Tag: history
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Catalina Island’s Casino
Hopping off the ferry after an hour’s ride from Long Beach, I finally set foot on Catalina Island. Weather permitting, if you squint just right you can barely see the California coast with your naked eye from here. There’s a large crowd near the port, perhaps explained by the large cruise ship anchored near the…
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LA River and Secret Stairs tour
On my last day in Los Angeles I took a walking tour of the LA River and Elysian Valley. The area covered is roughly between Silver Lake and the river. When most people think of the LA River today — if they think about it at all — they tend to think of a dry…
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Scenes from Rainbow Grocery Co-op’s 50th anniversary block party
Started in 1975 as an offshoot of a “food conspiracy,” San Francisco’s preeminent worker-owned vegetarian grocery store began at a small storefront on 16th Street. After several moves — the original store is now the home of German beer bar Gestalt — Rainbow acquired their Folsom Street location in the 90’s and has been selling…
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The Neon Museum, aka the Boneyard
For a city with as much history as Las Vegas, you hardly ever see it. Almost nothing on the strip is older than about 30 years. Even downtown the older buildings have had their facades replaced so many times you often can’t tell the difference between a 10 year old building and a 90 year…
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Old Sacramento Waterfront and the underground
The waterfront is where Sacramento began, although today it barely feels like a part of the city. It’s all but cut off from downtown Sacramento by an enormous freeway, and most of what you’ll find there are your pretty typical tourist trap stores — tacky jewelry, shirts with “funny” slogans you can buy anywhere, funnel…
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LA’s Union Station
It’s been almost two years since my last visit to Los Angeles, a trip I accidentally over-planned to the point where I had three times as much stuff to do as I did time to do it. So today I’ve returned for a few nights in an attempt to cross a few more of those…
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Gaslamp Walking Tour
During my first visit to San Diego I remember walking across a busy street and set of train tracks from the Convention Center to the Gaslamp Quarter (or Gaslamp District, depending who you ask.) According to the big sign crossing Fifth Avenue the Gaslamp is the self-proclaimed “Historic Heart of San Diego.” The neighborhood’s promotional…
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Paris of the Pacific tour
Yesterday afternoon I took a San Francisco City Guides tour I’d never heard of before titled 1850’s San Francisco: Paris of the Pacific. This relatively new tour meets at the same place as the Gold Rush City tour, and compliments it in an unexpected way. Like all City Guides tours it’s 100% free and led…
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City Guides tour of Lands End: Sutro Heights
I’m no good at planning, so it comes as no surprise that I’d neglected to make plans for Labor Day and had to find something interesting to do at the last minute. I figured I’d go on another City Guides tour — I’ve been on dozens of these — and somehow managed to pick one…
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Eight things they don’t tell you about living in a “charming” historic building
I moved to San Francisco thirteen years ago, and about half that time I’ve lived in an apartment that was built in the early 1940’s. While it’s not as historic as other buildings in the area, it’s hardly the pinnacle of modern living either. Here’s a list of the things nobody — present company excluded…
About Eric
Travel, movies, comedy, tech, and whatever I find on the streets of San Francisco.
Contact: mrericsir “at” gmail.com
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