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SAN
FRANCISCO, CALIFORNIA
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| San Francisco is the fourth
most populous city in California and the 12th most populous city in the
United States, with a 2008 estimated population of 808,976. The only consolidated
city-county in California, it encompasses a land area of 46.7 square miles
(121 km2) on the northern end of the San Francisco Peninsula, making it
the second-most densely populated large city (greater than 200,000 population)
in the United States. San Francisco is also the financial, cultural, and
transportation center of the larger San Francisco Bay Area, a region of
7.4 million people.
In 1776, the Spanish established
a fort at the Golden Gate and a mission named for Francis of Assisi on
the site. The California Gold Rush in 1848 propelled the city into a period
of rapid growth, increasing the population in one year from 1,000 to 25,000,
and thus transforming it into the largest city on the West Coast at the
time. After three-quarters of the city was destroyed by the 1906 earthquake
and fire, San Francisco was quickly rebuilt, hosting the Panama-Pacific
International Exposition nine years later. During World War II, San Francisco
was the port of embarkation for service members shipping out to the Pacific
Theater. After the war, the confluence of returning servicemen, massive
immigration, liberalizing attitudes, and other factors led to the Summer
of Love and the gay rights movement, cementing San Francisco as a center
of liberal activism in the United States.
Today, San Francisco is a
popular international tourist destination, renowned for its chilly summer
fog, steep rolling hills, eclectic mix of Victorian and modern architecture
and its famous landmarks, including the Golden Gate Bridge, the cable cars,
and Chinatown. The city is also a principal banking and finance center,
and the home of over 30 international financial institutions, helping to
make San Francisco fifteenth in the world's list of cities by GDP and eighth
in the United States.
San Francisco Travel Guide
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SAN
LUIS OBISPO, CALIFORNIA
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 San
Luis Obispo is a city in California, located roughly midway between San
Francisco and Los Angeles on the Central Coast. The city, referred to locally
as "SLO","SLOTOWN" and "San Luis", is the county seat of San Luis Obispo
County and is adjacent to California Polytechnic State University (Cal
Poly). Founded in 1772, San Luis Obispo is one of California’s oldest communities.
San Luis Obispo is on the West Coast of the United States and in the Central
Coast of California. The Pacific Ocean is only about 12 miles (19 km) west
of San Luis Obispo. The Santa Lucia Mountains lie just east of San Luis
Obispo.
San Luis Obispo is a seismically
active area; there are a number of nearby faults including the San Andreas
Fault. The Nine Sisters are a string of hills that partially run through
San Luis Obispo. They are geologically noteworthy for being volcanic plugs.
Six of the nine peaks are open to the public for recreation.
The Madonna Inn is a famous
local landmark. Established by Alex Madonna in 1958, the inn is famously
eccentric. The Fremont Theater, a historic Art Deco theater from the 1940s,
still plays first run movies on the huge screen. Murals adorn the walls
of the main theater while neon swirls light the ceiling. Another destination
is Bubblegum Alley. Since about 1960, people have been sticking their chewed
gum on the walls of this alley. The doctor's office on the corner of Santa
Rosa and Pacific streets is one of very few commercial buildings designed
by Frank Lloyd Wright. San Luis also has a Carnegie Library which is now
home to the San Luis Obispo County Historical Museum. |
SANTA
BARBARA, CALIFORNIA
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 Santa
Barbara is a city in Santa Barbara County, California, United States. Situated
on an east-west trending section of coastline, the longest such section
on the West Coast of the United States, the city lies between the steeply-rising
Santa Ynez Mountains and the sea. Santa Barbara's climate is often described
as Mediterranean, and the city is sometimes referred to as the "American
Riviera." As of the census of 2000, the city had a population of 92,325
while the contiguous urban area, which includes the cities of Goleta and
Carpinteria, along with the unincorporated regions of Isla Vista, Montecito,
Mission Canyon, Hope Ranch, Summerland, and others, had an approximate
population of 220,000.
In addition to being a popular
tourist and resort destination, the city has a robust economy which includes
a large service sector, education, technology, health care, finance, agriculture,
manufacturing, and local government. In 2004, the service sector accounted
for fully 35% of local employment. Education in particular is well-represented,
with five institutions of higher learning on the south coast (the University
of California, Santa Barbara, Santa Barbara City College, Westmont College,
Antioch University, and the Brooks Institute of Photography.) The Santa
Barbara Airport serves the city, as does Amtrak. U.S. Highway 101 connects
the Santa Barbara area with Los Angeles to the south and San Francisco
to the north. Behind the city, in and beyond the Santa Ynez Mountains,
is the Los Padres National Forest, which contains several remote wilderness
areas. |
 Santa
Clara, California, founded in 1777 and incorporated in 1852, is a city
in Santa Clara County, in the U.S. state of California. The city is the
site of the eighth of 21 California missions, Mission Santa Clara de Asís,
and was named after the mission. The Mission and Mission Gardens are located
on the grounds of Santa Clara University.
Santa Clara is located in
the center of Silicon Valley, and is home to the headquarters of Intel,
Applied Materials, Sun Microsystems, NVIDIA, Agilent Technologies, and
many other high-tech companies. It is home to both Mission College and
Santa Clara University, the latter being the oldest institution of higher
learning in the state of California.
Santa Clara is also home
to Great America, an amusement park operated by Cedar Fair, L.P. The San
Francisco 49ers NFL football team has its headquarters and practice facilities
in Santa Clara. On Wednesday, November 8, 2006, the 49ers announced their
intention to move the team to Santa Clara, after negotiations failed with
the city of San Francisco to build a new stadium. |
 Sonoma
is a historically significant city in Sonoma Valley, Sonoma County, California,
USA, surrounding its historic town plaza, a remnant of the town's Spanish
colonial past. Sonoma today is a center of wine industry for the Sonoma
Valley AVA Appellation, as well as the home of the nationally recognized
Sonoma Valley Film Festival. Sonoma's population was 9,128 as of the 2000
census. Sonoma was the capital of the short-lived California Republic.
El Pueblo de Sonoma was laid
out in the standard form of a Mexican town, centered around the largest
plaza in California, 8 acres in size. This plaza is surrounded by many
historical buildings, including the Mission San Francisco Solano, Captain
Salvador Vallejo's Casa Grande, the Presidio of Sonoma, the Blue Wing Inn,
the Sebastiani Theatre, and the Toscano Hotel. In the middle of the plaza,
Sonoma's early 20th-century city hall, at the plaza's center and still
in use, was designed and built with four identical sides in order not to
offend the merchants on any one side of the plaza. The plaza is a National
Historic Landmark and still serves as the town's focal point, hosting many
community festivals and drawing tourists all year round. There are approximately
thirty restaurants in the plaza area, including Italian, Irish, Mexican,
Portuguese, Mediterranean, Himalayan, and French. It provides a central
tourist attraction. It is also the location of the Farmer's Market, held
every Tuesday evening from April to October. |
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