Hello Mrs. Soulier’s class at Saint Gabriel School, my name is Paul Soulier and I am Mrs. Soulier’s brother-in-law, living in Oakland, California. Mrs. Soulier asked me to host Adventure Dog for a few days during his exciting journey. Sorry it has been awhile since any news has come from Adventure Dog, maybe it was because he was having way too much fun here in California!
Well, let’s see. Adventure Dog made his journey to Los Angeles in Southern California from Nashville, and then he made his way about 375 miles north up the Pacific Ocean coastline to the San Francisco Bay Area and Oakland, CA. He is continuing his adventure around the United States and enjoying himself along the way. Below is a map of California between Oakland and Los Angeles so you can see the path traveled by Adventure Dog.
Well, let’s see. Adventure Dog made his journey to Los Angeles in Southern California from Nashville, and then he made his way about 375 miles north up the Pacific Ocean coastline to the San Francisco Bay Area and Oakland, CA. He is continuing his adventure around the United States and enjoying himself along the way. Below is a map of California between Oakland and Los Angeles so you can see the path traveled by Adventure Dog.
Here is a picture of Adventure Dogs arrival at my home in Oakland. Our plans for Adventure Dog while here include touring around Oakland, a trip across California to Lake Tahoe (located on the California/Nevada border) for some great skiing, and then touring around the city of San Francisco upon his return to The Bay Area. What I will also do along the way is to include some internet links for some of the places that we visited so you can read more about them. That way, if you want to do additional reading or research during the summer, it will be that much easier.
Oakland and The Bay Area is a very unique place to live or visit. I guess if I have to say what is best about this part of California I would have to say, the weather! (Oakland is located on San Francisco Bay right across the water from San Francisco) Here in the Bay Area the average temperature during the year does not change more than 20 degrees or so. Yes, we do not have snow and cold during the winter and it does not get hot and sticky during the summer. In Oakland during the summer the average temperature is about 70-75 degrees and during the winter it is about 50-65 degrees. And the other unique thing about The Bay Area is that it rarely if ever rains between the months of May through September. I have lived here for about 30 years now and I have seen it rain once or twice during these months. Kind of makes it easy to plan your weekend when you know it won’t rain! You can always play outside, go to a baseball game, ride your bike or do whatever you want outside and not have to worry about it raining. And since there is no rain in the summer months, we do not get all those summer bugs! Yes, that is right no mosquitoes or big flies to bother us. In fact, we do not even have screens on the house.
Now, why does the weather stay this way around here? I guess the main reason is the Pacific Ocean. You guys live on Long Island Sound which flows into the Atlantic Ocean. These two bodies of water warm up in the summer and cool down in the winter time. The temperature of the Pacific Ocean does not change much (average 55 degrees) and therefore, keeps the air temperature pretty much the same. It also creates a lot of the high pressure that keeps the storms out of the area during the summer months. One of the drawbacks with the ocean temperature being 55 degrees is that it is not very comfortable to swim in, at all! Below is a map of The Bay Area showing where Oakland and San Francisco are located.
Well, now that you are all ready to be the weather person on TV, what else can I tell you about Oakland. Let’s see, there are about 400,000 people living in the City of Oakland, making it the 8th largest city in California. Oakland is the only city in the United States that has it’s very own salt water lake. Yes, that’s right salt water. It is called Lake Merritt and it is located right in downtown Oakland. Does anyone have any idea where the salt water might come from? Yes, that is right. It comes from the Pacific Ocean and San Francisco Bay. Below is a picture of Adventure Dog checking out at the Lake. He came along with me when I went to pick up my car at the auto repair shop, it needed new tires. Lake Merrit is about three miles around so it makes a nice walk if you wanted to see the whole thing.
http://www.oaklandnet.com/parks/parks/lakemerritt.asp
While we were down at the lake I decided to make a visit to a brand new Cathedral that was just completed here in Oakland: The Cathedral of Christ the Light. This Cathedral is not like any of the older ones that we might have seen, it is very hi-tech looking and looks very cool at night when all the lights are on. It was built to replace an older Cathedral that was damaged during an earthquake that we had here in 1989, the Loma Prieta Earthquake. Here is a picture of Adventure Dog checking out the Cathedral. I have also included the link to the Cathedral website if you would like to read more about it.
http://www.christthelightcathedral.org/
I guess I might have just mentioned something that a lot of people think about when California is mentioned: Earthquakes! Let me tell you that earthquakes are something that we do take very seriously here, but do not spend all day worrying about. We try to be prepared for “the big one” as people call it. Meaning an earthquake that can cause some serious damage. But at the same time, it is not something that we allow to control our lives. We have small earthquakes that we can’t even feel just about every day. The ground in The Bay Area is always moving and we have grown accustomed to the possibility of having an earthquake. If you want to read more about earthquakes, check out the link to the Wikipedia website or go to the library this summer and get a book on earthquakes, they are a very fascinating natural disaster!
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Earthquakes
Adventure Dog was wondering what else happens in Oakland! Being a dog he does like water and thought that there are probably a lot of boats and ships here. Well, he is very right. Oakland has the 3rd largest ocean port on the West Coast. The others are up north in Seattle, Washington and south near Los Angeles at Long Beach. What makes it such a good port is the natural deep sea port created by the San Francisco Bay. Oakland is also located right across the Pacific Ocean from a far away neighbor. Can anyone tell us what is west of the United States across the Pacific Ocean? Correct: the continent of Asia! Countries such as China, Korea, Japan and many others are important trading partners with us in the United States. All sorts of things are made in these countries and brought here by large ships. Adventure Dog and I took a ride down to the port of Oakland where these HUGE container ships come and go everyday of the week. These ships are so large that some of them can hold thousands of containers that are the size of a truck you would see on the Connecticut Turnpike when you are driving with your parents…. WOW! Here adventure dog is checking out some of the equipment used to load and unload these huge ships.
We also stopped to check out a harbor where there many boats that individual people own and keep for their own use. In fact, since the weather is nice some people even live on their boats year round, just like you and I live in our house. I guess it is fun being able to take your house and move it when you want to, or take it out for a ride on San Francisco Bay. Most people just keep their boat in the harbor just like they would do in Milford.
While we were out we stopped at Jack London Square. This is a part of Oakland located on the water where there are a lot of shops and restaurants. There is also an Amtrak train station that you could get a train that would take you to the train station not far from Milford. One of the interesting historical spots in Jack London is a spot where the Pony Express ended and the rider would then jump on a boat and go over to San Francisco. The Pony Express was a way that mail was delivered from Missouri to California in the 1860’s. Actually it only lasted for about a year and half but it has been an interesting event in the history of the United States. Adventure Dog thought it was kind of a cool spot so he decided to take a little rest on the historical landmark.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pony_Express
Living in Oakland offers a wide variety of things to see and do. Not only are there many places which Adventure Dog visited, but a wide variety of places with great food to eat. I noticed that adventure dog has a big appetite so he was asking what do we have to eat here? The Bay Area probably offers more different kinds of food than most places in he United States. I am told that there are restaurants from more than 150 different countries. If you can name a country, The Bay Area probably has a restaurant serving food from that country. Is that because there are cooks here that know how to cook food from say India or Brazil? That is part of the answer. The real reason is that we have people from all around the world that have immigrated from these counties and now live here! It is amazing that we have people from just about every country you could imagine. There are more Chinese living here in Oakland and San Francisco than any other city outside of China. If you like Chinese food, we have all different kinds of Chinese restaurants from every “province” in China. A province would be similar to a state here in the United States.
Adventure Dog went to with me to Oakland Chinatown becasue not only are there neat restaurants with good food, there are Chinese grocery stores there where one can get fish that is fresher than fresh, and interesting vegetables that you will not see at Stop and Shop. These grocery stores are always busy because the Chinese people like to get their food fresh, everyday. They will go grocery shopping everyday in order to get the fish, meat, produce that was just delivered. One of the reasons that they do this is because many of these people are recent immigrants and back in China they live in places where they do not have refrigerators, so they had to shop everyday. So they were used to doing it. Very different than our way of life. San Francisco has a very large Chinese population and a HUGE Chinatown. Ask Mrs. Soulier about her visit to San Francisco Chinatown, she can tell you about her experiences.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Oakland_chinatown
Well, after spending sometime checking out the sights of Oakland, my son came home from college for his spring break! Alex goes to De Paul University in Chicago, Illinois so he was looking forward to spending sometime with us and relaxing a bit too. What he also decided to do was bring along three of his friends from school, two of them had never been to San Francisco or to California. One was from Green Bay, Wisconsin, one from Michigan and one from Nashville, Tennessee …. where Adventure Dog visited not too long ago.
One of the reasons they came out was to go skiing. You didn’t know that we had skiing here in California?! Well if you were to go about 200 miles east of Oakland, you would be in the Sierra Nevada Mountains and Lake Tahoe. We were leaving on a Sunday and were going to go to a ski resort called Heavenly in South Lake Tahoe.
It usually takes about four hours to drive so we took our time and stopped for dinner in Placerville, CA. Most people never heard of Placerville but San Francisco was settled because of Placerville. This was the place where gold was discovered and settlers came from all over the United States to try their luck in finding some gold for themselves. Most people never found much gold but ended up staying and making a new life for themselves here in California. The people who made the most money were the ones who sold supplies to the “Forty Niners”. (This was the name given to the people looking for gold. The name was the year the gold rush started: 1849) The most famous Company that survived the Gold rush 160 years ago was a clothing company called Levi Straus. In fact, they designed a pair of pants called “blue jeans” that most of you wear today. So all of you have a connection to the initial settling of San Francisco and the discovery of gold, and did not even know it.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gold_Rush_(California)
http://www.coloma.com/
After dinner we went back out to the car and guess what, it was snowing. Even though we were going skiing and wanted some snow, I was a bit concerned because sometimes driving to Lake Tahoe can be a little more difficult when it is snowing. In order to get to Lake Tahoe you have to drive through some pretty big mountains, the Sierra Nevada’s. In Connecticut there are not really any big Mountains, even in New England the tallest mountain is Mount Washington and I think the top is 6,500 feet. The road to Lake Tahoe takes us to 7,500 feet. The top of Heavenly where we were taking Adventure Dog skiing was 10,000 feet high …. wow!
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lake_Tahoe
We were able to get through the mountain road to Lake Tahoe OK. There was plenty of snow for skiing so everyone was very excited. In addition to skiing, another reason why snow is important to California is that this is where most of our water comes from. Remember I was telling you that we do not get rain in The Bay Area from May through September? This is where our water comes from and the amount of snow in the mountains is very important.
It was dark when we arrived at the ski house where we were staying so we just went to bed early so we could get up early to ski. Most of the boys never saw anything like Heavenly or the nice views that you have when you are at the top of the mountain. As you can see Adventure Dog enjoyed the skiing too.
The lake itself at Lake Tahoe was formed about 2 million years ago during the Ice Age. Some parts are so deep that even to this day scientists still have no idea how deep it is! It is a vacation destination both in winter for skiing, as well as the summertime for outdoor activities such as camping, hiking and boating. Adventure Dog enjoyed his stay and was happy to go skiing in such a beautiful place. If you have time, read more about Lake Tahoe with the link above.
After staying in Lake Tahoe for a few days, we came back to Oakland. Everyone, including Adventure Dog was pretty tired. Alex had a few more days before he and his friends had to go back to Chicago and start school again, so they decided that they would spend most of the time exploring San Francisco. “The City” as it is called by the people who live in The Bay Area is quite the place. It has quite a colorful history and to this day is an interesting place to live, work or visit. I moved to San Francisco from Milford 30 years ago to begin my accounting career. I always enjoy having visitors so I can share a few of the things I have discovered over these 30 years. Adventure Dog really enjoyed his visit and I think he would love to return one day.
San Francisco is unique in that it is not very large for a major city. How many of you would believe me if I told you that Milford is actually bigger than San Francisco? Hard to believe but true; San Francisco is about 47 square miles while Milford is 58 square miles. On the other hand Milford has about 50,000 residents while San Francisco has over 800,000 people living there!! Right now the only place to build is up: taller buildings. This is because San Francisco is a peninsula, land surrounded by water on three sides and there is no more land to build on or expand. Attached is a satellite image of San Francisco, you can see the water on the three sides. One side is the Pacific Ocean, one side is the San Francisco Bay and the top is called the Golden Gate.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/San_Francisco,_CA
I don’t know if any of you have been to San Francisco but there is a lot to see and do. We went to many of the sights including the Golden Gate Bridge. This is truly one of the prettier bridges or places to see. It connects The City of San Francisco to Marin County located to the north. It was constructed about 75 years ago and just about everyone who visits, has to go …. including Adventure Dog.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Golden_gate_bridge
One of the neat things is that you can go below the bridge and see all the boat traffic come through the Golden Gate, as well as look up at the bridge. There is even an old fort there remaining from The Civil War.
San Francisco has many nick-names including the City of Seven Hills. This is because there are seven main hills throughout The City. Adventure Dog was amazed how hilly the streets are. Some of the streets are so steep that the sidewalks have steps/stairs on them so you can walk up and down a little easier. This is also a very good way to get some exercise. Some streets have “Cable Cars” running up and down the hills. These look like a trolley or a street car, but are actually operated by a cable that runs under the road … very cool!
As with any place that has big hills, you have nice views. One place that Adventure Dog visited with the boys and myself was a spot called Twin Peaks. Here one can see all of San Francisco and many of the cities beyond.
People who visit San Francisco come for the views, the many restaurants, to see a play, enjoy the music, visit many of the museums, take a trip to Alcatraz, go whale watching, ride the cable cars, explore one of the many different neighborhoods, visit the historical locations or just relax. San Francisco and the Bay Area have a lot to offer. Adventure Dog enjoyed his stay and hopes that you learned something from his visit. He knows that he certainly learned a lot. If you have time or like to learn more, check out some of the links that Adventure Dog and I attached. There is a lot of interesting information to be found. Thanks for letting me share this leg of the journey and thanks for listening!
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Oakland_chinatown
Well, after spending sometime checking out the sights of Oakland, my son came home from college for his spring break! Alex goes to De Paul University in Chicago, Illinois so he was looking forward to spending sometime with us and relaxing a bit too. What he also decided to do was bring along three of his friends from school, two of them had never been to San Francisco or to California. One was from Green Bay, Wisconsin, one from Michigan and one from Nashville, Tennessee …. where Adventure Dog visited not too long ago.
One of the reasons they came out was to go skiing. You didn’t know that we had skiing here in California?! Well if you were to go about 200 miles east of Oakland, you would be in the Sierra Nevada Mountains and Lake Tahoe. We were leaving on a Sunday and were going to go to a ski resort called Heavenly in South Lake Tahoe.
It usually takes about four hours to drive so we took our time and stopped for dinner in Placerville, CA. Most people never heard of Placerville but San Francisco was settled because of Placerville. This was the place where gold was discovered and settlers came from all over the United States to try their luck in finding some gold for themselves. Most people never found much gold but ended up staying and making a new life for themselves here in California. The people who made the most money were the ones who sold supplies to the “Forty Niners”. (This was the name given to the people looking for gold. The name was the year the gold rush started: 1849) The most famous Company that survived the Gold rush 160 years ago was a clothing company called Levi Straus. In fact, they designed a pair of pants called “blue jeans” that most of you wear today. So all of you have a connection to the initial settling of San Francisco and the discovery of gold, and did not even know it.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gold_Rush_(California)
http://www.coloma.com/
After dinner we went back out to the car and guess what, it was snowing. Even though we were going skiing and wanted some snow, I was a bit concerned because sometimes driving to Lake Tahoe can be a little more difficult when it is snowing. In order to get to Lake Tahoe you have to drive through some pretty big mountains, the Sierra Nevada’s. In Connecticut there are not really any big Mountains, even in New England the tallest mountain is Mount Washington and I think the top is 6,500 feet. The road to Lake Tahoe takes us to 7,500 feet. The top of Heavenly where we were taking Adventure Dog skiing was 10,000 feet high …. wow!
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lake_Tahoe
We were able to get through the mountain road to Lake Tahoe OK. There was plenty of snow for skiing so everyone was very excited. In addition to skiing, another reason why snow is important to California is that this is where most of our water comes from. Remember I was telling you that we do not get rain in The Bay Area from May through September? This is where our water comes from and the amount of snow in the mountains is very important.
It was dark when we arrived at the ski house where we were staying so we just went to bed early so we could get up early to ski. Most of the boys never saw anything like Heavenly or the nice views that you have when you are at the top of the mountain. As you can see Adventure Dog enjoyed the skiing too.
The lake itself at Lake Tahoe was formed about 2 million years ago during the Ice Age. Some parts are so deep that even to this day scientists still have no idea how deep it is! It is a vacation destination both in winter for skiing, as well as the summertime for outdoor activities such as camping, hiking and boating. Adventure Dog enjoyed his stay and was happy to go skiing in such a beautiful place. If you have time, read more about Lake Tahoe with the link above.
After staying in Lake Tahoe for a few days, we came back to Oakland. Everyone, including Adventure Dog was pretty tired. Alex had a few more days before he and his friends had to go back to Chicago and start school again, so they decided that they would spend most of the time exploring San Francisco. “The City” as it is called by the people who live in The Bay Area is quite the place. It has quite a colorful history and to this day is an interesting place to live, work or visit. I moved to San Francisco from Milford 30 years ago to begin my accounting career. I always enjoy having visitors so I can share a few of the things I have discovered over these 30 years. Adventure Dog really enjoyed his visit and I think he would love to return one day.
San Francisco is unique in that it is not very large for a major city. How many of you would believe me if I told you that Milford is actually bigger than San Francisco? Hard to believe but true; San Francisco is about 47 square miles while Milford is 58 square miles. On the other hand Milford has about 50,000 residents while San Francisco has over 800,000 people living there!! Right now the only place to build is up: taller buildings. This is because San Francisco is a peninsula, land surrounded by water on three sides and there is no more land to build on or expand. Attached is a satellite image of San Francisco, you can see the water on the three sides. One side is the Pacific Ocean, one side is the San Francisco Bay and the top is called the Golden Gate.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/San_Francisco,_CA
I don’t know if any of you have been to San Francisco but there is a lot to see and do. We went to many of the sights including the Golden Gate Bridge. This is truly one of the prettier bridges or places to see. It connects The City of San Francisco to Marin County located to the north. It was constructed about 75 years ago and just about everyone who visits, has to go …. including Adventure Dog.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Golden_gate_bridge
One of the neat things is that you can go below the bridge and see all the boat traffic come through the Golden Gate, as well as look up at the bridge. There is even an old fort there remaining from The Civil War.
San Francisco has many nick-names including the City of Seven Hills. This is because there are seven main hills throughout The City. Adventure Dog was amazed how hilly the streets are. Some of the streets are so steep that the sidewalks have steps/stairs on them so you can walk up and down a little easier. This is also a very good way to get some exercise. Some streets have “Cable Cars” running up and down the hills. These look like a trolley or a street car, but are actually operated by a cable that runs under the road … very cool!
As with any place that has big hills, you have nice views. One place that Adventure Dog visited with the boys and myself was a spot called Twin Peaks. Here one can see all of San Francisco and many of the cities beyond.
People who visit San Francisco come for the views, the many restaurants, to see a play, enjoy the music, visit many of the museums, take a trip to Alcatraz, go whale watching, ride the cable cars, explore one of the many different neighborhoods, visit the historical locations or just relax. San Francisco and the Bay Area have a lot to offer. Adventure Dog enjoyed his stay and hopes that you learned something from his visit. He knows that he certainly learned a lot. If you have time or like to learn more, check out some of the links that Adventure Dog and I attached. There is a lot of interesting information to be found. Thanks for letting me share this leg of the journey and thanks for listening!
