Traveling to the US for the second time, I had the chance to take a weekend off to do some sightseeing. Even though I had just a few days, I wanted to cover as much ground as possible.
When the wintry winds start blowing
And the snow is starting to fall
Then my eyes turn westward knowing
That’s the place that I love best of all
California is one of the most well known places in the world for numerous reasons, but chief among them is its identity as pivotal place in world entertainment and technological innovations. It is the birthplace of popular figures like Jessica Alba, Tom Brady, and Clint Eastwood. Ahead of my trip to California, I did a little research on its key areas and here is my summary.
San Francisco is officially referred to as City and County of San Francisco and colloquially called SF, San Fran, Frisco, or The City. With a population of about 883,305 residents in 2018, SF is the center of commerce and finance in North California. In terms of geographical dimensions, SF spans across 46.89 square miles and is second in the list of densely populated large cities and as a county only more populated by the four NYC boroughs in the entire US. In terms of population of metropolitan statistics in an areas, SF has about 4.7 million people and is the 12th largest. The economic significance of this city is further butressed by the fact that in 2018 SF had a GDP of $549 billion and is the 4th highest number in terms of economic output. When combined with San Jose, SF swells to a population of about 9.67 million and becomes the fifth largest combined statistical area (the San Jose–San Francisco–Oakland, CA Combined Statistical Area) in America.
The Hollywood neighborhood located at the heart of Los Angeles, California, is world renowned as the home of film and entertainment in the US, it also houses numerous iconic movie studios. It’s impacts on the industry is so strong that the name “Hollywood” has become an unofficial means of referring to the movie industry and people concerned with it. Hollywood began is rise to prominence when it was officially declared a municipality in 1903, this was followed its consolidation with Los Angeles 7 years later; this was when Hollywood began to grow as a film industry. Today, Hollywood is the largest movie industry in the world.
Las Vegas, popularly referred to as the “World’s gambling capital” is officially known n as the City of Las Vegas, the most common name is simply “Vegas”. The name “Las Vegas” is derived from the spanish word for “The Meadows”. In the state of Nevada, Vegas is the most populated and ranks 28th on the list of most populated cities in the US. Las Vegas covers an area of 135.8 square miles and hence, the largest city in the greater Mojave Dessert. Vegas is at the forefront of Nevada’s financial, commercial and back cultural scene, it is also renowned worldwide as the capital of gambling, nightlife, exquisite dinning, and casinos.
On my way back from Vegas I drove through the Mojave dessert, an arid rain-shadow desert that spans across 47,877 square miles in southeastern California and southern Nevada. Of all the desserts in North America, The Mohave is the driest.
Some of the Mojave dessert also encroaches into Utah and Arizona, one of its most distinctive features is the presence of Joshua trees (native to only the Mojave Dessert) in its boundaries. The region is believed to be home to over 1900 plant species. Although The Mojave Dessert has densely populated communities like Las Vegas, Palmdale abs Victorville, its central region has a sparse population.
With that my three-day road-trip is completed and it is back to work 🙂
