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Show Are You Planning A Visit To California? Seldom in our history has a state sprung so quickly from pioneer obscurity ob-scurity to world-wide fame. Such is California where Spanish cavaliers, caval-iers, dreaming of sunny Spain, found their dreams realized; where patient padres toiled the land, leaving leav-ing as their mark old Spanish missions mis-sions whose cloistered courts still welcome travelers. Sapphire skies, the blue Pacific, snow-capped mountainsall moun-tainsall bathed in the warm southern sun. Long sweeps of sandy beaches bordered by inviting palm-lined boulevards, shady paths winding through forests of majestic redwoods, past waterfalls of feathery feath-ery grace, into deep canyons. When planning a visit to California Cali-fornia the choice of route is the most important factor in the general gen-eral pleasure and success of the trip. On the historic overland route, a roadbed renowned for smoothness; comfortable, air-conditioned equipment, and dining service ser-vice of acknowledeged leadership are provided by the Union Pacific- This superiority of the Union Pacific Pa-cific is due in part to natural advantages. ad-vantages. The builders of the road selected the path originated first by herds of buffalo and by Indians, then used successively by trapper, fur trader, gold-seeker, covered-wagon covered-wagon emigrants, the Overland Stage coaches and the Pony Express. Ex-press. It was then the shortest route across the continent and it remains so today- The tracks of the Union Pacific are followed by the Lincoln highway and by the transcontinental mail planes. Union Pacific travelers to California Cali-fornia have a choice of two ways of entering the state. One is by the southern route, through Salt Lake City, down across Utah and a tip of Nevada, stopping, if desired, de-sired, for a side trrip to Zion, Bryce and Grand Canyon national parks, or at Las Vegas, for a trip to the site of Boulder Dam. The other is by the central route, across an arm of Great Salt Lake, through the high Sierras, and down to San Francisco. California is the only state having hav-ing four national parks- Each has some outstanding feature, all are in mountainous country. The north-ermost north-ermost one, Lassen Volcanic National Na-tional Park, encloses Mt. Lassen, the only active volcano in the United States. Directly east of San Francisco are the great valley and granite domes of Yosemite National Nation-al park, deep in the Sierras- Further Fur-ther south are Sequoia and General Grant National parks, preserving giant sequoias and redwoods. In its vicinity Los Angeles has a thousand diversions. The city itself is strikingly exotic. Its boulevards boule-vards lead past miles of beautiful and attractive homes and are bordered bord-ered with luxurious tropical plant life. Acres of orange and walnut groves compete for attention with the gaunt derricks of the oil fields. The one feature of Los Angeles which usually interests the visitor most are the movie lots of Hollywood, Holly-wood, Culver City and Westwood Hills- The avenues f Beverly Hills and other districts are lines of mansions whose owners' names are familiar to patrons of every movie theatre. To the south, across rolling hills and through miles and miles of citrus groves, is S'an Diego, city and harbor, with its 1935 California Pacific Pa-cific International Exposition. Just across the border is the quaint and festive Mexican town of Tia Juana and the fashionable tourist resort Aqua Caliente, often called "The Monte Carlo of America" Off the coast from Los Angeles Is lovely Catalina Island to which come vacationists va-cationists and deep-sea anglers from all over the world. Northward from Los Angeles are numerous thriving cities and beach towns, all the way to San Francisco. Rocky headlands and sheltered coves, broad beaches and wide bays have as a background the mountains and hills that parallel paral-lel the coast. |