Chapter 18, Hawaii

I have been fortunate enough to have visited the Hawaiian Islands several times, and I am planning on visiting again in July of this year.  But I need to focus on somehow incorporating this chapter to my blog city, San Francisco.

Hawaii is a series of volcanoes, both active and dormant, that bring in experts and tourists alike to come and see mother nature in action.  Bay Area residents believe that Mount Tamalpais, in Mill Valley, is a remnant of an extinct volcano.  According to the Mount Tamalpais State Park brochure, geologist believe that Mount Tamalpais was created due to its location near the San Andreas Fault, which is one of the world's most active faults.  Over time the mountain has risen from the earth's crust, while erosion has only left solid rock exposed in the highest peaks and ridges.
\
The natural phenomenas of mother nature is a curse and a blessing in areas like Hawaii and San Francisco.  To live in what one perceives as paradise you have to accept the consequences of what the land can do.
 
Mount Tamalpais, www.processedworld.com

Hawaii's  agriculture is linked to the bay area through its sugar plantations.  In a previous post I had blogged about the C&H Refinery located in Crockett, CA.  The refinery not only refines, but also packages and markets all of the output from Hawaii's sugar factories such as Alexander and Baldwin, and the Hawaiian Commercial and Sugar Company in Maui. 

Picture of Diamond Head on Oahu (top) and Mount Tamalpais (in background) in Mill Valley (bottom).

Tourism is a big part of the economy in Hawaii.  In San Francisco it is also a big business.  In 2010, the City hosted 15.9 million visitors, including hotel guests, those staying with family and friends, those staying on the outskirts of San Francisco but whose primary destination was the City.  And these people spent up to 8.3 billion dollars at local businesses.  WOW!  The text had mentioned that Hawaii has more than 50,000 hotel rooms to accommodate the influx of tourists.  In San Francisco alone, there are 32,976 hotel rooms (as of 2009) that are spread out among 215 hotels, and approximately 20,000 of those rooms are walking distance to Moscone Center (Convention Hall).

Moscone Center, http://www.hotel-online.com/


   

Chapter 16, The North Pacific Coast

A few years ago my boyfriend, Bill, and I took a drive up Interstate 5 to visit some friends in Pasco, Washington.  When we had gotten to the Klammath Mountains I new we had driven into a different land from what I was used to.  I could see Mount Shasta in the distance, and the view around me was very lush.
 
Mount Shasta, www. fotopedia.com

We stopped in Gresham, Oregon to have lunch with some friends that live there.  Though they said that there was not much to see in the area, they took us to Multnomah Falls next to the Columbia River Gorge.  It was such a beautiful sight.  I learned that the Falls is the second highest year-round waterfall in the United States.  We sat on a bench that had a front row seat of the Falls and I could remember thinking what a gorgeous natural creation, and how fortunate it was for us to see it.  It was a different world from the life I was living in California.     

Multnomah Falls, OR, http://www.kevingong.com/

Pasco, WA is toward the eastern part of the state.  It was the middle of July and about 104 degrees. 
On our way back to California, we decided to drive west to Seattle and be tourists for a day.  We went to the infamous Public Market Center, home to Pike Place Fish Market where they throw fish to one another instead of passing them by hand.  This part of town would probably be comparable to Fisherman's Wharf in San Francisco, sans the fish throwing.  The smell in the air was definitely similar, but I don't think Seattle seafood is anywhere near what they're cooking in the City. 

A worker on the receiving end of the fish toss, www.seattletimes.nwsource.com

workers in San Francisco's Fisherman's Wharf would not dare toss the steaming crabs to one another, www.dchamberlinarchitect.com

On another adventure trip, we had taken a 10-day cruise through the Inside Passage of Alaska.  Our ports of call were Sitka (AK), Juneau (AK), Skagway (AK), cruise around Tracy Arm Fjord, and Victoria, British Columbia.  We found all of the cities breathtaking and beautiful, but we especially enjoyed the capital of Alaska, Juneau.  We had scheduled an excursion to do a 9 mile bike tour of the city.  It was really an enjoyable way to do it because we got to go off-road and into trails/areas that were not explorable through automobile.  The tour ended at the Alaskan Brewing Company for a nice cold beer.  To do a bike tour of San Francisco would be great for the biking enthusiast.  It would also be a good way to see the City.  With such a hilly environment all of your muscles could be feeling the burn, and the reward would be the cool ocean breeze when you ride out of Golden Gate Park, and maybe a nice cold Anchor Steam beer.
 
port at Juneau, AK, http://www.vacations.com/
 

Chapter 15, California

Where as previous chapters had talked about regions and the states that were in that region, there is one state that needs a whole chapter to itself...California.  There is so much information about California.  But I am especially happy that this chapter involves my blog city, San Francisco. 

satellite picture of San Francisco, http://www.badattitudes.com/

San Francisco lies on the San Andreas Fault zone.  This fault zone is responsible for the 1906 San Francisco earthquake that claimed more than 3,000 lives, and caused fires that would burn the city for four days.  Most of the destruction was downtown because that neighborhood sits on top of bedrock and landfill which is prone to liquefaction and earthquake induced landslides.     

aftermath of the 1906 earthquake, http://www.skyscrapercity.com/

When the Gold Rush of 1848 hit in the foothills of the Sierra Nevada, San Francisco became a supply port for people heading up to strike it rich.  Samuel Brannan would be one of the people to strike it rich, but it wasn't on finding gold, but rather it was selling tools to people who were looking for gold.  Brannan sold them shovels, picks, pans, and other items from his stores.  He would gross $150,000 a month and he used the money to buy property in San Francisco, as well as in Hawaii.    

Samual Brannan, http://www.sfmuseum.org/

The Bay Area has a "spare the air" program to educate people about air pollution and to encourage them to change their behavior to improve air quality.  When the ground-level ozone, or smog, becomes a problem during the summer months people are asked to cut back on driving, using gas-powered lawn mowers, and from using their fireplaces.  Currently, the air quality index in the Bay Area is at a GOOD level with minimal pollutants in the air. 

When I had read the political case study at the end of the chapter I was amazed that the majority of 31 counties had voted yes to divide California into two states with the division running north of San Francisco to Yosemite National Park.  But the San Francisco Bay Area objected to the division because that would mean they would be put in the same state as Los Angeles.  That is absurd.  San Francisco, unlike Los Angeles, has a natural beauty with many appealing characteristics that give it a welcoming personality.   



1991 and 1992 proposals of a divided CA, http://www.www.phrelin.com/

Chapter 14, The Southwest Border Area: Tricultural Development

The Southwest region is a favorite vacation spot of mine.  I have visited southern California spots, as well as spending many vacations in Arizona.  The culture, the ethnic diversity, the food, and the history keep me coming back a few times each year. 

All of those attributes are similar to San Francisco and the Bay Area.  Like many other big cities there are the clique neighborhoods where one culture/ethnicity may play a dominant role.  For example, Chinese in Chinatown and Mexicans in the Mission, Japanese in Japantown and Italians in North Beach.  All of these different cultures come together and bring something unique that attracts tourism from around the world. 
 
Chinatown, www.meiwentees.com
 
latino influenced murals all over the Mission district, http://www.sanfrancisco.about.com/
  
Peace Plaza in Japantown, www.inetours.com
 
cafes line the streets in North Beach, www.ugwug.blogspot.com 

When the Mission program had started in 1769 by the Spaniards, the Padres would eventually make their way up the California coast and establish Mission Dolores in San Francisco in 1776.  The Padres had recruited the Ohlone tribe members to help in building the Mission, and at the same time tried to spread the Christian message. 

1850 picture of Mission Dolores, http://www.sfgste.com/

The Bracero Program of 1942 had brought many Mexican laborers to California to do "manual labor" on agricultural land.  Under the propgram, Mexican workers could come to the United States and work as seasonal laborers, and when the season ended they were to go back to Mexico.  In an article from http://www.sfgate.com/, ex-braceros were protesting for back wages owed to them by the United States government. 

Former Mexican braceros held a rally at U.S. District Court in San Francisco demanding the payment of wages earned almost 60 years ago.  Chronicle photo by Penni Gladstone.

Chapter 13, The Empty Interior

The Empty Interior is defined as a place where aridity and lushness intermingle across wide desert valleys and rugged mountains.  It "stretches across from the Rocky Mountains' eastern slopes west to Sierra Nevada, the Cascade Range of the Pacific Northwest, and the Coast Mountains of British Columbia."  This massive area of land has a low population density. 

The Bay Area is so close to the Empty Interior, but it has none of the characteristics of it.  The Bay Area is highly dense in population, with the imprint of city-life in all county areas.  And because many major corporations have San Francisco and the Bay Area as one of its headquarters the land is mostly used for residential and commercial use.  To name a few, there are Google and Yahoo in the Silicon Valley, Pixar in Emeryville, and C&H Sugar in Crockett (which I have talked about in a previous blog).
 

Though there are small pockets of arid and lush land in the Bay Area they are far and few between.  The only few places that I can think of are in the eastern Alameda County and up north passed Solano County.  Driving on East 580 you came across the Altamont Pass where there is a wind farm that contains relatively 4300 wind turbines of various types. 
 
 only a few of the wind turbines at the Altamont Pass, http://www.otrwjam.wordpress.com/

Driving East on Interstate 80 you drive across Solano County where there used to be farmland, but because of the high demand for homes and commercial use most of the farmland is gone.  But you can still have a pleasant view of some of the farmlands that are still out there.  You just have to look really quick because it will just pass you by.

farm in Solano County, http://www.robertcampbellphotography.com/

Chapter 12, The Great Plains and Prairies

The Great Plains covers southern Texas all the way up to the Canadian border.  This includes the states Oklahoma, Kansas, Nebraska, South Dakota, North Dakota, Wyoming, and Montana.  The landscape of the Plains and Prairies is a low, flat to rolling terrain.  In San Francisco the landscape is mostly hills.  There are more than 50 hills within the city.  Near the center of the city are more densely populated hills.  Mount Davidson is the highest hill at 925ft.
 
Mount Davidson Cross, http://www.f-stopped.com/

Unlike the Plains, where there is extreme weather, tornado frequency, and more than enough days of hail, the City's climate is mostly influenced by the cool ocean breeze which keeps most of the bay area cool.  This produces a year-round climate with little temperature change.
 
view of Ocean Beach, San Francisco, http://www.chamoismoon.com/

As water is an important resource in the Great Plains and is underlain by the Ogallala aquifer, in San Francisco the water is monitored by the San Francisco Public Utilities Commission (SFPUC).  According to http://www.sfwater.org/, the San Francisco Public Utilities Commission Natural Resources and Land Management Division is responsible for the management of 63,000 acres of watershed lands.  Located in three counties, the lands contain the water supply storage, transmission, and treatment systems which serve 2.4 million people all over the Bay Area. 

SFPUC Water, Power, and Wastewater System, http://www.franciscodacosta.com/

Chapter 11, The Agricultural Core

As the agricultural core is in the Midwest we would think that the Bay Area would then be in the Far West, but it would be more considered as on the West Coast.  It is a term for the western states of the United States.  This would include California, Oregon, and Washington.  Alaska and Hawaii are also considered part of the West Coast because they border the Pacific Ocean.


The soils of the Agricultural Core is mollisols and alfisols.  Mollisols form in semi-arid and semi-humid areas, typically under a grassland cover.  Alfisols, like mollisols, also form in semi-arid and semi-humid areas, but under a hardwood forest cover.  The soil type in the Bay Area does not include these two types of soil.  The climate does not accomodate to help form them.  According to http://www.earthquake.usgs.gov/, there are 5 soil types in the Bay Area.  The information is based on ground shaking and the soft soils that amplify it.  The National Earthquake Hazards Reduction Program (NEHRP) has defined the 5 soil types as A, B, C, D, and E and they include unweathered intrusive igneous rock, volcanics and Mesozoic bedrock, sandstone, mudstone, limestone, and artificial fill.

Farms in the Bay Area not a common site.  Because of the location of a big city surrounded by the suburbs, farmland can be found as far out as Dixon, CA (70 miles north of San Francisco).  As you drive north on Interstate 80 you pass farms that are plentiful in apples, mushrooms, and walnuts.

http://www.localism.com/