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Whale Watching in California Each winter California welcomes the return of its official marine mammal, the gray whale, and many California State parks and beaches offer programs and locations for viewing the migrating whales. Many California destinations celebrate with special festivals. • Cabrillo National Monument Whale-Watch Weekend (January) at the end of Point Loma in San Diego. • Birch Aquarium's Whale Adventures (December - March) on the La Jolla shoreline. • West Marin's Whales, Wildlife and Wildflowers Festival (January - April) on Point Reyes National Seashore. • Ventura Harbor Village Annual Whale Celebration (February - March) at Ventura, with Channel Islands National Park or "America's Galapagos" just 14 miles offshore. • Cabrillo Marine Aquarium's Whale Celebration (February) at Cabrillo Beach in San Pedro. • Santa Cruz Migration Festival, Natural Bridges State Park (February) along the Central Coast of California. • Oxnard's Celebration of the Whales/ Whale Watching Excursions (January - March) includes whale-watching excursions to the Channel Islands National Park. • And annual festivals at Dana Point (one of Southern California’s largest seafaring celebrations); Mendocino; Fort Bragg; and Santa Barbara. |
 THE MAGICAL MIX AT FISHERMAN'S WHARF There are magical neighborhoods around the world that are magnets for travelers, names that need no city identification – Montmartre, Waikiki, Times Square, the Casbah ........ Count Fisherman’s Wharf among them. Think Fisherman’s Wharf and a mind’s eye view of San Francisco leaps at you ...... so do shrimp and crab stalls and seafood restaurants, novelty museums like Ripley's Believe It or Not! and the Wax Museum at Fisherman’s Wharf and other family attractions, street vendors and souvenir shops, street artists and art galleries, languorous sea lions and the eccentrics. SAN FRANCISCO HOTELS  The most singular residents of Fisherman’s Wharf are Pier 39’s sea lions which arrived here shortly after the 1989 San Francisco earthquake, drawn by the plentiful herring pantry that is San Francisco Bay. On Pier 39 they took over K-Dock, now officially designated a "Watchable Wildlife" viewing area. From the viewing deck you can comfortably watch the antics of the hundreds of sea lions which have made the dock space their home. San Francisco’s Number One attraction, Pier 39, is at the heart of Fisherman’s Wharf, a two-level open-air festival marketplace filled with potpourri of numerous attractions, 110 shops and restaurants like Bubba Gump Shrimp Co., a fun restaurant founded on the movie Forrest Gump and serving wonderful seafood. Plying the waterfront is the Market Street Railway of vintage transit vehicles. Conceived as a novelty "museum in motion", it is now a full blown transport system. The Market Street fleet includes the original streetcar named Desire from New Orleans and other vintage streetcars, cable cars, trolley and motor coaches from many countries, lovingly restored by volunteers. Other volunteers help keep the streetcars of the F-line sparkling by cleaning them on the line every day. Ghirardelli Square, once home to the world’s famous chocolate factory where you can still see the original equipment in operation and sample treats from the Chocolate Factory, is part of the Fisherman’s Wharf mix. It has been renovated to an open-air center showcasing an international collection of speciality shops, international restaurants and galleries. Entertainers perform daily in its beautifully landscaped plazas. Offshore is Alcatraz, now a National Park and a famous San Francisco landmark, once home to the likes of Al "Scarface" Capone, "Machine Gun" Kelly and Robert "The Birdman" Stroud. They did hard time on "The Rock" between 1934 and 1963 when it was one of America's toughest maximum security prisons. They're in their graves, astounded that well over a million people every year are now actually trying to get into Alcatraz! There are ferries at Fisherman's Wharf to take you there. You can't stay the night on Alcatraz, nor is there any need. Fisherman’s Wharf has a variety of hotels looking after visitors. CALIFORNIA HOTELS PHOTO: Aquatic Park at Fisherman's Wharf – San Francisco Convention & Visitors Bureau photo by Trish Foxwell. |
ALL FEATURES Alabama Alabama Gulf Coast Alaska Cruising Southeast Alaska Arizona The Lure of The Grand Canyon Tombstone Arkansas Arkansas: The Natural State California Alcatraz "The Rock": Just Visiting A Sip of the California Delta Fisherman's Wharf Into the Blue of Lake Tahoe Movie Magic in California America's Food & Wine Capital California Offers Cool Shopping Sonoma Country Have a Whale of a Good Time Colorado As Colorado As It Gets! Connecticut Mystic Country DC Washington Washington DC's Monuments Delaware Delaware: The First State Florida Florida's Dynamic Downtowns Florida: Vacations for All Ages Greater Ft. Lauderdale Florida’s Gulf Island Coast Miami Luxury Hotels for Kids Too Orlando’ for Adults Too Georgia A Treasure on Georgia's Coast Columbus: A Genteel Rivertown Savannah: A Southern Belle Hawaii Hawaii's Big Island of Adventure Kauai: Adventures in Paradise The Many Faces of Maui Oahu's 112 Miles of Beaches Idaho Boise - Worth a Trip Illinois Chicago: Your Kind a' Town Get Your Kicks on Route 66 Indiana Indiana’s National Treasures Iowa Iowa’s Rich Landscape Kansas The Kansas Cowboy Experience Kentucky Folk Arts and Crafts Capital Louisiana New Orleans Carnival Baton Rouge Maine Outdoor Adventure in Maine Maine "Must-See" Maryland Historic Annapolis The Road Less Traveled Massachusetts A Massachusetts Getaway by the Sea Michigan Guide to Lansing's River Trail Minnesota Waterfalls Everywhere Mississippi Mississippi: Easy to Travel Missouri Route 66 Starts at St. Louis Montana Montana: Big Sky Country Nebraska Family and Frontier Fun Nevada Casino Getaways near Vegas Nevada's Intriguing State Parks Reno-Tahoe: Adventure Place New Hampshire Outdoor Adventure Summertime in New Hampshire New Jersey The Beach at Atlantic City New Jersey: Outdoor Adventures New Mexico Santa Fe: Chile Hot Art New York NYS Historical Amusement Parks New York's Cultural Treasures Nature’s Beauty at NYS Parks Niagara Falls and Beyond North Carolina Heart of Motorsports North Dakota Legendary Adventure Ohio Ohio: A World of Discovery Oklahoma A Walk on the Wild Side Oregon More Trails than Roads Pennsylvania Quirky Pennsylvania Scenic Pennsylvania Route 6 Rhode Island A Tiny Gem South Carolina Myrtle Beach South Dakota The Great Faces of South Dakota Tennessee Each Region so Different Tennessee For All Seasons Texas Texas: Arts and Culture Beaches of Texas On the Texas Forts Trail Texas Ranch Round-up Family Fun in Texas Utah Utah's Enduring Favorites Vermont Seasonal Vermont Virginia Virginia’s Historic Triangle Washington On the Water in Washington West Virginia Mountain State Heritage Wisconsin Explore Two Great Lakes Wyoming Better Than Your Dreams |
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About Us: Travel Tidings USA features vacation travel information for the cities and regions of Alabama, Alaska, Arizona, Arkansas, California, Colorado, Connecticut, DC, Delaware, Florida, Georgia, Hawaii, Idaho, Illinois, Indiana, Iowa, Kansas, Kentucky, Louisiana, Maine, Maryland, Massachusetts, Michigan, Minnesota, Mississippi, Missouri, Montana, Nebraska, Nevada, New Hampshire, New Jersey, New Mexico, New York, North Carolina, North Dakota, Ohio, Oklahoma, Oregon, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island, South Carolina, South Dakota, Tennessee, Texas, Utah, Vermont, Virginia, Washington, West Virginia, Wisconsin, Wyoming. General topics covered include dining, lodging, shopping, travel accommodations, attractions, hotels, pet friendly hotels and resorts, AAA 4 Diamond Hotels, AAA 5 Diamond Hotels and more. Do not hesitate to contact us for further information at info@traveltidingsusa.com! |
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