Blades is in San Francisco

Hi Everybody,

Well after my journey in New Orleans, I have finally arrived in San Francisco. It is beautiful here, 70 degrees – warm and sunny. San Francisco is the 4^th largest city in California but the 2^nd most densely population city in the United States (New York is number 1). Densely populated means many people in a specific place, so it is crowded! San Francisco is known for having cool summers, lots of fog, steep rolling hills, cable cars, the San Francisco Bay Bridge and of course the 49’ers football team! San Francisco was named by the Spanish settlers who arrived in 1776, it is Spanish for St. Francis.

The first picture is of the city from the top of one of the hotels, you can see the rolling hills in the back ground beyond the water and in the center of the photo is the Pyramid Building, the tallest building in San Francisco.

I visited the Chinese Gate and got to see one of the main streets in Chinatown. San Francisco has the largest Chinatown outside of Asia and the oldest one in North America. It was established in 1818 and it has the largest Chinese community outside of Asia because San Francisco was an entry point for Chinese immigrants into America. If you visit Chinatown you feel like you are in China, as they have retained Chinese customs, festivals and their languages.

People are transported around the city in the famous Cable cars. They are mostly ridden by the people that visit the city and the cars go up and down steep hills in the middle of the streets

There is also a very famous prison in San Francisco named Alcatraz. It was designed to hold the most dangerous prisoners and other prisons would send their trouble makers there. You can see in the picture it is on an island and the dangerous currents in the water made it very difficult to escape. The prison does not hold prisoners any more but people can visit and see what it was like to be a prisoner there.

 

The last picture is probably the most famous site in San Francisco, it is of the Golden Gate Bridge. It is a suspension bridge which means the cables at the top of the bridge are anchored at each end of the bridge to hold the weight of the road. The bridge is 4,200 feet long (a football field is 360 feet long – so it is the length of 11 football fields!!! It is widely considered the most beautiful and most photographed bridge in the world. It is painted a special color orange, called International orange for safety so the bridge can be visible to ships, especially when the fog rolls in, which is often in San Francisco!

 

I hope you enjoyed seeing the pictures of San Francisco and learning a little about this great city! I enjoyed visiting there and can’t wait to go back!

A special note to Gar - I am enjoying my travels but miss being in my home state of Mass and watching all those Bruins game! I haven’t seen a hockey game since I left Topsfield! Everyone out here seems engrossed in football!! I hope to see one soon…….love Blades.