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The Castro Neighborhood commonly referred to as just, The Castro, was one of the first gay neighborhoods in the United States. This neighborhood is one of the most lively areas of San Francisco and offers a very fast-paced nightlife. Make sure to visit the rainbow colored sidewalks when you are here!
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Santa CruzHighlights of the day: traveling down the Santa Cruz coastline touring both local and widely produced organic fruit farms. Although the Santa Cruz coastline is perfec tpostcard material, the off shore biodiversity is facing a huge threat due to local polution and rising sea levels. The number of endangered species is rising annually despite local, state, and national efforts to combat these issues.
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Nature Bridge National BeachNature Bridge National Beach is a coastal oasis where one can spot various species of indigenous birds, migrating whales, and even seals flocking to the picturesque white-sand beach. The image to the left shows the famous Bridge Rock for which the state beach is named after.
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There is a large debate on whether locally owned smaller farms will make the pledge to go organic despite the high price of certification. After visiting Driscoll's Farms (check the strawberries in your fridge, they are most likely from Driscoll's) we got to travel to Swanton Berry Farm about an hour north of Driscoll's.
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In the early hours of the morning our running group set out for Chinatown on our way west towards the coast. SF's Chinatown is the largest Chinatown outside of Asia, lined with traditional Chinese lanterns, glowing Chinese Characters banners, and most importantly, 191 delicious Asian cuisine restaurants. We figured it was best not to dive into a fried-rice dish at 7 am so instead we continued down through the financial district.
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I have a few quick caveats that I would like to make known to my viewers. First, I made this a photo portfolio and not a blog for a reason... I am not much of a writer so I will let the photographs do most of the talking please!
Moving right along, I have arrived in San Fran! After an 18 hour day I have arrived at our hostel in the booming Mission district. Our first day was filled with meeting new people, getting lost on a multitude of streets, and unpacking and repacking and then unpacking again. Having never been to San Fran, I was eager to explore the 46.9 square miles of Northern California coast. I was pleasantly surprised to learn that our academic schedule leaves our weekends completely free to wonder. Tune in this weekend to see where our adventurous take us! |
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The word "hostel" has never been high on my list... especially after watching Taken and various other European travel movies. However, our SF hostel has been nothing but welcoming and to my surprise, extremely clean, safe, and most importantly, FUN! Our hostel is not only full of our 27 IHP member group, but various other European tourists exploring around San Fran. So far, so good!
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