers were commonly called, and the population of the city exploded. Ever since, it has remained the center of commerce, entertainment, culture and tourism for Northern California.

Cable cars on steep streets overlook a turquoise San Francisco Bay

San Francisco is one of the most popular vacation destinations in the USA. Steep streets lined with Victorian era houses, a great turquoise bay surrounded by low mountains, and antique cable cars that still shuttle passengers up and down the city slopes all make San Francisco one of the most picturesque cities in the US.

The city has developed a unique character from its mixture of diverse cultures including Native American Indians, Spanish colonials, gold seeking adventurers and numerous European, African and Asian immigrants. This is reflected in the great San Francisco cuisine found in the many fabulous restaurants of the city.

Among the many attractions of San Francisco are the ethnic neighborhoods like Chinatown and Japantown with their traditional shops and restaurants. Each of these communities houses a large population of Asian immigrants and has a unique oriental character. North Beach is renown as an Italian neighborhood, the Mission District as a Hispanic community and Castro Street for its gay and lesbian population.

Mike's San Francisco Tip: To best see the famous San Francisco cable cars, go to the terminus a few blocks from Fisherman's Wharf where you can watch them manually turn the cars. To best photograph them, walk a few blocks up the hill and wait for a cable car, so you can photograph it with a backdrop of San Francisco Bay and Alcatraz. To ride one, it is best to go to the other end of the line in downtown where the crowds are smaller and the wait is shorter.

Excursion boats from Fisherman's Wharf visit Alcatraz

Golden Gate Bridge
Photo Credit: © Corel

The Embarcadero, a broad avenue along the bayfront, is now lined with shops, restaurants and tourist attractions including several piers that have been converted to specialty shopping malls. Most famous is the historic Fisherman's Wharf which still hosts a fleet of working fishing vessels as well as fish markets, seafood restaurants and gift shops. Excursion boats and ferries depart from piers near Fisherman's Wharf. They are a great way to see the sights around the bay. The Alcatraz tour takes you to "The Rock" and allows you to visit its abandoned prison. This trip usually fills up, so it is best to make your reservations at least one day ahead. You can also take a ferry to visit the USS Hornet Aircraft Carrier Museum in Oakland, or you can ride a ferry to Sausalito and Tiburon for some sightseeing and shopping.

A cable car line terminates a few blocks from Fisherman's Wharf, and many tourists congregate there to watch the motormen manually rotate the cars. This is a good place to photograph the cable cars but not a good place to board one as the wait can be long. It is easier to take a bus or taxi to the downtown area where you can quickly board a passing cable car. Golden Gate Park and Seal Rocks, along the Pacific side of the city are worth visiting.

Wine Country, Big Sur and Yosemite are not far away

Other California tourist attractions are located near San Francisco. Across the Golden Gate Bridge, the first pullout on the right provides a nice view of the city from across the bay. If you follow the small road under the highway and climb the mountain behind the bridge, you will be rewarded to some spectacular views of the Golden Gate Bridge and the bay area. From the top of the mountain the road continues high above the Pacific Ocean with pullouts at many scenic vistas and hiking trails. This road eventually leads to Stinson Beach, a popular Pacific Ocean swimming and surfing area, and to Muir Woods, an impressive reserve of Giant California Redwood trees.

Beautiful Monterey Bay is an hour-and-half drive south along the scenic Pacific Coast Highway and Big Sur extends about 100 miles further. Napa and Sonoma valleys, in the heart of California Wine Country, are just an hour drive north of San Francisco. The Sierra Nevada Mountains and exquisite Yosemite National Park are within a half-day drive to the east.

San Francisco Shopping Tips

The downtown area of San Francisco is the center of business, commerce and shopping. There are a wide variety of large department stores and smaller shops near Union Square and a big shopping mall on Market Street. The Embarcadero especially in the Fisherman's Wharf area offers many small shops, specialty stores and tourist attractions. Chinatown and Japantown have many small shops specializing in oriental artifacts and Asian foods. Sausalito and Tiburon across the bay have many boutiques, art galleries and specialty shops. For serious shoppers, the immense "Great Mall of the Bay Area" in Milpitas, near San Jose is a wonderland of factory outlet stores. There are also a few outlet malls in Sonoma Valley near wine country and several in the Monterey Bay area.

Los Angeles, California - Overview

Los Angeles is the largest city in California and the second largest city in the United States of America. It is located on the southern coast of California about 75 miles (120km) north of the Mexican border and 400 miles (600km) south of San Francisco. The original name of the city was "El Pueblo de Nuestra Senora la Reina de los Angeles" or "The Village of Our Lady the Queen of Angels", but the name was shortened for obvious reasons.

Los Angeles is spread across a coastal plain

Los Angeles Freeway
Photo Credit © Corel

Los Angeles is situated on an irregularly shaped coastal plain about 30 to 60 miles across. It is bounded on the west by nearly 60 miles of Pacific Coast beaches and ocean cliffs. The San Gabriel and San Bernardino Mountains form a 2500-meter high wall to the east. The Santa Monica Mountains define its northern limit and the Santa Anna Mountains define the southern.

Los Angeles natives inhabit the entire plain, from the local hills to connecting valleys to the slopes of the mountain ranges. The city now covers over 1000 square-miles composed of dozens of interconnected communities. High-rise buildings only exist in a few isolated clusters. From nearly every vantage point, you can gaze across miles of low rooftops with palm trees towering above.

Los Angeles is composed of many interconnected communities

In order to commute between these widely dispersed neighborhoods, Los Angeles has constructed a remarkably efficient road system of broad streets, avenues and 10-14 lane wide freeways. These roadways enable people to quickly navigate across the vast metropolitan complex at most times; however, avoiding the freeways between 7 to 9 AM and 4 to 6 PM, when millions of cars clog the roads during the rush hour commute, is recommended. Air pollution caused by all of these cars on the roadways combines with the moist air from the Pacific Ocean to form a dirty gray haze known as Los Angeles Smog.

Unlike most cities, Los Angeles does not have a distinct urban center. It is a collection of individual communities tied together by a complex network of roads and freeways. Each community offers a uniquely different character. Together, they make up this huge metropolitan complex called Los Angeles.

Hollywood Hills
Photo Credit: © Corel

Hollywood, Beverly Hills and the Beaches

Along the Pacific shore, Malibu, Santa Monica, Marina Del Rey and Palos Verde are high-class residential beach communities. Venice Beach, on the other hand, is known for bikini clad roller bladers, muscle-bound weight lifters and an odd assortment of slightly off-beat characters. Long Beach is a thriving seaport with a vibrant commercial district and oil wells. Laguna Beach houses a large artist's community.

Hollywood is the historic home of the old movie studios, and Beverly Hills is still the home of the movie stars. Here you can drive along the western terminus of historic Route66 on Santa Monica Boulevard. You can stroll along famous Hollywood Boulevard and the Sunset Strip. In nearby Burbank, you can visit many modern movie and television studios. In Anaheim, you can see the original Disneyland and Knott's Berry Farm.

Downtown Los Angeles is certainly a commercial district, but it is no more the urban center of the city than many other neighborhoods. Near the downtown area are ethnic neighborhoods with large Asian populations called, Korea Town, China Town and Japan Town. Nearby are several predominately Afro-American neighborhoods and many predominately Hispanic-American neighborhoods.

Los Angeles is served by four major airports

Los Angeles has four major airports: Los Angeles International Airport (LAX), Burbank-Glendale Airport, John Wayne Airport and Ontario International Airport. In addition, the Orange County Airport is less than one hour from the city and San Diego International Airport is within a two-hour drive.

Las Vegas

Las Vegas, Nevada is a vibrant pulsating city and the largest adult playground in the world. It is a community that was created from the wastelands of the Mojave Desert in Nevada specifically to provide a gambling and entertainment oasis for the titillation seeking residents of post-war Los Angeles. Everything in Las Vegas has been done (or overdone) on a grand and spectacular scale. Along the Las Vegas strip, a black glass pyramid rises over a hundred meters above the desert with a larger than full sized replica of the Sphinx at its entry. Next to it, sits a larger than life castle with garishly colored turrets. Across the street, is a scaled-down skyline of New York City complete with a Brooklyn Bridge and a Statue of Liberty. Beyond that, you can see a half-sized replica of the Eifel Tower, a near full sized replica of the Piazza San Marco from Venice and a large volcano that erupts flames every thirty minutes. In Las Vegas, you often ask yourself, "Is this really a city, or am I visiting some futuristic amusement park on another planet?"

Luxor Hotel

On any given evening in Las Vegas, you will find hundreds of entertainment events such as the renown las vegas stage show, world class sporting events, performances by world famous entertainers plus music, dance and comedy at large and small venues throughout the city. This city never seems to sleep. The frivolity continues long into the night and the serious gamblers continue their pursuit of riches until well after the morning sun has risen on a new day.

The city was created by a reputed gangster

In 1931 gambling was legalized in the barren desert state of Nevada while it remained illegal in the more populous neighboring state of California. As early as 1940, the first hotel casino named El Rancho Vegas was constructed on the outskirts of a sleepy desert community in the Mojave Desert of southern Nevada known as Las Vegas. A second hotel casino named the Last Frontier was opened a year later. Both profited from their proximity to the large gambling population living in Los Angeles and other southern California communities. In December of 1946, Bugsy Siegal a reputed New York gangster, then living in Beverly Hills California, and managing various illegal gambling operations on the West Coast, built a lavish new hotel casino named the Flamingo. He dreamed of creating a whole new resort city in the desert dedicated to gambling and entertainment. Unfortunately, Bugsy was shot to death in his Beverly Hills home in 1947; so he never got to see his dream fulfilled; but the legacy of lavish hotel casinos controlled by gangsters persisted in Las Vegas for many decades to come.

Today, this desert gambling oasis is a thriving city with more than one million inhabitants and over 38 million visitors a year. It is one of the fastest growing cities in the USA, with up to 5,000 new residents settling there every month. It has fourteen of the fifteen largest hotels in the USA and over 130,000 rooms available to visitors. Gambling and entertainment are still its biggest attractions and its largest industries. Supposedly, all the mafia gangsters have been removed from the Las Vegas gambling scene, only to be replaced by large corporate owners. (Is that an improvement?) In 1999, Oscar Goodman, the flamboyant lawyer whose spirited defense of many reputed gangsters and criminals earned him the unofficial title of "mouthpiece for the mob", was elected mayor of Las Vegas. He seems to be a most appropriate character to lead the government of "Sin City" USA.

Las Vegas Boulevard is "the Strip"

Las Vegas is located in the southwestern corner of Nevada near the borders of California and Arizona. It is 275 miles (450 km) from Los Angeles and less than a four-hours drive on excellent interstate highway. The city is situated in a broad flat desert valley surrounded by barren arid mountains. It receives only about 2 inches (5 cm) of rain per year; yet the city is an oasis of green grass, flowers and palm trees all subsisting on imported water. A vast checkerboard of low suburban homes sprawls across the valley floor for dozens of miles in every direction with new tracts of houses eternally sprouting like fields of cactus in the surrounding desert.

Las Vegas Welcome Sign

All the action is centered on one broad avenue that stretches from the southern fringe of the city northward for a dozen miles until it reaches the heart of old downtown. This is Las Vegas Boulevard, commonly known as "the Strip". McCarran International Airport is located adjacent to the southern end of the Strip, and nearly all of the major casinos are lined up along its sides. A drive down Las Vegas Boulevard takes you past the pyramid of Luxor casino, the skyline of New York casino, the Eifel Tower of Paris casino, the great tent of the Circus casino and the lofty tower of the Stratosphere casino. Eventually, it takes you to downtown Vegas and Fremont Street, home of the historic old gambling parlors like Binyons and the Golden Nugget. Just driving down the strip past all these spectacular casino resorts is a fantastic experience. At night, "the strip" comes alive with miles of colored neon and millions of dancing, pulsating lights.

The Bargains are often "off the Strip"

Most of the newest, grandest Las vegas Casino Hotels are located along the southern end of the strip near McCarran Airport. Even the smallest of these newer casino hotels has over 2,000 rooms with MGM Grand offering more than 5,000 rooms. Each casino contains thousands of slot machines, hundreds of gaming tables, multiple restaurants, numerous shops, theaters featuring "Las Vegas Shows" plus numerous bars, cocktail lounges and smaller entertainment venues.

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Along the northern part of the Strip, a few miles away from McCarran Airport, and also in the downtown area even further north, the casinos are older and a bit less spectacular. That means they usually offer their accommodations, their all-you-can-eat buffets, and their shows at bargain prices to entice you to come and gamble at their facility. There are also a few large casino hotels like Sam's Town and Boulder Station located well away from the strip. Those isolated casinos often offer some super-saver bargains.

Las Vegas Weddings

Las Vegas Wedding Chapel

Since the early days when Las Vegas was but a sleepy town in the desert, Nevada has had a reputation as a very permissive state that allowed legal gambling, legal prostitution and easy divorce. Many California citizens would drive across the state line to Las Vegas in order to obtain quick-and-easy divorces from their unwanted spouses. Since divorces were often instigated by the desire to marry a new mate, Las Vegas began offering quick-and-easy weddings to go along with the quick-and-easy divorces. Wedding chapels sprouted along the Strip to accommodate this unique industry of legal mate swapping.

Today, many other states offer quick no-fault divorces, so the "Las Vegas divorce" is no longer in great demand. The city has, however, kept its reputation for quick-and-easy marriages. The wedding chapels are still visible along the strip and in the downtown area near the Clark County Court House. Nearly all the major casinos have wedding chapels or wedding rooms. The City marriage office is open until midnight every weekday and open 24 hours a day from Friday until Sunday. If you suddenly decide you want to get married at 4AM on a Sunday morning, you can easily do it in Las Vegas.

Las Vegas Entertainment

Since the time of Bugsy Siegel, Las Vegas has been renowned not only for its gambling, but also for its free flowing liquor, its fine dining and its extravagant entertainment especially at the Las Vegas Shows. All these original ingredients are still available in even greater variety and quantity in modern-day Las Vegas.

Las Vegas Entertainment

The famous old Las Vegas Shows were typically variety shows featuring headline entertainment, well known bands, scantily-clad dancing girls and ribald humor. You can still find some of those shows on the Strip. The afternoon performances and the early evening performances are usually toned-down family-oriented presentations, while the late night performances are more adult oriented featuing nudity, risque humor and adult themes. A typical old-time Las Vegas Show in family-oriented theme is held at the Stratosphere Casino every afternoon, and the admission is very reasonably priced.

Some of the newer shows are even more extravagant productions than the old-time ones. Cirque du Soliel runs about a half dozen fabulous productions in Las Vegas including: Mystere, Ka, O, and Zumanity. Each production is set in an immense specially-constructed theater with fantastic sets and technological marvels. The prices are fairly expensive, but they are certainly amazing feats of entertainment.

At least two or more Broadway-style productions of musicals or plays are constantly featured in Las Vegas. There are a number of Las Vegas "regulars" playing at Casinos throughout the city, and new famous, world renown entertainers appear for limited engagements nearly every week. In addition to all this, there are free shows and free entertainments available at many of the casinos nearly every day. There is certainly no lack of entertaining diversions in this town.

Las Vegas Dining

Good food in large quanities has been the staple of Las Vegas hospitality since the early days, and the all-you-can-eat buffet was a renown attraction at nearly every casino. They are still popular and almost universally available. The more isolated and the less popular casinos offer their buffets at ridiculously low prices just to attract gamblers to their gaming tables. The newer casinos often feature higher priced buffets with better quality foods. All of them provide unlimited quantities.

For more serious dining, Las Vegas provides hundreds of good restaurants in the casinos and throughout the city. Each of the large casinos offers at least four or six restaurants ranging from inexpensive snack bars and all-you-can-eat buffets to high-class, expensive, five-star restaurants.

This is a gateway to the Southwest

Las Vegas is ideally situated for anyone that would like to explore the Southwest of the USA. It is centrally located amongst some of the greatest natural attractions in the USA like the Grand Canyon, Death Valley, Bryce Canyon and Zion National Park. McCarran Airport has nearly 500 flights per day arriving from both domestic and international destinations, so access is convenient and often very economical.

The desert landscape surrounding Las Vegas is stark and forbidding but strangely beautiful. Red Rock Canyon, just 20 miles west of the city, looks just like hollywood scenery for a cowboy movie. Boulder Dam and Lake Mead, located just 25 miles east of the city provides the strangely contrasting images of deep blue waters set among stark arid hills and barren rock formations. About 60 miles to the north, the Valley of Fire offers some unique hiking and sightseeing opportunities in a volcanically created environment of strange contorted rocks, lava fields and ancient Native American runes.

Tours depart from Las Vegas to many sights

Grand Canyon National Park, one of the great natural wonders of the world, is only 150 miles east of Las Vegas. The drive to the South Rim Visitors Center is 300 miles by road, while the slightly less spectacular West Rim is only a 150-miles drive from downtown Las Vegas. Death Valley National Park is about 150 driving miles to the west and can easily be seen on a one-day drive from Las Vegas.Zion National Park is about 150 driving miles to the north east, and Bryce Canyon is about 80 miles past it. If you do not wish to drive to any of the attractions, there are many tour options to these great natural wonders via bus, airplane and helicopter.

If you intend to visit Las Vegas for a few days or more, you need only leave the gambling parlors for a single day or even only a half day to see some of this spectacular Southwest scenery. There are numerous tours departing from Las Vegas to the Grand Canyon, Death valley, Zion National Park, Boulder Dam, Lake Mead, the Valley of Fire and other interesting places. The tours can be via airplane, helicopter, bus, van, jeep or even hummer. Normally, the tour operators pick you up at your hotel, take you on a guided tour of the attraction, then return you to your hotel later in the day. This is a very convenient way to see some of the fabulous scenery in a very limited amount of time. Naturally, you can always rent a car and tour these same fabulous sights on your own.

Five Family Activity Ideas for Kissimmee Vacations

Kissimmee tends to get overlooked by less savvy vacationers, because Orlando is right next to it. However, Kissimmee offers a lot of fun family activities without the mile-long lines. Next time your family touches down in Kissimmee, think about trying some of these fun activities.

Happy Days Family Fun Center

With over 100 of the latest video games as well as go karts, bumper cars, a laser tag arena and a 180-foot vertical accelerator, this family amusement center is sure to fill the day with lots of laughter and entertainment.

The Happy Days Bumper Cars is the world’s largest indoor extreme bumper car ride.

Green Meadows Petting Farm

This is a great place to go especially for family with young children. Spend some quiet time in a country setting and milk the cows, watch the children ride the pony and enjoy the tractor-drawn hayride.

There are over 300 farm animals to pet and enjoy. The petting farm gives children the opportunity to enjoy farm animals while learning about them. The two-hour tour is very educational and the staffs are quite knowledgeable. For admission prices call 407.846.0770.

Fun Spot USA

Located next to Old Town, Fun Spot USA (pictured) is home to the tallest Skycoaster in the world—over 300 feet tall. Other features are the two multi-level tracks and two flat tracks extreme go-karts, G-Force dragster rides, NASCAR simulators with 5 racetracks to choose from, race themed mini-golf, bumper cars, laser tags and other family fun rides.

Parking and admission is free. You can get an unlimited armband for $34.95 or pay as you play for $2.00 per ticket. For more information call 407.397.2509.

Old Town

With specialty shops, restaurants and amusement rides, there’s something to do for the whole family at Old Town. It features classic car shows on Friday and Saturday evenings.

Everyone can enjoy the rollercoaster ride, merry-go-round, Ferris wheel and other fun rides. Tickets are $1 each. A valuepak is available for $20 and $30. For more information call 407.396.4888. Parking and general admission is free.

The Disney Wilderness Preserve

The 12,000-acre preserve is one of the last remaining undeveloped lakes in Central Florida. It protects the headwaters of the everglades ecosystem. You’ll find hundreds of wildlife species including the rare bald eagles, gopher tortoises, and Florida scrub jays among others.

This is as natural as Florida gets. A guided buggy ride is available, which provides an excellent opportunity to learn more about the plants and animals that resides there and the conservatory’s effort to protect them. It’s a great learning experience for kids and adults alike.

Photo credit: Funspotusa.com