Iconic West Coast Experience

Astoria is located on the northwestern coast of Oregon. It has always attracted explorers: Captain Robert Gray in 1792, Lewis and Clark in 1805, and John Jacob Astor’s fur traders in 1811. And today visitors from all around the country are rediscovering Astoria’s rich historical sites, beaches, forests, rivers, attractions and events. For your own unique and enjoyable experience come visit the oldest American settlement west of the Rockies.

Eureka, city, seat of Humboldt County, northwestern California, a port on Humboldt Bay; incorporated 1856. Its fine harbor is a major redwood -shipping point. The city also is a lumbering, tourist, and commercial fishing center, and a junior college is located here. Of interest are Fort Humboldt (a U.S. Army post during 1853-65, now partly restored) and Sequoia Park, containing a grove of redwoods and a zoo. The community, laid out in 1850, grew as a lumbering center. Its name,
Greek for “I have found it!” was selected by an early settler.

San Diego, (dê-â´go) city (1990 pop. 1,110,549; met. area 2,498,016), seat of San Diego co., S Calif., on San Diego Bay. The city is the second largest in California and the sixth largest in the U.S. Its excellent natural harbor has made it a fishing and shipping port, and a major naval center. Aerospace, electronics, shipbuilding, biotechnology, and other industries are important. Tourism and convention business are large factors in the economy. Explored and claimed by Spain in 1542, it
was the site of the first of Fr. Junípero Serra’s missions and a historic fort, the Presidio (both 1769). The area has many other historic sites, including the Cabrillo National Monument. San Diego is also a cultural, medical, oceanographic, and research center, and its aquatic park and enormous zoo are well known. From 1988 to 1995 the America’s Cup sailing races were held at San Diego.

San Francisco one of the nation’s cultural centers. Founded by the Spanish in 1776 as Yerba Buena, it was taken and renamed by the Americans in 1846. The California gold rush of 1848 led to great growth; with the arrival of newcomers from all over the world in the late 19th century the city took on a cosmopolitan air.

A gracious, picturesque city with a mild climate, it is famous for its individuality. Notable features include its cable cars, which carry passengers on its steep hills; the San Francisco-Oakland Bay Bridge (opened 1936) and Golden Gate Bridge (opened 1937); Chinatown; Fisherman’s Wharf; Telegraph Hill; the mansions of Nob Hill; the opera house; symphony hall (1980); the Yerba Buena arts and gardens complex; and numerous institutions of learning.

Built on hills between Puget Sound and Lake Washington, Seattle is the largest city in the Pacific Northwest. The city is close to scenic mountain and coastal recreational areas. It is also an educational and cultural center, with many museums, theaters, and musical groups.

Seattle’s distinctive skyline landmark is the 600-ft (183-m) Space Needle, built for the 1962 World’s Fair. Seattle prospered with the coming of the railroad in 1884 and became a boom town with the 1897 Alaska gold rush. Long a center of radical labor activity, it was the scene of a major general strike in 1919.

Located in southwestern Washington state, Vancouver is a port at the head of deepwater navigation on the Columbia River, opposite Portland, OR. Vancouver is a commercial, manufacturing and shipping center.

British, and darn proud of it.

The shops are stocked with Harris tweeds, Irish linens and Scottish woollens. The locals play croquet, double-decker buses wend their way through the well-kept streets, and afternoon tea is served daily at the Empress Hotel.

In fact, genteel Victoria, British Columbia so closely resembles an English seaside town that it almost seems out of place among the majestic snow manteled mountains and cedar forests that surround it. This juxtaposition, of course, only
adds to its charm.