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50 Reasons to Love California
#1:Three drive-through redwood trees
along Highway 101 between Laytonville and Klamath
#2: A herd of 400 buffalo on
Catalina Island
#3: 700 wineries (and counting),
according to Wine Spectator's 2000 California wine guide
#4: Some 20,000 gray whales that
pass our shores every December-April
#5: Heinhold's First and Last Chance
Saloon in Oakland, where Jack London began writing The Sea Wolf
and Call of the Wild
#6: Buck Owens' Crystal Palace
museum and concert hall in Bakersfield
#7: The 21-foot-tall pink marble
pyramid in Felicity, the self-proclaimed Official Center of the
World
#8: Cactus King Nursery, Encinitas,
the largest retail cactus nursery on the West Coast
#9: Furnace Creek Inn, built in
Death Valley in 1927, boasts a spring-fed swimming pool and the
lowest grass golf course in the world, 214 feet below sea level
#10: Big Kitchen Cafe, San Diego,
the self-proclaimed center of the universe and where Whoopi
Goldberg once washed dishes
#11: About 300 caves in Modoc
County's Lava Beds National Monument
#12: 21 shiny locomotives on exhibit
at the California State Railroad Museum in Sacramento
#13: Selma, "Raisin Capital of
the World"
#14: 120 miles of horseback riding
trails in Cuyamaca Rancho State Park
#15: Tien Hau Temple in San
Francisco, the oldest Chinese temple in the U.S.
#16: More than 4,000 windmills in
San Gorgonio Pass (they produce enough electricity to power Palm
Springs and the rest of the Coachella Valley)
#17: Certified farmers' markets in
350 cities and towns
#18: Stockton's Moses Rodgers House,
onetime home to a former slave, who was the first to
successfully drill for oil in the region
#19: Exeter's giant outdoor murals
preserve the city's history and culture
#20: 20 official wildlife viewing
areas
#21: The Delta, near Rio Vista, one
of the top 12 windsurfing areas in the world, according to
aficionados
#22: Birthplace of the
African-American holiday Kwanzaa, created in 1966 by Dr. Maulana
Karega, California State University, Long Beach
#23: Vichy Springs Resort & Inn,
home to the only naturally carbonated hot springs in North
America, near Ukiah
#24: 21 historic missions
#25: 2,500-year-old seagrass
specimens at the Antelope Valley Indian Museum, Lancaster |
#26: The largest permanent archery
range in North America, at the ARCO Olympic Training Center,
Chula Vista
#27: Cerro Gordo Mines Ghost Town,
near Keeler, once the richest city in the U.S.
#28: St. Helena, western home of the
Culinary Institute of America
#29: Gold Mountain Ski Area, near
Graeagle, oldest reported sport-skiing area in the western
hemisphere
#30: 9,000 barrels of beer a week
from Sierra Nevada Brewing Company, Chico
#31: The Tomales Bay Oyster Company,
shucking Pacifics since 1909
#32: Musso & Frank's Grill,
Hollywood's oldest restaurant
#33: Some 26,000 tons of dates,
harvested annually in Riverside and Imperial counties
#34: 90 types of mammals in Sequoia
and Kings Canyon National Parks, including 10 kinds of bats
#35: 160 rooms and more than 10,000
windows in San Jose's Winchester Mystery House
#36: Doris Day's Cypress Inn in
Carmel, where pets are welcome at afternoon tea and overnight
#37: 45 snow resorts offering
downhill and cross-country skiing, snowboarding, ice skating,
and more
#38: World's tallest living tree
(367.5 feet), in the Montgomery Woods State Reserve in Mendocino
County
#39: The 20-million-year-old Torrey
Sands Cliffs, La Jolla
#40: 2,425 feet of falling water at
Yosemite Falls, the longest drop in the United States
#41: 840 species of plants on the
Channel Islands, including 20 kinds of lupines
#42: More than 3,500 works by
children in the International Child Art Collection, Los Angeles
#43: Huntington Beach, 8.5 miles of
uninterrupted strands of pristine beach
#44: Diamond Valley Lake, near
Hemet, where more than 70 species of Ice Age fossils were
unearthed during excavation
#45: Lunch Box Museum, in Firebaugh,
displays 420 American-made metal lunch boxes and more than 300
thermoses. It's the seventh-largest such collection in the world
#46: Black Diamond Mines Regional
Preserve, Antioch, a labyrinth of tunnels and natural wonders of
historic mining district to explore
#47: 20 million acres of National
Forest and 50 significant wilderness areas for backpacking
#48: Kaweah Post Office, Tulare, the
smallest post office still in operation. Only 10 feet wide, it's
state historic landmark 389
#49: California Coastal National
Monument, established January 2000, running along the entire
California coast and extending out for 12 miles
#50: Ballard Inn, Ballard, chosen by
American Historic Inns as one of the
top 10 "most romantic inns" in the U.S. |
