San Francisco and Los Angeles Offer the Fondest Memories

By Leo E. Cloutier

San Francisco, Calif.-- If your travels ever take you to the west coast, a visit to this fabulous city, San Francisco, not to forget Los Angeles, also, must be included in your journey or itinerary.

The grandeur, the beauty and expansiveness of what nature has created, combined with what man has built, represents something to behold, something the magnitude of which has to be seen to be truley appreciated.

If only to mention a few choice spots which it was our good fortune to visit, the Golden Gate Bridge, San Francisco Bay, Alcatraz Island, now a show-place; Fisherman's Wharf, The Fairmont, Top O' the Mark and the Hilton Hotels; Candlestick Park, where the baseball Giants and football Fourty-Niners play their games; The Cow palace, The Madison Square Garden of the West, and The trolly cars which climb trhe countless hilly and steep streets which surround this area, proved most interesting and pleasing to the eyes.

REDWOOD FOREST AND GIANT TREES

And only 15 miles from this wonderful city is the Redwood Forest, where the famed trees tower some 250 to 275 feet into the heavens. It's almost like a mirage-- the coming from the busy metropolis that is the center of San Francisco and, only a short distance away, there's nature at it's best-- peace and tranquility, the near-still waters trickling down the babbling brook, the beatutiful sun's rays seaping thru the dence forest in occasional spots. If you appreciate and love mother nature and all it has to offer, all this does something to ones mind which absolutely nothing else can measure. Of course, the only reason we happen to be in these particular environs, along with our two traveling companions, Roy Allain of Rocherster, NH and Roland Yound, Penbrook NH, Queen Features Syndicate Photographers, was to cover the World Series. It was in Oakland, where owner Charly O. Finley's Athletics proved to all and sundry and for the third consecutive year that they are the kings of the diamond whirl by taking the measure of the Los Angeles Dodgers in a 5-game confrontation of the fall classic.

And with all three skirmishes played at night in the Oakland Coliseum, such afforded us with time aplenty ro visit the beautiful and picturesque surroundings here.

We spent four days in Los Angeles--our first visit ever to the Southern Californian metropolis- -the memories of which will linger for many years, and the same holds true for San Francisco.

Dodger Stadium has to be the most beautiful baseball bailiwick we've yet seen, not only because of it's inner expansiveness, for all parks look pretty much alike in that respect, but the exquisite landscaping, the stately palm trees and the abundant flower spreads which surround the entire area, combine tro make owner Walter O'Malley's pride and joy the ultimate in major-league setups.

Los Angels is a city of unsurpassed wealth-- wealth of excitement, of people, of lifestyles. Los Angeles is a city of Hollywood, the back-lot facade imitating life. Yet it's here that man first contemplated his place on the Moon.

FAMOUS SPOTS; GRAUMAN'S CHINESE THEATER

The corner of Hollywood and Vine Streets, where famous people congregate and can be seen by the scores; Sunset Strip, The fabulous homes and estates of the affluent--actors and actresses, entertainers in general--of movie, radio, television and supper-club fame, abound in Hollywood and Beverly Hills, spots about which much has been said and written, represent something special to see.

Grauman's Chinese Theater in Hollywood proved most interesting, where the entertainment worlds great of today and yesteryear are enshrined in cement.

There are footprints, knee-prints and handprints from Mary Pickford, Tom Mix, Janet Gaynor, Marilyn Monroe, Rudolph Valentino, Shirley Temple, Gene Kelly, Fred Astaire and Elizabeth Taylor, among many others.

Hollywood Bowl, where the Easter Sunrise Services are an annual event of considerable magnitude, not to forget musical festivals, etc., is something to behold.

California--the parts we had the good fortune to visit in the short time that we spent here-- undoubtdedly represents a state of mind.

It's really a whole world of it's own wrapped up into one exciting package. It's a world of contrast, Sahara-like deserts, Mediterranean like beaches, Swiss mountains and thriving, affluent metropolises. it is a Magic Kingdom of Mickey Mouse, trained whales and old miners living next door to famous Universities and rockets destined for the moon. And what we had the golden opportunity to feast our eyes upon represents but a minute part of all the beauty and countless famous attractions which abound in these particular environs.

Like on many other occasions, which have taken us to other major cities of the country, it was the assignment to cover the World Series which blazed the trail for this trip to California, and such will live long among our fondest memories--something which no one, not even time, can ever take away.