Shopping

While outlet shopping centers generally mean bargains, but sometimes they mean surprisingly impressive cuisine in pretty surroundings too.

At Las Americas Premium Outlets , just south of downtown San Diego, enjoy Mexican food at Achiote that’s a step above the usual burrito-and-taco fare. Outlet malls throughout Southern California definitely aim to please the palate as well as the pocketbook. Check restaurant listings for other Premium Outlet Malls in Camarillo , Carlsbad , and Cabazon's Desert Hills mall, as well as for the Citadel Outlets east of Los Angeles, the Lake Elsinore Outlets between Riverside and Temecula, The Block At Orange , and the Cabazon Outlets .

Catalina Island

This island paradise, 22 miles from the California coast is an adventure lover’s paradise. If you’ve come looking for some fun outdoor – or underwater – activities, you’ve come to the right place.

Trip time: 3 days

Day 1:
Start with a smooth ride from the mainland across the water on the Catalina Express , arriving in the Mediterranean charm of Avalon. Check out the newly-renovated Pavilion Hotel . Spend some time strolling quaint streets, grab a bite to eat at one of the town's restaurants like the new Avalon Grille , located on the water. Don’t worry about traffic, cars are not allowed on the streets of Avalon. But don’t take too long, your adventure is about to begin.

To get a lay of the land, why not try a Segway tour through Avalon ? Or a new GPS Walking Tour . You could also take sightseeing to new heights with a parasailing trip high above Avalon Harbor. Keep your eyes open (if you can), you’ll get a birds’ eye view of the coast.

How about a bit of history? Take the new Behind the Scenes Casino Tour and go back in time to the glamorous days of big bands and classic movies.

What’s next? How about a Zip Line Eco Tour ? Travel from Descanso Canyon over five consecutive zip lines, at speeds of up to 45mph, experiencing the beauty of the island as you zip down through the canyon, ending up at Descanso Beach.

Day 2:
Today is all about the water.

Underwater

Explore Catalina by land…and sea with an “Outback Tour and Beach Picnic ”. Journey through the island’s rugged interior, and see where the buffalo roam. Buffalo were brought to the island in 1924 for the filming of “The Vanishing American.” After filming wrapped, the buffalo remained on the island and today, they thrive, living off the land.

Now it’s on to Little Harbor Beach and some fun-in-the-sun. Lunch, kayaks and beach equipment is provided, so gear up and enjoy! If that’s not your thing, take an Adventure Rafting Trip aboard the island’s “Fun Boats.” Snorkel, play with dolphins, and visit Two Harbors. Along the way, watch for bald eagles, flying fish, seals, and sea lions. From January to March, you can also go whale watching.

Can’t get enough of the water? You can rent any number of watercraft , from jetskis and motorboats to kayaks, pedal boats or paddle boards. The choice is yours.

For even more ways to see the island, take an exciting, narrated ride on the Skyline Drive Tour . Along the trip you’ll see spectacular vistas, deep canyons, quiet coves and an endless blue ocean.

Day 3:

Go beneath the waves and come face-to-face with Catalina’s abundant marine life – from bright garibaldi, spotted calico bass, bat rays, and more – as you snorkel in the clear waters and coastal reefs surrounding the island.

If you would rather watch from a distance, step aboard a semi-submersible for an undersea tour . You may even see a shark or two. For an added bonus, take the nighttime tour and see a whole new world that only comes out at night.

Gold was what brought the world to California more than a century and a half ago. Gold of a different vein — nature’s gold — draws the world to California today. National parks , lakes, rivers, deserts, redwood glens, and wind-tousled peaks; Yosemite , Death Valley , Big Sur and Mt. Lassen — the list of California’s most precious commodities goes on and on. Not to mention the California State Parks system has treasures as diverse as the state: herein you will find the largest and most diverse natural and cultural heritage holdings of any in the nation.

To grasp California’s true gold, you must leave the words behind and go to one of the state’s many special places. Experience the outdoor magic at the edge of Lake Tahoe. Hoist a backpack and head for the backcountry of the Los Padres National Forest near Ojai, where you can hike to a swimming hole framed by a granite gorge. You can even take a boat out to one of the five islands of Southern California's Channel Islands National Park and camp where sea lions outnumber campers a thousand to one. And, families travelling in California will appreciate the state’s commitment to strengthening children’s connection to the great outdoors, with the California Children’s Outdoor Bill of Rights .

For more information and article about California, Visit Index of California on Wikipedia

California Rivers and Lakes

The most prominent rivers within California are the Sacramento River, the Pit River and the San Joaquin River, which drain the Central Valley and the west slope of the Sierra Nevada and flow to the Pacific Ocean through San Francisco Bay. Some other important rivers are the Klamath River and the Trinity River, in the north, and the Colorado River, on the southeast border.

The Owens River takes runoff from the southeastern slopes of the Sierra Nevada and flows into Owens Lake. The Eel River and Salinas River each drain portions of the California coast, north and south of San Francisco Bay, respectively. The Mojave River is the primary watercourse in the Mojave Desert and the Santa Ana River drains much of the Transverse Ranges and bisects Southern California.

List of rivers in California.

The first known mention of the legend of the "Island of California" was in the 1510 romance novel Las sergas de Esplandián by Garci Rodríguez de Montalvo—the sequel to Montalvo's more famous tales of Amadis de Gaula, father of Esplandian. He described the island in this passage:

Know, that on the right hand of the Indies there is an island called California very close to the side of the Terrestrial Paradise; and it is peopled by black women, without any man among them, for they live in the manner of Amazons.

Map of California, circa 1650; restored. (from Wikipedia)

It is probable that this description prompted early explorers to misidentify the peninsula of Baja California as the island in these legends.

In 1533, Fortún Ximénez, a mutineer on an exploring expedition sent by Hernán Cortés, discovered the southern portion of Baja California, around La Paz. Cortés himself followed up on the discovery with an expedition to La Paz, but the settlement had to be abandoned soon afterwards. Cortés' limited information on southern Baja California apparently led to the naming of the region after the legendary California and to an initial but short-lived assumption that it was a large island.

In 1539, Cortés sent the navigator Francisco de Ulloa northward along the Gulf and Pacific coasts of Baja California. Ulloa reached the mouth of the Colorado River at the head of the Gulf, which seemed to prove that the region was a peninsula rather than an island. An expedition under Hernando de Alarcón ascended the lower Colorado River and confirmed Ulloa's finding. Maps published subsequently in Europe during the 16th century, including those by Gerardus Mercator and Abraham Ortelius, correctly showed California as a peninsula.

Despite this evidence, however, the depiction of California as an island revived in the early 17th century. One contributing factor may have been the second voyage of Juan de Fuca in 1592. Fuca claimed to have explored the western coast of North America and to have found a large opening that possibly connected to the Atlantic Ocean —- the legendary Northwest Passage. Fuca's claim remains controversial because there is only one surviving written account of it found, his account as related to an Englishman, Michael Locke. Nonetheless, this account claims Fuca found a large strait, with a large island at its mouth, at around 47° north latitude. The Strait of Juan de Fuca is in fact at around 48° N, as is the southern tip of the large island now called Vancouver Island, while the northern reach of the Gulf of California terminates much farther south, at about 31° N. It is possible that explorers and mapmakers in the 17th century could have confused the two (if in fact they were aware of Fuca's voyage), and in any case further exploration was inevitable. Indeed the famed British explorer James Cook barely missed the Strait of Juan de Fuca in March 1778, almost 200 years later. Cook even named Cape Flattery (at the northwest tip of modern Washington state) which is at the mouth of the strait, and instead stopped in Nootka Sound just off the west coast of Vancouver Island at about 49° N. His account states "we saw nothing like [the Strait of Juan de Fuca]; nor is there the least probability that ever any such thing existed."[1] However, Cook describes some bad weather in his account around this time, and did continue on to map most of the outer Pacific coastline of North America from modern day northern California to the Bering Strait in Alaska on the same voyage.

Reports from Oñate's expedition reached Antonio de la Ascención, a Carmelite friar who had participated in Sebastián Vizcaíno's explorations of the west coast of California in 1602 and 1603. Ascención was a tireless propagandist in favor of Spanish settlement in California, and his later writings referred to the region as an island. As older maps confirm, Spanish authorities and local residents were well aware where the actual northern terminus of the Gulf of California lay, but by extending the coastline north past Cape Mendocino and eventually even into Puget Sound, Drake's claim of Nova Albion for England (1579) could be invalidated by the priority of Cortes' claim (1533).

Shortly thereafter an overland expedition was led by the founding governor of New Mexico, Juan de Oñate. The expedition descended the Colorado River in 1604 and 1605, and the official report claimed that from a vantage point the participants could see better where the Gulf of California continued off to the northwest (presumably behind in the Sierra Cucapá into the Laguna Macuata Basin). Subsequently, the first known reappearance of the Island of California on a map dates to 1622 in a map by Michiel Colijn of Amsterdam. The image became the standard for many later maps throughout the 17th century and intermittently into the 18th century. Previous maps show the Gulf terminating in its correct location. The stretch of the Gulf between its actual terminus and Juan de Fuca's strait was written Mare Vermexo ("Sea of See Better") on later maps drawn from Spanish sources. (At the time, Dutch map-makers lived under Spanish control.)

The Jesuit missionary and cartographer Eusebio Francisco Kino revived the fact that Baja California was a peninsula. While studying in Europe, Kino had accepted the insularity of California, but when he reached Mexico he began to have doubts. He made a series of overland expeditions from northern Sonora to areas within or near the Colorado River's delta in 1698–1706, in part to provide a practical route between the Jesuits' missions in Sonoran and Baja California but also to resolve the geographical question. Kino satisfied himself that a land connection must exist, and the 18th century Jesuits generally followed his example. However, Juan Mateo Manje, a military companion on several of Kino's treks, expressed scepticism; European cartographers remained divided on the question.

Jesuit missionary-explorers in Baja California who attempted to lay the issue finally to rest included Juan de Ugarte (1721), Ferdinand Konščak (1746), and Wenceslaus Linck (1766). The matter was settled beyond all dispute when the expeditions of Juan Bautista de Anza traveled between Sonora and the west coast of California in the period 1774–1776.


References

• Laylander, Don, 2004. "Geographies of Fact and Fantasy: Oñate on the Lower Colorado River, 1604–1605". Southern California Quarterly 86:309–324.
• León-Portilla, Miguel. 1989. Cartografía y crónicas de la antigua California. Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México, Mexico City.
• McLaughlin, Glen, with Nancy H. Mayo. The Mapping of California as an Island: An Illustrated Checklist. Saratoga, CA: California Map Society, 1995 .
• Polk, Dora Beale. 1991. The Island of California: A History of the Myth. Arthur H. Clark, Spokane, Washington.
• Tooley, R. V. 1964. California as an Island: A Geographical Misconception Illustrated by 100 Examples from 1625–1770. Map Collectors' Circle, London.

Original article from Wikipedia.

The word California originally referred to the entire region composed of what is today the state of California, plus all or parts of Nevada, Utah, Arizona, and Wyoming, and the Mexican peninsula of Baja California.

The name California is most commonly believed to have derived from a fictional paradise peopled by Black Amazons and ruled by Queen Calafia. The story of Calafia is recorded in a 1510 work The Exploits of Esplandian, written as a sequel to Amadís de Gaula by Spanish adventure writer Garci Rodríguez de Montalvo. The kingdom of Queen Calafia, according to Montalvo, was said to be a remote land inhabited by griffins and other strange beasts, and rich in gold.

Know ye that at the right hand of the Indies there is an island called California, very close to that part of the Terrestrial Paradise, which was inhabited by black women without a single man among them, and they lived in the manner of Amazons. They were robust of body with strong passionate hearts and great virtue. The island itself is one of the wildest in the world on account of the bold and craggy rocks.

The name California is the fifth-oldest surviving European place-name in the U.S. and was applied to what is now the southern tip of Baja California as the island of California by a Spanish expedition led by Diego de Becerra and Fortun Ximenez, who landed there in 1533 at the behest of Hernando Cortes.

Read more - Origin of the name California

California is a state located on the West Coast of the United States. California's diverse geography ranges from the Pacific Coast to the west, to the Sierra Nevada Mountains in the east, to the Mojave Desert areas in the southeast and to the Redwood–Douglas fir forests of the northwest. The center of the state is dominated by the Central Valley, a major agricultural area. California contains both the highest (Mount Whitney) and lowest (Death Valley) points in the contiguous United States. Earthquakes are a common occurrence due to the state's location along the Pacific Ring of Fire, with about 37 thousand recorded annually.

The name California once referred to a large area of North America claimed by Spain that included much of modern-day Southwestern United States and the Baja California peninsula. Beginning in the late 18th century, the area known as Alta California, comprising the California territory north of the Baja Peninsula, was colonized by the Spanish Empire as part of the Viceroyalty of New Spain. In 1821, Alta California became a part of Mexico following its successful war for independence. Shortly after the beginning of the Mexican-American War in 1846, a group of American settlers in Sonoma declared an independent California Republic in Alta California. Though its existence was short-lived, its flag became the precursor for California's current state flag. American victory in the war led to the Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo, in which Mexico ceded Alta California to the United States. Western areas of Alta California became the state of California, which was admitted as the 31st state on September 9, 1850.

The California Gold Rush beginning in 1848 led to dramatic social and demographic change, with large scale immigration from the U.S. and abroad and an accompanying economic boom. Key developments in the early 20th century included the emergence of Los Angeles as the center of the American entertainment industry, and the growth of a large, state-wide tourism sector. The late 20th century saw the development of the technology and information sectors, punctuated by the growth of Silicon Valley. In addition to California's prosperous agricultural industry, other important contributors to its economy include aerospace, education, and manufacturing. If California were a country, it would be the eighth-largest economy in the world and the 35th most populous nation.

Source : Wikipedia

Mural of Queen Calafia and her Amazons in the Room of the Dons at the Mark Hopkins Hotel, San Francisco, California

Calafia was a fictional warrior queen who ruled over a kingdom of Black women living on the mythical Island of California. The character of Queen Calafia was penned by Spanish writer Garci Rodríguez de Montalvo who first introduced her in his popular novel entitled Las sergas de Esplandián (The Adventures of Esplandián), written around 1500.

In the novel, Calafia is a pagan who is convinced to raise an army of women warriors and sail away from California with a large flock of trained griffins so that she can join a Moslem battle against Christians who are defending Constantinople. In the siege, the griffins harm enemy and friendly forces, so they are withdrawn. Calafia and her ally Radiaro fight in single combat against the Christian leaders, a king and his son the knight Esplandián. Calafia is bested and taken prisoner, and she converts to Christianity. She marries a cousin of Esplandián and returns with her army to California for further adventures.

The name of Calafia was likely formed from the Arabic word khalifa (religious state leader) which is known as caliph in English and califa in Spanish. Similarly, the name of Calafia's monarchy, California, likely originated from the same root, fabricated by the author to remind the 16th century Spanish reader of the reconquista, a centuries-long fight between Christians and Moslems which had recently concluded in Spain. The character of Calafia is used by de Montalvo to portray the superiority of chivalry in which the attractive virgin queen is conquered, converted to Christian beliefs and married off. The book was very popular for many decades—Hernán Cortés read it—and it was selected by author Miguel de Cervantes as the first of many harmful books to be burnt by characters in his famous novel Don Quixote.

Calafia, also called Califia, has been depicted as the Spirit of California, and has been the subject of modern-day sculpture, paintings, stories and films; she often figures in the myth of California's origin, symbolizing an untamed and bountiful land prior to European settlement.

Source : Wikipedia