Back in the summer of 1990 my family visited (for the first and last time) what was then Marine World/Africa USA in Vallejo, California. There have been lots of changes to the park since then. The place is now known as Six Flags Discovery Kingdom, and there are more rollercoasters these days than large animals — although some animals do […]
This episode of California’s Gold, originally aired in August 2001, finds Huell discovering two very different pieces of history relating to California and China. I’ll admit when I read about the bonsai I was confused at first, since I’d always heard that it was Japanese in origin. However, it turns out that the related Chinese art of penjing is just […]
Movie palaces and theater pipe organs were well before my time, but the Warnors Theater is a proud survivor of the golden age of silent movies and vaudeville. Built in an architectural style known as Spanish Colonial Revival, the theater has been listed on the National Register of Historic Places since 1978. This episode of California’s Gold originally aired June […]
I didn’t shoot any photos during last Sunday’s solar eclipse, although I was lucky to be able to catch a few glimpses of it from my backyard. I did have to wait patiently for a few holes in the cloud cover, but it was well worth it! I certainly remember the last solar eclipse that was visible in my area, […]
Last night I started thinking about the photos I shot in San Francisco back in August 2017 — especially the ones in the area near North Beach and the Coit Tower. I knew I had shared at least some of them, but it’s been quite awhile, so I thought it would be nice to take a look back. As it […]
This episode originally aired in January 1999 — but Cargill is still very much a presence in the San Francisco Bay Area, involved in not only salt production but also playing a part in efforts to transform industrial ponds into tidal wetlands as part of the South Bay Salt Pond Restoration Project. Many of us who have flown into San […]
I have heard many times about the State of Jefferson but never knew the origin story until I watched this 1-hour episode of Road Trip, originally aired February 7, 2008. In fact, I very recently learned that Jefferson is not the only ‘alternative’ state in California’s past: the Territory of Nataqua existed for a short time in northeastern California and […]
Although I have a bit of family history centering on the Yuba City area, I’ve never really explored that region; and I tend to forget that there was a lot of Gold Rush history along the Yuba River back in the 1850s. In fact, a long stretch along the river west of Timbuctoo looks very familiar to me because it […]
San Francisco, August 2023