Travel the Pacific Coast USA!

Top 5 Biggest Cities in America by Population

We are blessed as U.S. citizens to live in this country. The number of activities for fun in this country is a number that is so great that it is hard to imagine.

These are a list of the biggest around:

New York, New York.
With over 8.5 million people, this city is the largest of them all by far. The second largest city is Los Angeles, and its population isn’t even half of what it is here. Central Park, Times Square, the Statue of Liberty or the Empire State Building are some famous places in the town.

Statue of Liberty New York USA
Statue of Liberty New York USA

Los Angeles, California.
On the western side of the country, this city is the biggest. Just over 4 million people live here. Right off the Pacific Coast, you can do a variety of things. For example, you can visit multiple beaches or even go see DisneyLand.

Newport Beach Los Angeles California
Newport Beach California

Chicago, Illinois.
Found by Lake Michigan, the population exceeds 2.5 million. Since Chicago is by water, you can enjoy being by the water if that is your thing. Many skyscrapers that are some of the tallest around are great sights to see if you care to drive by. You can visit the iconic Sears Tower which is now Willis Tower.

Houston, Texas.
You can find this big city next to the Gulf of Mexico. If you are into space, Houston is famous because of it. The Space Center is where you go if you are interested. The fourth largest city in the country has not quite 2.4 million people.

Sunny Phoenix Arizona USA
Sunny Phoenix Arizona USA

Phoenix, Arizona.
1.7 million people live here. It is one of the hottest places to be any time of year. If you like the desert feeling, this is one of the biggest places you can find in this area. You can climb up Camelback Mountain, or walk through Papago Park, or anything else you can find that is interesting to you.

Pacific Coast Vacations

The Pacific Ocean is the largest ocean on Earth covering more than 30% of the Earth’s surface. Its surface area covers more than 150 million square kilometers. This is bigger than the landmass of all of the continents combined.

Pacific Coast USA
Pacific Coast California USA

California, Oregon, Washington, Alaska, and Hawaii are U.S. states that border this massive ocean. There are too many great places to name, but just for example, in California, you need to check out the Pacific Coast Highway 1 which you can find with the previous link. The Oregon Coast Aquarium is one of many places in Oregon next to the ocean you can go to. For Washington, the Olympia National Park is also one of many.

Please click here to read the article for Alaska and Hawaii. If you would like, remember to read some more about the great Pacific on this website.

Butterfly Grove Inn Pacific Grove California USA

Nice place to stay while exploring the Pacific Coast Highway, Carmel By-The-Sea and Big Sur. Pacific Grove is a good stop with fun things to see and do. We stayed at the Butterfly Grove Inn where the deer roam in the parking lot right outside our room.

Butterfly Grove Inn Pacific Grove California USA

Butterfly Grove Inn Pacific Grove California USA. It is next to the Monarch Butterfly Sanctuary and very close to to Fisherman’s Wharf, Monterey Bay Aquarium, Cannery Row and Pebble Beach.

Butterfly Grove Inn Pacific Grove California USA

Point Pinos Lighthouse in Pacific Grove is the oldest continuously operating lighthouse on the West Coast of the United States of America.

Point Pinos Lighthouse Pacific Grove California USA

Point Pinos Lighthouse Pacific Grove California USA

There are various points around Pacific Grove along on Ocean View Boulevard that is simply stunning.

Lovers Point Park Pacific Grove California USA

Lovers Point Park Pacific Grove California USA

 

Point Pinos Pacific Grove California USA

Point Pinos Pacific Grove California USA

Pacific Coast Highway 1 California USA

Pacific Coast

Pacific Coast

California’s Highway 1 is probably the 2nd most famous US highway after Route 66. If you have driven the Trail Ridge Road hugging the side of the Rocky Mountains (Colorado’s Rocky Mountain National Park), you would observed the steep valleys below. Here you will get to drive high above the cliffs with the  the Pacific Ocean below.  It is a drive with gorgeous views at every turn and along the way.

California

Panaromic view of the Pacific Coast from Highway 1 – California’s Pacific Coast Highway. Stunning beauty and raw power of the Pacific Ocean.  You can see white caps as the waves hit the rocks below.

Pacific Coast

Beautiful Flowers Adorn the Pacific Coast Highway

Beautiful flowers grow on the side of the cliffs from the mist of the Pacific Coast Ocean spray. In some places, you can park the car on the side of the road and get off on a trail to the hidden sandy beaches below.

 

Pacific Coast Highway California USA

Pacific Coast Highway California USA

Amazing engineering work done to build bridges connecting one cliff to another. If you are headed south, you will have land on the left and the Pacific Coast Ocean view on the right.

Golden Gate Bridge California USA

Golden Gate Bridge San Francisco California USA

Golden Gate Bridge San Francisco California USA

If you ask most people to list one thing that they know about San Francisco, the Golden Gate Bridge would be at the top of the list. The problem is that when you drive across it, you really don’t get a great view of it.  You can take photos at the park by the entrance, but that may not be what you are looking for if you want great photos.

Where do you go if you want to get the nice view from the photo above?  Baker Beach is the place.   And as a bonus, you get to hang out at the beach for awhile. We had a wonderful time there, watching the kids enjoy the waves and taking photos. The water was too cold to swim when we were there in June, but it was a great place for a nice walk along the beach.  Watching my kids enjoy playing with the waves coming in, I couldn’t help but think of Frank Sinatra singing “I left my heart in San Francisco”.  The photo below is how I remember that day.  And we also got some good photos of the Golden Gate Bridge.

Family Beach

Baker Beach, San Francisco

 

To give you some idea of the different views of the Golden Gate Bridge, see the photos below.  The first one is the view from the small park right by the bridge. The second shows how much more of the bridge is visible from Baker Beach.

Golden Gate Bridge

View of Golden Gate Bridge from park with Lonely Sailor Statue

Golden Gate Bridge

Golden Gate Bridge as viewed from Baker Beach

Puget Sound Seattle Washington USA

Puget Sound Washington USA

Puget Sound Washington USA

A ferry ride on the deep blue waters of Puget Sound is an easy way to view Seattle, Washington and Mount Rainier (in a distance). Get on a ferry to Bainbridge Island, Washington. Park your car on the ferry and enjoy the ride. The Seagulls will join you for the ride as well. Enjoy the sea breeze and watch the scenes around you.