Novato in the North Bay Area

11 September 2023 | Author/Destination: | Rubric: General, San Francisco Bay Area Reading Time:  6 minutes

Spanish Colonial Revival homes at Hamilton Army Airfield © Terrygraham415/cc-by-sa-4.0

Spanish Colonial Revival homes at Hamilton Army Airfield © Terrygraham415/cc-by-sa-4.0

Novato is a city in Marin County, California, in the North Bay region of the Bay Area. At the 2020 census, Novato had a population of 53,225. What is now Novato was originally the site of several Coast Miwok villages: Chokecherry, near downtown Novato; Puyuku, near Ignacio; and Olómpali, at the present-day Olompali State Historic Park.   read more…

South of Market in San Francisco

13 April 2023 | Author/Destination: | Rubric: General, San Francisco Bay Area Reading Time:  9 minutes

© flickr.com - Pascal Vuylsteker/cc-by-sa-2.0

© flickr.com – Pascal Vuylsteker/cc-by-sa-2.0

South of Market (SoMa) is a neighborhood in San Francisco, California, situated just south of Market Street. It contains several sub-neighborhoods including South Beach, Yerba Buena, and Rincon Hill. SoMa is home to many of the city’s museums, to the headquarters of several major software and Internet companies, and to the Moscone Conference Center.   read more…

Telegraph Hill in San Francisco

19 February 2023 | Author/Destination: | Rubric: General, San Francisco Bay Area Reading Time:  6 minutes

Filbert Street and Grant Avenue, looking towards Coit Tower © Goodshoped35110s

Filbert Street and Grant Avenue, looking towards Coit Tower © Goodshoped35110s

Telegraph Hill (elev. 285 ft (87 m)) is a hill and surrounding neighborhood in San Francisco, California. It is one of San Francisco’s 44 hills, and one of its original “Seven Hills”. The San Francisco Chronicle defines the Chinatown, North Beach, and Telegraph Hill areas as bounded by Sacramento Street, Taylor Street, Bay Street, and the water. The neighborhood is bounded by Vallejo Street to the south, Sansome Street to the east, Francisco Street to the north and Powell Street and Columbus Avenue to the west, where the northwestern corner of Telegraph Hill overlaps with the North Beach neighborhood.   read more…

Pleasanton in California

28 November 2022 | Author/Destination: | Rubric: General, San Francisco Bay Area Reading Time:  7 minutes

© Michael C. Berch/cc-by-sa-2.5

© Michael C. Berch/cc-by-sa-2.5

Pleasanton is a city in Alameda County, California, United States. Located in the Amador Valley, it is a suburb in the East Bay region of the San Francisco Bay Area. The population was 79,871 at the 2020 census. In 2005 and 2007, Pleasanton was ranked the wealthiest middle-sized city in the United States by the Census Bureau. Pleasanton is home to the headquarters of Safeway, Workday, Ellie Mae, Roche Molecular Diagnostics, Blackhawk Network Holdings, and Veeva Systems. Other major employers include Kaiser Permanente, Oracle and Macy’s. Although Oakland is the Alameda County seat, a few county offices are located in Pleasanton. The Alameda County Fairgrounds are located in Pleasanton, where the county fair is held during the last week of June and the first week of July. Pleasanton Ridge Regional Park is located on the west side of town.   read more…

Golden Gate Park in San Francisco

13 October 2022 | Author/Destination: | Rubric: General, Palaces, Castles, Manors, Parks, San Francisco Bay Area Reading Time:  7 minutes

Golden Gate Park © Taras Bobrovytsky

Golden Gate Park © Taras Bobrovytsky

Golden Gate Park, located in San Francisco, California, United States, is a large urban park consisting of 1,017 acres (412 ha) of public grounds. It is administered by the San Francisco Recreation & Parks Department, which began in 1871 to oversee the development of Golden Gate Park. Configured as a rectangle, it is similar in shape to but 20 percent larger than Central Park in New York City, to which it is often compared. It is over three miles (4.8 km) long east to west, and about half a mile (0.8 km) north to south. With 24 million visitors annually, Golden Gate is the third most-visited city park in the United States after Central Park and the Lincoln Memorial.   read more…

The Castro in San Francisco

12 October 2022 | Author/Destination: | Rubric: General, San Francisco Bay Area Reading Time:  15 minutes

LGBTQ Pride Flag Market Street and the Castro © flickr.com - tedeytan/cc-by-sa-2.0

LGBTQ Pride Flag Market Street and the Castro © flickr.com – tedeytan/cc-by-sa-2.0

The Castro District, commonly referred to as the Castro, is a neighborhood in Eureka Valley in San Francisco. The Castro was one of the first gay neighborhoods in the United States. Having transformed from a working-class neighborhood through the 1960s and 1970s, the Castro remains one of the most prominent symbols of lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender (LGBT) activism and events in the world. Castro Street was named after José Castro (1808–1860), a Californian leader of Mexican opposition to U.S. rule in California in the 19th century, and alcalde of Alta California from 1835 to 1836. The neighborhood known as the Castro, in the district of Eureka Valley, was created in 1887 when the Market Street Railway Company built a line linking Eureka Valley to downtown.   read more…

Painted Ladies in San Francisco

1 June 2022 | Author/Destination: | Rubric: General, Architecture, San Francisco Bay Area Reading Time:  6 minutes

© panoramio.com - MARELBU/cc-by-3.0

© panoramio.com – MARELBU/cc-by-3.0

In American architecture, painted ladies are Victorian and Edwardian houses and buildings repainted, starting in the 1960s, in three or more colors that embellish or enhance their architectural details. The term was first used for San Francisco Victorian houses by writers Elizabeth Pomada and Michael Larsen in their 1978 book Painted Ladies: San Francisco’s Resplendent Victorians. Although polychrome decoration was common in the Victorian era, the colors used on these houses are not based on historical precedent.   read more…

Cupertino in California

7 February 2022 | Author/Destination: | Rubric: General, San Francisco Bay Area Reading Time:  8 minutes

Apple Park © Arne Müseler/www.arne-mueseler.com/cc-by-sa-3.0-de

Apple Park © Arne Müseler/www.arne-mueseler.com/cc-by-sa-3.0-de

After two entries about Christian buildings, today we are looking at the host city of the Appleian Cathedral: Cupertino with the world headquarters of Apple. However, this isn’t enough to reach out for a UNESCO World Heritage status ;-) Cupertino is a city in Santa Clara County, California, United States, directly west of San Jose on the western edge of the Santa Clara Valley with portions extending into the foothills of the Santa Cruz Mountains. Cupertino is located at the southern end of the San Francisco Bay. The eastern part of the city, located in the Santa Clara Valley, is flat, while the western part of the city slopes into the Santa Cruz Mountains. Cupertino borders San Jose and Santa Clara to the east, Saratoga to the south, Sunnyvale and Los Altos to the north, and Loyola to the northwest. Several streams run through Cupertino on their way to south San Francisco Bay, including (from north to south): Permanente Creek, Stevens Creek, San Tomas Aquino Creek and its Smith Creek, the Regnart Creek and Prospect Creek tributaries of Calabazas Creek, and Saratoga Creek.   read more…

Nob Hill in San Francisco

12 November 2021 | Author/Destination: | Rubric: General, San Francisco Bay Area Reading Time:  10 minutes

Cable car on Powell Street © flickr.com - Dennis Jarvis/cc-by-sa-2.0

Cable car on Powell Street © flickr.com – Dennis Jarvis/cc-by-sa-2.0

Nob Hill is a neighborhood of San Francisco, California that is known for its numerous luxury hotels and historic mansions. Nob Hill has historically served as a center of San Francisco’s upper class. Nob Hill is among the highest-income neighborhoods in the United States, as well as one of the most desirable and expensive real estate markets in the country. Nob Hill is a luxury destination in San Francisco, owing to its numerous Michelin-starred restaurants, boutiques, cultural institutions, art galleries, and historic landmarks. The neighborhood is named after one of San Francisco’s original “Seven Hills”.   read more…

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