California or bust!

We really did find our study of California very interesting. California is a large and diverse state, so there was a lot to learn! We were able to find quite a few interesting books from the library and we had a lot of fun reading.

First a few facts:

• California became a state on September 9, 1850
• The capital is Sacramento
• The state bird is the California Quail
• The state flower is the Golden Poppy
• The state tree is the California Redwood
• California contains the tallest, biggest and oldest trees in the world.
• California has the lowest and highest points in the lower 48 states. (Mount Whitney and Death Valley).
• California grows more than half the nation's fruits, nuts and vegetables.

For food we had San Fransisco "Chicken Wings" (Except I didn't have wings so I cut up pieces of breast and marinated them instead.).

We also enjoyed Raisins and Avocado which are big crops in California.

In our reading we found a story about the 1906 San Fransisco Earth Quake to be quite fascinating! All that happened with not only the hard quakes but also the fire that followed and then the quick rebuilding of the city was quite amazing. After also reading about the Forest fires that tend to happen there also as well as the flash floods and mud slides, the kids were glad we didn't live there.

We also loved reading about the Gold Rush and the amazing things that happened then. We were quite surprised to find that during the Gold Rush many things that people would sell (like clothes and fruit) cost at least as much as it does now. The price of renting a room in San Fransisco during that time was also mind boggling!

I decided to scan a few pictures of my first trip to California. When I was in Bible College 3 friends (Ken, Josh Smith and Betsy Blanshan Cradic) and I decided to travel out to help out at a Bible camp, we also met up with quite a few other college friends and we had a wonderful time. Ken and Josh were from the west coast and Betsy and I stayed with our friends Esther and Christy when we weren't at camp. It was a wonderful trip especially since Ken and I got engaged while we were out there! The page above is when we four girls traveled down (from Reno, NV) to San Fransisco to see what it was like. The top picture is of Lombard Street which is all curvy and is well known.

This next page is from our time on Pier 39. If you want to see them better you can click on the picture.

And then the group of us at Park Creek Bible camp and also one of Ken and I!

California is a very neat state with beautiful trees and rivers and farmland and also dessert. Someday I would love to go explore more of it. It is the nations leading state in producing food and if it were an independent country it would be one of the 10 richest in the world.

What do you like about California?