Northern California History Travel Adventures: 35 Suggested Trips.

Announcement of Lee Foster’s New Travel Guidebook Northern California History Travel Adventures: 35 Suggested Trips.

(Note: This announcement is also online on Lee Foster’s website www.fostertravel.com at http://bit.ly/2KMtGOD.)

Lee Foster’s new travel guidebook is Northern California History Travel Adventures: 35 Suggested Trips.

The book is both a printed book ($15.95, ISBN 978-0-9760843-8-9) and an ebook ($4.99, ISBN 978-0-578-52546-4). Firstly, the printed book is available on Amazon and to bookstores/libraries from Ingram. Moreover, Amazon also sells the ebook version. Likewise, Smashwords manages ebook distribution to all outlets beyond Amazon.

Strategy of the Book

When exploring San Francisco and Northern California, what should you see and do?

Certainly, one rationale for adventure would the glorious history of Northern California. In short, how did dynamic, modern Northern California become what it is?

Where would you go to experience the most interesting stories about this historic development?

Above all, how is “nature preserved” so important in California history? For instance, the saving of redwoods and Yosemite may be seen as a huge California story. Therefore, some will argue that this is one of Northern California’s most important historic contributions to world thought.

In conclusion, to answer these questions, Lee Foster wrote/photographed this book, Northern California History Travel Adventures: 35 Suggested Trips.

Questions for a Traveler

As one learns about Northern California, some questions emerge for the curious:

*Firstly, what was California like at the time of Spanish contact, when mission founder Junipero Serra settled in Carmel and the Spanish chose Monterey as their capital?

*Secondly, why did the Russians establish an outpost at Fort Ross on the Mendocino Coast? They wanted furs. On the other hand, the Spanish wished to save souls.

*How did the discovery of gold at Coloma on the American River in 1848 quickly transform California during the Gold Rush? Consequently, Sacramento became the logical capital.

*When did Leland Stanford and his “Big Four” colleagues arrange the building of the transcontinental railroad? As a result, the tracks wound east from Sacramento. Subsequently, Stanford ended up so rich that he founded a university.

*How did John Muir elevate politically the concept of “preserving nature,” starting with Yosemite and the redwoods? As a result, Muir made saving both the massive inland giant redwood species and the tall coastal species a national goal.

On the other hand, in more modern times, you might wonder:

*How was the Golden Gate Bridge, one of the most-beloved human artifacts on the planet, built in the 1930s?

*Where can you go today in the Silicon Valley to see museum displays that show the genius of the area? In short, where can you witness the computer/software inventiveness of modern California?

Outline of Each Chapter in Northern California History Travel Adventures: 35 Suggested Trips

For each of the 35 suggested trips in Northern California History Travel Adventures, Lee Foster provides for you:

In Brief (What is this chapter about, in a sentence or two)

The Historic Story (The story and rationale for your trip in more depth)

Getting There (How to drive to the destination)

Be Sure to See (A curated list of main attractions for the trip)

Best Time of Year (Some items have a seasonal aspect)

Lodging (One good option)

Dining (One good option)

For Further Information (The local tourism office)

SF/NorCal ranks as Lee’s favorite place on Earth. The more he has seen of the world, the greater becomes his appreciation of Northern California. Importantly, Lee reports on about 300 worldwide destinations with writing/photo coverages at www.fostertravel.com.

He hopes that this presentation makes your own exploration of Northern California more enjoyable and insightful.

Table of Contents for Northern California History Travel Adventures: 35 Suggested Trips

The book chapters appear as follows:

The San Francisco Bay Area

1. San Francisco’s Golden Gate Bridge: Spanning the Gap
2. San Francisco’s Cable Cars: Ride the Cars, Visit the Museum
3. Historic Chinatown San Francisco: The Cantonese Enclave
4. San Francisco’s Victorian Architecture: The Legacy that Survived the 1906 Quake and Fire
5. Alcatraz and Angel Islands in San Francisco Bay: The Secure Prison and the Island of Immigrant Hope
6. Berkeley: Free Spirits and Free Speech at the University of California
7. Silicon Valley’s High-Tech Heritage: Three Great Museums Tell the Computer/Technology Story of Modern California
8. Visiting Leland Stanford’s “Farm”: Now Stanford University in California
9. San Mateo’s California Coast-side: Shipwrecks and the Portuguese

Coast North of San Francisco

1. Sir Francis Drake’s California Landing: Where in Point Reyes?
2. The Russian Outpost in California: Fort Ross on the Mendocino Coast
3. Art and the Gray Whale: The Town of Mendocino, California                                              Napa and Sonoma

1. The Visionary of California’s Calistoga: Sam Brannan’s Hot Springs
2. “The Wine Is Bottled Poetry”: Writer Robert Louis Stevenson in California’s Napa Valley
3. Mariano Vallejo’s California Hospitality: The Sonoma Town Square
4. The California Socialist as Literary Entrepreneur: Jack London’s Valley of the Moon
5. The Father of California Agriculture: Luther Burbank’s Legacy in Santa Rosa, Sonoma County

 Redwood Country

1. Redwood Grandeur Along California’s Highway 101: Avenue of the Giants and the Company Town of Scotia
2. Eureka: California’s Redwood Lumber Baron Town
3. Redwood National and State Parks: Saving the Tallest Trees in Far Northern California

 Shasta-Cascade Region

1. Apocalypse in California: When Lassen Peak Erupted in 1914
2. Shasta City and Shasta Dam in California: The Northern Gold Rush and the Enduring Wealth of Water

 Sacramento and the Gold Country

1. Dreams of an Agricultural Empire in California: John Sutter’s Vision in Sacramento
2. The Iron Road Across the California Sierra: Old Sacramento and the Railroad Museum
3. One Lucky Day at the Sawmill: How James Marshall Discovered Gold in California Along the American River at Coloma
4. Rambling California’s Historic Gold Country Highway 49: Starting with Columbia, the Preserved Gold Rush Town
5. Meandering the California Delta: The Chinese Town of Locke

 The Sierra

1. The Discovery and Saving of California’s Yosemite: A Militiaman’s Emotions
2. Yosemite’s Wawona: A Historic Hotel and the Big Trees of California
3. East Side of the California Sierra: Natural Beauty and the Struggle for Water
4. The California Bristlecone Pines: Oldest Living Things on Earth
5. A Tale of California’s Mammoth Trees: The Giant Inland Sequoias of Sequoia & Kings Canyon National Parks

 Monterey and Santa Cruz

1. Father Junipero Serra’s California Missions: His Headquarters in Carmel
2. Monterey: California’s First Capital
3. California’s Santa Cruz: The Beach Boardwalk and the Progressive University

 About the Author of Northern California History Travel Adventures: 35 Suggested Trips

Lee Foster is an award-winning travel writer/photographer and long-time resident of Berkeley, across the Bay from San Francisco. For example, his work has won eight Lowell Thomas Awards, the most prestigious prizes in travel journalism. In addition, he has been named Lowell Thomas Travel Journalist of the Year. All the write-ups and photos in the book are by Foster.

Lee has several parallel books/ebooks on San Francisco and Northern California. See them on his Amazon Author Page (http://amzn.to/1jl9Lnz) or in independent bookstores (http://www.indiebound.org/). Similarly, the books are assembled on Lee’s website under shop.

Much of his travel journalism can be seen on his website www.fostertravel.com. For instance, about 200 of his 500+ worldwide travel writing/photo coverages are about San Francisco and Northern California. The others range from Egypt to Bali.

Search for a SF/Norcal subject or worldwide subject on the website and find Lee’s presentations. Above all, everything visible on the website is free. However, the website requires that you endure the ads to see the free content.

Sign Up for Lee’s Email Announcements

You can sign up to for Lee’s email announcements, sent once a week. The emails usually refer to a new or updated article on travel or publishing on his website. See the right side of any page to sign up.

Lee’s travel writing/photos have appeared over the years in all the major U.S. travel magazines and newspapers. In the same vein, he has published travel photos in more than 300 Lonely Planet travel books.

His 7,000 digitally ready photos are available for license at http://stockphotos.fostertravel.com. In short, most of his licensing of photos occurs to major magazines and book companies. Clients include the local AAA magazine Via and National Geographic. However, Lee also offers an inexpensive Personal Publishing Secure License for $20 for individuals. For example, you may simply want a photo for your blog, website, book, or wall décor.

Contact Information 

New aspects about Northern California travel constantly emerge. As a result, changes will impact Northern California History Travel Adventures: 35 Suggested Trips. Your experience of travel, whether good or bad, is helpful to Lee. To sum up, he continues to evaluate what should be emphasized. For example, the chapters of this book contain highly curated recommendations for each subject. Moreover, Lee also proceeds to refine the content in his companion volume, Northern California Travel: The Best Options.

Reach Lee Foster with a note to [email protected]. Similarly, mail to Lee Foster, Foster Travel Publishing, 1623 Martin Luther King Jr. Way, Berkeley, CA 94709. Your comments are always welcome.