Research of San Francisco: My Summer Vacation Destination

San Francisco is located in California, U.S.A. It is about 46.7 square miles. There are about 808,977 people. San Francisco is the fourth most populous city in California and the twelfth most populous in the U.S.A. San Francisco was ranked the sixth largest television market in the U.S.A. in the year of 2009-2010. San Francisco is one of the most important cities on the west coast. It has a big history and lots of landmarks. San Francisco has a very amazing interesting history. CA is roughly one-fifth Chinese. San Francisco has many landmarks such as the Golden Gate Bridge, the Palace of Fine Arts, and the Alcatraz Prison. San Francisco was the first to open Levi Strauss & co. and Ghirardelli Chocolate. Also, they are the first city to offer universal health care. San Francisco is a perfect tourist attraction.

The gold rush of California became a big part of history for San Francisco. The beginning of the gold rush started in 1848. The gold rush caused lots of immigration from lots of different countries. From 1848 to 1849 the population of San Francisco increased from 1,000 to 2,500. Chinese immigrated too. From then on until 1920 San Francisco had the biggest city west of the Mississippi River. Although many people were happy with the gold, the people caused lots of trouble. They started stealing gold from other people. San Francisco made new laws and a new court. When they wanted to get people out, they limited the number of Chinese men, women and children that could fly to CA. In 1855, after the gold rush, a ship (they don’t know which) brought cholera epidemic. In 1900 a ship brought bubonic plague. Fifteen blocks of Chinatown was quarantined. They had lots of money now, but not much later. The gold rush was one of the biggest attractions in the U.S.A.

The major earthquake that struck San Francisco was a big problem. The earthquake happened at 5:12 am on April 18, 1906. Many people were asleep, and the head fire chief died. Without him, the firefighters could not save any fires. They tried many different things, but they only destroyed more homes. More than three fourths of the city lay in ruins and more than half of the city was homeless. Eighty percent of the city was destroyed. 375 people were announced dead. The most deaths were in San Francisco. The fire burned four days and nights. Evacuation was ordered. Later, they had the Panama-Pacific International Exposition. They gave the liberty bell to Philadelphia. The earthquake was one of the biggest problems.

Things started getting worse after the earthquake. The stock market started to fail in 1929. Until then, not one of the San Francisco bank had problems. That’s when they started the Alcatraz prison. Alcatraz Island used to be a former military stockade. The Golden Gate Bridge was finished in 1937 after the destruction from the earthquake. During World War II, San Francisco was the major supply point. San Francisco changed the way of earning money. They became a tourist attraction with tourist attractions.

Instead of what they used to do, San Francisco became a tourist landmark. They had many beautiful sights and historical museums telling about their history. The Alcatraz Prison is now a landmark, not a prison. The Palace Hotel is both an attraction and a hotel. You can sleep in a landmark! There are also many national parks. San Francisco is a landmark itself!

San Francisco is an amazing vacation spot. There are many national parks and there are many other landmarks that anyone can enjoy. San Francisco has many architectural landmarks like the golden gate bridge. It is also near the coast and has warm water. San Francisco seems like a very fun place. It could be one of the most historical cities in the U.S.A. San Francisco has a very large history.

My First Nike Swim Camp

This summer I was going to a swim camp. It was a stay away camp. We were going to be away for five days. I was very excited and nervous for swim camp. I knew my friends could help me if something went wrong, and I had my cell phone. But I didn’t like to stay away from my mom for too long. I started to get worried too. What if I forgot to bring something? It was too late. All I should think about is swimming better though. Thinking about swimming made me excited!
We arrived on Sunday. I changed and got ready to swim. I was nervous and excited for our first swim! When we got there, Jared, the coach, told us we were swimming freestyle. I learned a few things that I did not know before. For example, your streamline is the fastest part of swimming. Everyone can get better on streamline. After practice, Josh, the director, told us a bit more about the rules and what we were going to do the rest of camp. We were going to keep journals and someone was going to win a prize for the best journal. On Thursday, the last day, we were going to have ceremony. On Thursday, the last day, we were going to have ceremony. Also, we were going to watch videos on each stroke. Later we found out that our counselors were Keli and Whitney. Keli was on our floor and she seemed nice. She was right across our dorm so we were
very lucky. When it was time to sleep, I was already very tired. I squeezed Eeyore hard and fell asleep. It had been great for the first day.
On the second day I woke up pretty early in the morning, still a little bit tired, but ready to swim again. We swam two times and watched videos. We kept journals too. We started to do dry land. I thought we were going to play games, but we did a lot of stretching. I really didn’t like stretching. We had a contest at who could do the most sit-ups and push-ups. I could only do about five seconds. When I found out that we were doing it every day, I groaned. Nobody wanted to do it again. I bet I would be very tired when it was bed time. Swim two hours a day and do stretching for an hour. Who wouldn’t be tired? I was very tired. This time when it was time to go to bed, I had to drag myself onto the bed. My legs were killing me! I fell asleep happily and quickly that night.
Wednesday was very fun after all the dry land. On Wednesday we got to do night swimming. Josh dimmed all the lights and we got really cool glow sticks. Mine was purplish blue. It was very cool. All you could see was glowing glow sticks. I swam around for a long time. In fact, it was a very long time. We started swimming at 7:00 and got back at 10:00. I couldn’t believe it! I didn’t even have time to take a shower after swimming THREE times a day and doing a lot of sweat included stretching. I didn’t have time to shower but it was fun swimming at night. I couldn’t wait for the ceremony tomorrow!
On the very last day, we were having a mini meet in the morning. I was swimming 50 breast and 50 fly. I didn’t like backstroke and a TON of people were good at freestyle so I didn’t want to lose badly. I was very surprised because my fly time was 42! It was eight seconds faster than my best time. My breast time was 49. It wasn’t too bad. It was one second faster than my usual. The mini meet was fun because you didn’t really have to try your best, even though I did. The bad news is your time isn’t official. That means it doesn’t count if you qualify for the districts. WAAAA! But now I knew I improved so I was happy. Soon, I would be as happy as happiest person in the world! (Or maybe I would be even happier than the happiest person in the world).
Later we had a ceremony. They would announce the best journal winner. I really didn’t think I would get that prize. I was just excited to see who was going to win. First they called up an Asian girl named Ally. Then they called up her brother. Last Josh said, “Christine Lai”. He even pronounced my last name right. At first I was wondering, huh? Who did he call up? Is that my name? He was looking straight at me so I walked over to him. He reached out his hand so I shook it. He said, “You look surprised, are you surprised at winning your first time here?” I nodded, still unable to speak. I walked back to Brie saying that they might have made a mistake. But inside I was very happy. I am still surprised now. I was very proud of myself!!
The swim camp was helpful and fun. I was glad that we kept journals so that I could remember what we learned. I was excited for next year, hoping that I would learn even more. The only thing that could be better is if my mom could come. I still learned a lot though. I hoped that next year more people from our swim team could go. And I wished that I might be able to make new friends, and see old friends. I couldn’t wait until next swim camp!