My Golden State (geography lesson)

I've recently been doing some web-surfing regarding things to do in/facts about California and also am very into maps, so I thought I'd share a few. Above is the Cali state flag (the bear is kinda cute, is it not?) :). Before I started looking at residency programs, I'm not sure that I had a great conception of western US geography (Colorado is way closer to MN than I previously thought! It's practically midwest! And, on a side-note, I also just bought some dirt-cheap used guidebooks of these western states [i.e. costing $0.35, $2.20, etc. from Amazon!] so that I can get out and explore). Before traveling out here for interviews last December, I also had not realized that "northern California," which includes San Fran, Sac-town, Napa, and more, is really more central in location. California has a a lot of land between here and Oregon, so I'd encourage you to check out the maps below that point out some cities' locations. For the record, I live in Sacramento (I was talking to Cathleen yesterday and she was like, "I told someone my college roommate just moved to California. When he asked, 'where?' I realized that I had no idea! But now that I know you live in Sacramento, I might come visit you. There is a big track meet there every year." Ah, Cathleen. :) )

Okay, so here is your geography lesson. I hope you can actually see these city names on this map. I realize that they are kind of small in the first one.
This one is better. Here you can see that Sac is about 80 miles NE of San Fran/the Bay Area and about 90 miles (south)west of Lake Tahoe.
But look at all that land north of here! Redding, with Mount Shasta (pictured below, which I could actually see in the distance when I flew into Sac), is a couple hours north of here. Yosemite (which I hear is the most beautiful park in the U.S.) is about 170 miles southeast of Sac.
Here is a topographical map showing all the (yay!) mountainous areas of the state. Where I live is in the (flat) desert valley inland, between the coastal mountains and the Sierra Nevadas, which is why the temperatures have been about 105-107 in the past week and why I (kind of a biking wimp) can handle biking around :)


Okay, enough about California for now. I'll include another map here, which is of the two-week Alaskan Cruise that my parents and godparents leave for today. Alaska is on my list of top-five-places-in-the-world (yes, the WORLD) to visit next, so all I can say (in the words of my sister) is: AhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhI'msofreakingjealous. I can't wait to hear about their trip and see some pictures of the beautiful coastal scenery. I wonder when I'lll make it there...

My first vacation is the last two weeks of September so I have to start thinking of what I'm going to do/where I'm going to go! I'm open to suggestions :).