#1 Nuclear Free Zone - or is it?
California absolutely prides itself on being Nuclear Free, but that isn’t quite true. Most of the plants are shut down and in the process of being decommissioned so they’re certainly on the way out. Right smack in the middle of the Bay Area there was an operating reactor right in the heart if UC Berkeley which is pretty well known for being the greenest place on the planet. How weird huh? The Berkeley Reactor was last operated in 1987 and was decommissioned after the Nuclear Free Berkeley Act in 1986.
#2 The biggest little railway in the world - why stop with a train set when you can go so much bigger?
There are little railways all over the Bay Area like the beautiful Redwood Valley Railway in Tilden Park Berkeley with trains that you can ride. There is one that dwarfs them all which is a private railway that essentially goes nowhere - it runs in a huge circle, and was never used for revenue. It was built by a private individual who wanted to build a railway as you do- hey if I could afford it I would! It operates today as a tourist service and is called Roaring Camp Railroad.
#3 Damn Vampires
The same company operates another train which doesn’t meet up with the first one at all which goes to the beach side city of Santa Cruz. Santa Cruz is famous for all sorts of things but I know it from the iconic 80’s movie The Lost Boys where it was known as Santa Clara with the backing music of People Are Strange and of course that immortal quote “One thing about living in Santa Carla I never could Stomach: all the damn vampires.”
#4 Yosemite
I think we can all agree that Yosemite is an iconic place to get close to the earth and back in 2019 I wrote an article about my 2018 experience in the park - how many times had I tried to get to the park before finally making it in 2018? Read the article and find out :).
#5 Something in common with @KarenVChin
Karen and I have something in common, well four things really if you count Local Guides and being Connect Moderators but they’re not about California. There are two things where we have cross over (well probably others, but these two came to mind) every summer Karen goes and vacations at a beautiful blue lake up in the Sierra Mountains not all that far from Sacramento called Lake Tahoe she and I both love this magical place where you can completely unwind and while the place can get a little busy its always possible to find a spot to be by yourself if you want. What is the second thing you ask? On the way to Lake Tahoe is a tiny little place called Ikeda’s in Auburn. We both love the best and possibly most famous pies you can get. Don’t get caught out because there is an impostor called Ikedas Markets which is a real market but their pies aren’t Ikeda’s pies :).
#6 Living in Oakland
While I worked in the Bay Area on the transit fare collection system that today is called Clipper (it was called TransLink then) I lived in the city of Oakland. Everyone thinks about Los Angeles, San Francisco, Sacramento or possibly San Diego when they think about California. There are so many other great cities often in close proximity to one of the big names and Oakland is one of those. Oakland is a working peoples city and has one of the most diverse cultures of people outside of my own home town of Melbourne Australia that I have ever encountered. You can find just about anyone in that melting pot. The coolest thing about Oakland is the BBQ that you can get in Jack London Square my absolute favourite is Everett & Jones Barbeque oddly I’ve never reviewed the place. Oh well I’ve not been there since 2018 so I probably shouldn’t do it now :). When you go there in a group, just order everything on the menu and share it. You can’t go wrong! The Amtrak and Union Pacific trains traverse through the streets in Jack London Square sharing the way with cars, trucks and pedestrians. Legally a train driver (the Engineer) in America is required to blow his horn four times for every road crossing long-long-short-long. In the Jack London precinct they cross 5 roads so will blow four times for every road crossing even through they’re sharing the road surface and will also blow as needed mid block to warn gifted individuals so they will blow at least 20 times and often more.
#7 The Ride Along and the Breakfast Burger
When I worked on the TransLink Project with MTC I was based in Oakland and I was paired up with a talented female project manager named K.D. Through her I met her brother who was also named K.D. It turns out everyone in her family is named K.D. for several generations. They all have different names but the same initials and they all just use K.D. Well anyway, I digress, K.D. (the brother, not K.D.) worked for the Oakland Police as a sergeant and I was fortunate enough to go out on a night shift ride along in a police car. I have to say sitting up front is probably much better than being in the back. The cops in America often get a bad rap but K.D. who is an absolutely massive man is also one of the gentlest persons I ever met and had a gift. He could walk into a bar fight and have everyone sitting down sharing stories within a few seconds. It was on one of these that he introduced me to the concept of the breakfast burger that he would get at the end of every shift at 7am after dropping his car back into the city he would head to The Red Onion. I taught them how to make an Aussie burger with pineapple, fried egg and beetroot along with their usual meat patties, lettuce and cheese. You can still get an Aussie at this greasy spoon.
#8 The climate & cable cars
One of the things you learn in the Bay Area is that every region has its own micro climate, the inner valley with places like Walnut Creek, Concord and Bay Point are in summer hot and dry. Richmond can be a little humid but is usually temperate. Oakland Fruitvale and San Francisco are temperate but can get really chilly when the fog called Karl flows over Twin Peaks to engulf San Francisco the bay and often Oakland. One of the cool things about San Francisco is the historic cable cars roaming the city. There are four active cable lines Hyde, California, Mason and Powell. As it happens some of the cars traverse from one cable to another during their journey. They’re all powered centrally from a giant cable house inside the Cable Car Museum. Along with the cable cars there is also the historic “F” trolley line that runs down Market St and Embarcadero (the waterfront). They also have two Melbourne W class trams running on this line sporadically.
#9 More Bridges Than You Can Poke a Stick At (whatever that means)
When you say California, and then a trigger word like “bridge” - nearly everyone thinks of The Golden Gate Bridge (which is actually pink, technically called “Safety Orange”) but its not the only beautiful bridge. I personally think the Oakland Bay Bridge original suspension span is nicer than the Golden Gate but its always treated as the poor cousin. In 1984 a massive earthquake struck the Bay Area and part of the road deck of the girder end of the Oakland Bay Bridge fell. This bridge has recently been replaced with a massive white suspension bridge and a causeway. Ironically in a country known for its steel production and ironworkers the new bridge was built from pieces made in China by local and imported iron workers uner German project management. How did that happen? Anyway I digress when working with MTC one of the organisations the Golden Gate Transit District who own and operate the Golden Gate Bridge let me climb to the top of the North Tower that was magic.
#10 You can fly from Oakland International Airport to San Francisco International Airport quicker than you can drive
Oakland International Airport and San Francisco are directly across the bay from each other and it is possible in non Covid times to get a flight from OAK to SFO. Traffic in the Bay Area is notoriously bad and in evening peak it can take two or even three hours to get from Oakland to San Francisco by car on a bad day. The flight from OAK would take off to the south, circle right one hundred and eighty degrees over the San Mateo-Hayward Bridge (see what I mean about bridges - this place is obsessed with them) and then land on the North South runway at SFO. The flight would reach about 3000ft at its peak before immediately descending. You would be in the air for only about 8 to 10 minutes. Of course it would take you an hour or more to get through the airport rigmarole at each end but you could still beat the car! The flights are used to
transfer planes from one airport to the other one but they will take a passenger if you pay your ticket. The day I did it with a couple of Aussie mates for a joke we were amazed to see it was quite crowded with about half the plane full. Once you’re in San Francisco make sure you visit The Castro which is arguably one of the most accepting of sexuality places in the world. The venues, clubs and places in The Castro welcome the LGBTIQA+ community. The city of acceptance.
I was going to include some stuff about LA, Mt Wilson, the Central Valley, the great train journeys and Tehachapi too but I just ran out of space and time. As they would say in California “so sue me” LOL.
Ok so there are probably 25+ fun facts buried in this set of 10. Confused yet? You will be. See you in the Meet-up. You can find out more here and RSVP.
Until then have fun and watch out for the vampires.
Paul
. Btw I can be your guide if we ever get a chance to plan it together hehe.I