Matador Network's Blog, page 2259

NYC street artist Hanksy tells all

Hanksy is one of the more amusing street artists out there today. He’s not ever trying to make a grand artistic or political statement with his work. He just wants to make puns. You can check out his work on his Tumblr page — the basic gist is that he transposes an image of a celebrity onto something else and puns on it.

So a reindeer with Lil Wayne’s head is a Lil Waynedeer. A coyote with Miley Cyrus’s head on it is Mile E. Coyote. And so on. While it sounds kinda juvenile, it’s frankly infinitely better than a lot of the overly heavy-handed political statements you sometimes get from street artists like Banksy.

Hanksy recently did an interview for the web series No Your City, which is focused on strange and interesting NYC residents, and it’s fantastic. “I don’t think anyone takes the game as serious as I do,” he says, as the camera shows him spray-painting boobs on a TV.

The post New York’s most famous pun-based street artist tells all appeared first on Matador Network.

How civilians beat a Mexican cartel

A member of a Michoacan self-defense miltia stands at the ready.
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For more than 10 years, Mexico’s lime industry has been controlled by various drug cartels. This fact was little known to the public until recently, when word got out that the cartels have retreated into hiding due to a successful uprising from civilian militias.

The Knights Templar (or los Templarios) have been the primary controller of the lime trade since they defeated the Zetas cartel several years ago in Tepalcatepec, Michoacan.

When it comes to lime production, cartel members control the price of the crop, as well as when and where farmers can sell it. They charged hefty protection fees and collected on a generous percentage of the farmers’ profits. Farmer Efrain Hernandez Vazquez told NPR that about 10% of his sales, or $2,000 per week, went to the Knights.

In many cases, when a farmer refused to cooperate his land was stolen. In even more cases, he was murdered.

Some civilians supported the Knights because they believed the cartel’s presence would protect Michoacan. But since their takeover, the Knights have been responsible for kidnappings, rapes, and murders of the state’s civilians. Cartel members have even been accused of kidnapping children for organ harvest.

In response, the civilians of Michoacan created vigilante “self-defense militias,” which have been fighting against the cartel since early 2013. In October of that year, hundreds of vigilantes marched unarmed into the main square of Apatzingán, which is considered “hot country” for Mexico’s lime and avocado trade. The citizens’ act of bravery was met with gunshots from cartel members, and they were forced to retreat.

In May 2013, President Enrique Peña Nieto deployed thousands of troops and federal police. But they too came up against violence and were overpowered.

The vigilante groups explained their case to local government and the forces were permitted to combine efforts. Militia members and police troops have worked together in clashes such as the one that took place in Nueva Italia in January, where hundreds of armed civilians seized a bastion that belonged to the cartel.

Numerous successful uprisings such as this one have led to the cartel’s retreat, as well as the arrests of several government officials, who have been charged on their participation in organized crime.

The United States Dept. of Agriculture reports that the price of limes is finally beginning to drop back to normal. Consumers are paying on average 30 cents per fruit, whereas a few months ago they were paying 90.

As for the lime farmers, they are rejoicing in a new-found independence from the violence and extortion of the cartel.

The post How a civilian militia defeated a Mexican drug cartel appeared first on Matador Network.

15 Americana sights on Route 66

Historic Route 66 is the most famous road in America, thanks to Nat King Cole. The road, which stretches from Chicago to LA in a broad, meandering curve, has been called America’s “Mother Road.” Excepting its endpoints and St. Louis, it hardly runs through America’s most iconic cities — Amarillo, Albuquerque, Tulsa, Joplin, Flagstaff — but it somehow manages to capture a broad cultural cross-section of the country and thus is almost synonymous with the concept of “Americana.” It’s like the asphalt version of a Bruce Springsteen song.

Route 66 is no longer part of the US highway system, so many parts of it have fallen into disrepair or are basically just dirt roads — the parts of it that weren’t absorbed into other highways or routes aren’t even on the maps anymore. So if you’re planning on traveling it, you need to find a special Route 66 map, and you need to be willing to do some off-roading.

Huge portions of Route 66 are still there, though, and they’re peppered with kitschy, quirky Americana all the way through. Here are some of the quintessentially American sites you’ll see if you ever plan to motor west on the highway that’s the best.

1

Cadillac Ranch
Probably the most quirky and weird example of Americana kitsch on Route 66 is the Cadillac Ranch. It’s basically just a bunch of old junker Cadillac cars planted into the ground in Amarillo, Texas. Visitors are encouraged to use the cars as a graffiti canvas.


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2

The Painted Desert
Of course, most of the allure of traveling Route 66 isn’t in the kitsch or the memorabilia of 1950s and '60s America—it’s the Western American landscape. Probably the most beautiful part of the road is in Arizona, where it passes near the Painted Desert, the Petrified Forest, and the Grand Canyon.


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3

Ed Galloway’s Totem Pole Park
About three miles off from Route 66 is Ed Galloway’s Totem Pole Park. Ed was a retired teacher who moved just outside of Foyil, Oklahoma, to open the Totem Pole Park (because, why not?). It holds the record for the world’s largest concrete totem pole.


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Intermission





The Lewis and Clark road trip [guide]





39 of the world’s most inspiring routes for road trips [PICs]





A road trip guide to Montana’s local food


















4

Shea’s Gas Station Museum
We can and will make a museum out of anything we want to in America. Try us. This is in Springfield, Illinois.


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5

Grant Park
Route 66 officially starts at the edge of Grant Park, Chicago, the quintessentially American city that sits on Lake Michigan. Grant Park is the site of both Lollapalooza and Barack Obama’s 2008 election acceptance speech.

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6

The Milk Bottle Grocery
Continuing the Route 66 tradition of making things big that absolutely don’t need to be big, the Milk Bottle Grocery is pretty self-explanatory. But recently, the former grocery has been replaced with a Vietnamese sandwich shop, which—depending on who you ask—may make the Oklahoma City icon even more American.

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7

The Route 66 Shoe Tree
Let’s be honest. Shoe trees could happen anywhere in the world. But there are 76 shoe trees in America. What you call a weird quirk, we call a tradition worth preserving. The famous Route 66 shoe tree in Amboy, California, sadly collapsed in 2010. Probably because of the shoes.

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8

Lou Mitchell’s
Called "the First Stop on the Mother Road,” Lou Mitchell’s is a restaurant right by Chicago’s Union Station. It gets the only-in-America designation because it hands out donut holes and Milk Duds to people waiting in line—because why should all the caloric intake happen during the meal? Also, if there’s another country where every single coffee shop serves “the World’s Best Coffee,” I don’t know what it is.


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9

Roy’s Motel and Cafe
Roy’s is a now-defunct Route 66 landmark in the town of Amboy and is owned by a Route 66 preservationist named Albert Okura who plans to reopen it. It's known for its “Googie” architecture—a type of '50s futuristic style most famous in the “Welcome to Fabulous Las Vegas” sign.


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Intermission



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The ultimate road trip through tropical North Queensland [pics]



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The ultimate Ireland road trip, in pictures





15 moments that define a road trip


















10

Snow Cap Drive-in
Route 66 is inevitably peppered with kitschy American diners, but Delgadillo’s Snow Cap Drive-in in Seligman, Arizona, might be the best solely on the basis of the “cheeseburgers with cheese” and “dead chicken” menu offerings.


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11

Wigwam Motels
On Route 66 in Holbrook, Arizona, not too far from the Grand Canyon, is one of two remaining Wigwam Motels on the Mother Road. This was a hotel chain set up in the '30s, and there are now only three remaining, two of which are on Route 66 (the other is in Rialto, CA). Incidentally, the rooms are shaped like tipis, not wigwams.


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12

Jack Rabbit Trading Post
The Jack Rabbit Trading Post is a relatively nondescript convenience store near Joseph City, Arizona. It’s famous, though, because of its frequent billboards along the route, finishing with a big one saying “HERE IT IS.” Anyone who's traveled long enough on American roads knows that the put-all-our-money-into-billboards advertising strategy has not died for some companies.

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13

Tow Tater
It’s incredible what can become a Route 66 landmark. The road was the inspiration for the Pixar movie Cars, and the inspiration for Larry the Cable Guy’s character in that movie was Tow Tater, a 1951 International Boom tow truck that sits outside the Kan-O-Tex Service Station in Galena, Kansas.

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14

The Gemini Giant
The Gemini Giant is what’s known as a “Muffler Man”—a bizarre quirk of American advertising that consisted of building giant fiberglass models to draw attention to roadside shops. The Gemini Giant is named after the Gemini space program and is advertising for the Launchpad Diner in Wilmington, Illinois. Yes, that helmet on his head is supposed to be a space helmet, and yes, the item in his hands is a rocket, not a bomb. There are a number of Muffler Men along Route 66.


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15

Santa Monica Pier
Route 66 ends with the Santa Monica Pier, a classic American boardwalk along the Pacific Ocean.


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The post 15 only-in-America sights you’ll see on a Route 66 road trip appeared first on Matador Network.

Adventures in ultralight journalism

Pello Naisiaja, a 96-year-old Maasai elder who has six wives and 33 children. Mkuru, Tanzania.
Photo: Mary Slosson

In October 2013, I spent 12 days traveling across Tanzania as a New Media Fellow with the International Reporting Project, reporting on how climate change and increasingly variable rainfall are affecting agricultural development in a country where 75% of the population are subsistence farmers.

Inspired by the likes of Kevin Russ and other high-quality iPhone-only photographers, I challenged myself to document the experience using nothing but my iPhone camera, Instagram, and the minimalist editing application Afterlight.

Despite some trepidation over using an older model iPhone 4s, I was satisfied with the resulting photo quality and found that most of my subjects found snapping photos with a cellphone much more natural — and less obtrusive — than using a larger and more intimidating DSLR.

John Jackson shows me the hand-dug well the village uses as a water source for crops, livestock, cooking, and drinking. Even after boiling, the water still causes diarrhea. Mlanda, Tanzania. Photo: Mary Slosson

Documenting the experience of rural subsistence farmers is hot and dusty work. In a small village named Mlanda, located in the country’s agriculturally rich southern corridor, a local named John Jackson took me and two other reporters on a long hike through the village’s crop fields under a scorching sun to show us their water sources.

What prompted that journey was seeing a broken water pump in the village center that had been constructed using foreign aid money. No longer functioning, the pump is far too costly for the local government to fix, so residents now walk either to a dirty well 30 minutes away or to a neighboring village to get clean drinking water.

Dozens of abandoned jerrycans in Ngarenanyuki ward, Tanzania. Photo: Mary Slosson

Such impromptu field reporting was made easier by the fact that I could shoot photos and record audio on a single device and pack all my gear — phone, water, notebook, and sunscreen — in a very lightweight pack.

All of my formal journalism training, from graduate studies to professional work, has told me that a proper DSLR camera is essential to proper journalism work. Maybe that’s true. But I found using iPhone and Instagram photojournalism to be a more carefree and gonzo spirit of doing things, allowing me to connect more to my subjects and be more in the moment as a human being trying to understand the experience of other human beings.

This article originally appeared on Medium and is republished here with permission.

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14 signs you're from the Bay Area

Photo: Hipsters of San Francisco | Flickr – Photo Sharing!

1. “San Fran” makes you cringe.

Saying it in a non-mocking tone would be a crime. Ditto for “Cali.” And don’t get me started on “Frisco.”

2. You’ve been to a show at the Greek or the Fillmore.

Your parents may remember when music legends such as Bob Dylan or The Who rocked these iconic establishments, but their reputations continue to stand strong. Famous artists like Jimmy Cliff and Jack Johnson play there now, attracting multi-generational fans.

3. You know what “hyphy music” is.

And how to “go dumb.” A high-school dance wasn’t complete without a little E-40 or Mistah F.A.B. Similarly, you rep all Bay Area music to an obnoxious degree — be it Tupac, Mac Dre, and Andre Nickatina, or the Grateful Dead and Jefferson Airplane.

4. You’ve said “hella” before.

Don’t lie. We’ve all done it.

5. Southern California might as well be Vietnam, it’s so foreign to you.

Rancho Cuca-what? Calabasas? You have no idea what people are talking about when they mention a hometown south of Fresno. It’s like asking a SoCal native to point out Mendocino on a map.

6. When your car radio picks up 104.5, 94.9, or 97.3, you know you’re home at last.

This emotional experience is only amplified when you burst into tears upon hearing a Shane Co. commercial.

7. Likewise, Sarah and Vinnie are household names.

Though you’ll never forget the first time you saw what they actually look like. That was weird.

8. “The city” will always mean San Francisco to you.

Although you may temporarily plant roots in another city at some point, San Francisco will always be your home base, referred to simply as “the city.”

9. But you haven’t been to Fisherman’s Wharf since your fourth-grade field trip.

Pier 49, cable cars, and Lombard Street are all to be avoided like the plague.

10. When an out-of-towner asks if you’ve ever been skiing, you go on a passionate rant about Tahoe.

You have such fond memories of doing “the pizza” as a kid at Squaw or Alpine. Of course there’s snow in California, people. What did you think it was, one big beach? You did, didn’t you?

11. The term “fair-weather fan” would never describe you.

Whether you belong to Raider Nation or rep the Giants like it’s your job, you stick by your team. Loyalty runs deep in the Bay Area.

12. But you could be called a food snob.

You’re used to really good food. Like the rest of California, you’re elitist when it comes to produce (chiefly concerning avocados, of course) and organic options. At least one of your friends has gone through a vegetarian or vegan phase. Most importantly, you know that Sol Food is not the same as soul food.

13. Chances are someone in your family went to Cal.

This is bear territory, after all. You tell the story…

14. Your flight has been delayed due to fog.

Nothing’s more frustrating than being grounded on the tarmac or unable to land due to dense mist. Dense mist.

The post 14 signs you were born and raised in the Bay Area appeared first on Matador Network.

Watch Prague in the summer

AS IF I needed another reason to tell everyone how beautiful the city of Prague is, this timelapse video provides enough proof to sell 100 plane tickets to random strangers. There really is no where better than Prague in the summertime, although if you’re not into crowds, I’d recommend visiting in the dead of winter — when people are too concerned with staying warm, to walk around in the cold. Consider this video your full serving of wanderlust, for the day.

Made in Prague from Eddie Peter Hobson on Vimeo.

The post What it’s like to explore Prague in the summer [timelapse] appeared first on Matador Network.

Restoring Thai islands and beaches

Photo: Trash Hero Koh Adang

When Roman Peter arrived for his second season on Koh Lipe, the small island in the Andaman Sea of Thailand fell short of the paradise he’d remembered.

“When I came back this season we stopped at a small beach and everyone starting taking pictures, and it was beautiful,” he said, “but then I saw the whole beach was covered in trash — many plastic and glass bottles.”

A few years ago, Koh Lipe was regarded among the last untouched corners of Thailand. Though it is part of Tarutao National Park, Lipe is exempt from the laws that keep nearby islands in the park undeveloped. Still, for years it was well preserved, an incredible jumping-off point to explore the more remote islands of Tarutao while itself remaining largely unaffected by the mega-tourism afflicting in the rest of Thailand.

As popularity surged in places like Phi Phi, Phuket, and Lanta, Koh Lipe maintained its idyllic atmosphere, attracting a small community of expats interwoven with the local people, and a few intrepid travelers here and there. But the charm gained recognition, and within the span of a few years the sleepy paradise fastened solidly to the radar of travelers, vacationers, and honeymooners alike.

“When we got here everything on Walking Street was still bamboo,” said San Francisco native Jessica, the owner of Elephant Books and Coffee on the island. “A lot of people come back here and freak out because they haven’t been here for four years and think it’s ruined, but change is totally inevitable anywhere you go, not just for Thailand. Even though there are more buildings on the islands than there used to be, the feeling of the island is still the same.”

Photo: Trash Hero Koh Adang

Locals may insist the island atmosphere is unaffected by the increase in tourism, but the environment has taken a hit. Roman wasn’t the only one who noticed — much of the local community is growing concerned about this negative impact. The Swiss-born IT-security-professional-turned-traveler-turned-dive-instructor began the environmental activism discussion on Koh Lipe, navigating local politics to figure out how he could help.

“Then we just started [Trash Hero Koh Adang],” Roman said. “At first everyone was talking about when we should start it — in one week, two weeks, three weeks…and I said no. We’re going to start the day after tomorrow. We need a boat and a few bags and we just go, and then we’ll see what happens. We’ll just try.”

The first Monday Roman and his team set out, 17 people joined his cause. The next week, 27 people showed up, then 47, then 50.

“Now we’ve collected 12,000 kilos of trash from the beaches,” he said. “And I’m so surprised with how many people are happy to help. That really keeps on motivating me to go further.”

The program has gained success on the island thanks to a mix of locals and tourists volunteering their time, but as the area enters low season Roman is determined to involve more of the local Chao Leh people to keep Trash Hero Koh Adang running year-round.

“We just had our most successful event, with 32 local kids coming out with us,” he said. “And that was the greatest reward for all the work we’ve done, because when we’re working with the kids, you can see we can change something.”

Roman screens short documentaries for the local kids that explain how pollution affects wildlife and nature. One video showed a bird, living in a polluted environment, that was killed by plastic and garbage it had ingested.

“All the kids were silent,” he said. “All watching in awe like they couldn’t believe there was a lighter inside of a bird.”

Photo: Trash Hero Koh Adang

The group explained to the kids in Chao Leh and Thai that this same thing happens with the local fish and wildlife.

“These kids don’t really get that education otherwise,” he said. “In the beginning [the program] was just a few guys picking up trash, but now we realize we can do something big. I think we’re right on the start of it.”

Founded in August 2013, Trash Hero Koh Adang is based out of Koh Lipe and operates every Monday from 10am to 4pm — a few hours of garbage collection plus some fun on the island, a free boat trip and free food, water, and drinks. There’s no cost and no signup; the group meets at the front of Walking Street to set out and leave nothing but footprints.

The post Restoring the Thai islands, one metric ton at a time appeared first on Matador Network.

10 most nerve-wracking roads

1. Ruta 5 (Chile)

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The portion of Ruta 5 from Arica to Iquique is considered by many to be one of the most dangerous roads in the world. Cutting through the arid Atacama Desert, the road has many steep dropoffs and often experiences strong winds. Many small mausoleums can be seen roadside throughout the drive.

2. North Yungas Road (Bolivia)

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More popularly known as the Death Road, North Yungas Road was given the title of “world’s most dangerous road” by the Inter-American Development Bank in 1995. It was estimated that 200 to 300 people died on the road annually when it was in active use. Roadside crosses designate the locations of fatal accidents.

3. Dalton Highway (Alaska)

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A 414-mile road in Alaska, the James W. Dalton Highway is a supply route to Prudhoe Bay Oil Field (the largest oil field in North America), near the Arctic Ocean. Many car rental companies do not allow their cars to be driven on the highway, which drivers must share with large transport vehicles amidst the freezing temperatures, potholes, and dust.

4. Paso Internacional Los Libertadores (Argentina/Chile)

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A mountain pass between Argentina and Chile, the Paso Internacional Los Libertadores contains several switchbacks during the descent on the Chilean side. On September 19 of 2013, over 14,000 Chileans became stranded on the Argentina side of the pass due to the heavy snowfall — the road, which is highly trafficked, was closed for 10 hours.

5. Rodovia SC-438 (Brazil)

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SC-438 zigzags down the Serra do Rio do Rastro mountain range in the state of Santa Catarina in southern Brazil. The road reaches an elevation of 4,790 feet at its highest point on the range. Due to the numerous twists and turns, drivers must be cautious when ascending — frosts and heavy snowfall are known to occur at the higher elevations.

6. Million Dollar Highway (Colorado)

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A stretch of US Route 550, Million Dollar Highway runs from Silverton to Ouray, Colorado. While locals contend the road’s level of danger is overstated, heavy snowfall on the winding road can be disconcerting to drivers unfamiliar with it. The Million Dollar Highway is also considered one of America’s most beautiful roads, but the lack of guardrails and presence of switchbacks make the ride a difficult and potentially dangerous one.

7. Cerro de la Muerte (Costa Rica)

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The highest point of the Costa Rican portion of the Pan-American Highway, Cerro de la Muerte is a mountain pass that earned its name due to the deaths of many travelers who attempted the several-day journey by horseback or on foot. Often covered in thick fog, the road is rife with potholes and tight curves.

8. Trans-Labrador Highway (Canada)

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A Canadian highway situated in Newfoundland and Labrador, the Trans-Labrador Highway spans 341 miles over both asphalt and gravel surfaces. Those traveling in the winter are told to expect unpredictable, extreme weather conditions. In March of 2014, Labrador Liberal MHA Lisa Dempster mentioned that a section of the highway has gotten so bad due to cracked pavement and “massive” potholes that there were four accidents in one week.

9. Federal Highway 101 (Mexico)

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Mexican Federal Highway 101 is also popularly dubbed “The Highway of Death” and “The Devil’s Road” — in 2010 and 2011, highway travelers would often see bodies and burnt or bullet-ridden vehicles on the side of the road that crosses the Sierra Madre Oriental. The US Consulate General in Matamoros has issued several warnings in the past regarding traveling on the highway.

10. US Highway 431 (Alabama)

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Also known as the “Highway to Hell,” the stretch of US Highway 431 from the Alabama-Tennessee line down to Dothan, AL is considered one of the deadliest roads in the United States. The main hazards on the highway are “poor visibility, high speeds, and sudden 2-4 lane changes,” according to DrivingExperiences.com.

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Flying in a fighter jet [vid]

LAST WEEK, for the first time ever, I took a ride in a helicopter. It was amazing: I’ve been in airplanes before, but as a relatively tall guy, I’ve found airplane trips to be uniformly unpleasant, preferring cars, trains, and boats when possible. Helicopters, though, are something else. You can take much more time to look at your surroundings, and you can see much more, just by the nature of the aircraft.

Then I found this. Recently, advertising photographer Blair Bunting got to do a ride-along with the famous US Air Force stunt-flying team the Thunderbirds in an F-16 jet. And now it’s on my bucket list.

It looks like the experience of a lifetime, but I imagine an F-16 ride-along is infinitely more complicated and expensive than riding around in a helicopter. For the time being, though, filmmaker Jaron Schneider has put together this video of Bunting’s flight, so we can all be a little bit jealous of what we missed.

The post Another item for your bucket list: Flying in a fighter jet appeared first on Matador Network.

5 California trips perfect for kids

Astro Orbiter, Disneyland. Photo: Angelo DeSantis

1. Disneyland (and nearby): The obvious choice

Starting off with an easy one here — kids love Disneyland. Say what you want about how many times you’ve had to hear “Let It Go” since Frozen came out, but as a kid, taking a trip to a place with castles and rides and junk food and all of your favorite movie characters just walking around giving you hugs is about as good as it gets. It’s a place where they get to indulge themselves to the point of exhaustion.

If you’re planning a longer vacation and don’t want to spend more than a few days in Disneyland, you’re in luck: You’re in Anaheim, which is a reasonably short drive from both Los Angeles (where you can visit Universal Studios Hollywood), and San Diego (SeaWorld and more — see #4 below). Sports fans can stay in Anaheim and go to an Angels baseball game (spring/summer) or a Ducks hockey game (fall/winter). And you also have a huge number of beaches that are only a short drive away. Pretty much a foolproof combo.

2. Yosemite National Park: Natural connections

Photo: jason jenkins

If theme parks and cities aren’t quite your thing, and if you want your kids to grow up to be great nature lovers, your best option is Yosemite National Park. Not only is it one of the most staggeringly beautiful areas in the United States, but it’s remarkably kid-friendly.

First off, it’s relatively easy to get to: a four-hour drive from San Francisco, three from Reno, and just an hour and a half from Fresno. Second, the park runs the “Junior Rangers” program for kids between the ages of 7 and 13, and the “Little Cubs” and “Wee Wild Ones” programs for kids from 3 to 6. There are activities for kids within the park, and the programs also provide print and web materials geared towards kids for learning about the natural areas that Yosemite protects.

The park has stroller-friendly hike options for those with very young kids, as well as theater programs (“Ranger Ned’s Big Adventure”) and campfire storytelling sessions. For the older kids, there are some of the state’s best hiking, biking, and camping opportunities.

3. San Francisco and the Bay Area: You’ve got options

Photo: David Lytle

The childhood vacation I still count as my most memorable is when my Dad took me to San Francisco. What I recall most was how kid-friendly the main tourist attractions were. First off, you have Ghirardelli Square — a historic city square that’s dedicated to delicious chocolate. And a couple blocks down there’s Fisherman’s Wharf, where you can get excellent seafood and then go watch the colony of sea lions that hangs out by Pier 39.

Not too far from the Marina District are the California Academy of Sciences and, on the water, the Exploratorium, both great, fun options for packing a little education into the vacation experience. I also recommend Alcatraz for the kids. Yeah, it’s a bit of a creepy place, but kids love creepy stuff. Or at least I did — I became obsessed with the island after visiting, and even built a little model of it when I got home.

Just north of the city is Muir Woods (with its massively huge redwood trees), and the rest of the giant Golden Gate National Recreation Area, which includes beaches, parks, lighthouses, and a lot of scenic drives. Sports fans also have a ton of choices: For football fans, there are the 49ers and the Raiders, for baseball fans the Giants and Athletics, for soccer fans the Earthquakes, for hockey fans the Sharks, and for basketball the Warriors. It’s like a choose your own adventure in the Bay Area.

4. San Diego: For the animal lovers

Western lowland gorilla at the San Diego Zoo. Photo: Heather Paul

San Diego is probably the best city in the country in terms of animal-based attractions: It’s home to SeaWorld and the world-famous San Diego Zoo. Its location also makes it pretty easy to integrate into other trips. If you want to, say, take your kids to Disneyland, you’re just a short drive away.

The San Diego Zoo sets the standard for the rest of the world. It pioneered the concept of having open-air habitats for the animals, rather than keeping them in cages. It has a collection of around 3,700 animals representing 650 species, and as an institution is deeply involved in conservation efforts. A short drive away is the San Diego Zoo Safari Park, which has an amazing free-range semi-arid African habitat you can tour, as well as the world’s most successful California condor breeding program.

The zoo is about a 10-minute drive from SeaWorld San Diego, best known for its outdoor aquarium and orca shows, as well as its dolphins, belugas, polar bears, and walruses. Then, if you want yet another option, a half hour outside of San Diego in Carlsbad is LEGOLAND, with the incredible SEA LIFE Aquarium. And also Legos. You’re welcome, kids.

5. Santa Cruz: Classic beach vacation

Photo: Sarah and Jason

If you want to keep it simple and fun, the choice is easy: Go for a beach vacation in Santa Cruz. An hour and a half south of San Francisco, it features the Santa Cruz Beach Boardwalk — the oldest amusement park in California, and one of the few beach boardwalks on the West Coast.

For the kids, there are the usual amusement park rides: roller coasters, freefalls, a mini-golf course, a video game arcade, laser tag, a climbing wall, a haunted house, and a bowling alley. And then right next to the boardwalk is the beach.

If you want to spend a few days at the beach and then maybe try something else, there are redwood forests nearby (multiple state parks are less than an hour’s drive away), day-trip opportunities to the Bay Area, and several hundred miles of what is probably the most beautiful coastline in the United States. Santa Cruz itself is a gorgeous town and is known for its excellent water sports (including some of the best surfing in California), and for being particularly bicycle-friendly — perfect for a relaxed, yet memorable, family vacation.

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Our friends at Visit California asked Matador how we #dreambig in California. This post is part of a series we’re publishing to answer that question. Click here for more.

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