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Posted Jun 12, 2010, 1:22 AM
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Registered User
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Join Date: Nov 2006
Location: East Bay
Posts: 2,254
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Martinez, CA...worth a look
Martinez, CA (pop 35,866)
Located along the Carquinez Straight in the Bay Area, Martinez is the county seat of the East Bay's Contra Costa County, serving a million residents. I'd been wanting to check it out for a while as I'd heard good things, little did I know how architecturally rich it was. Unfortunately, the oil industry located in Martinez does not provided much of an impression of the city from the freeway or bridge approaches...
Even this "vista point" trail over the the Benicia-Martinez Bridge doesn't offer much more to see...
...a few flowers maybe...
...the HWY 80/Carquinez Bridge...
...the HWY 680/Benicia-Martinez Bridge...
...more industry and wetlands...
But...
...OK, let's go see
Alhambra Creek, somewhat famously residing a beaver population that caused some local controversy here
Beautiful!
Oof...what it is this ugliness...a county prison?
Nope, it's the Contra Costa County Administrative Building
No good from this angle either...
...this angle not so bad
Another shot...still not sold on this one
How about something to flush the eyes out with?
A closer look at the plaque...interesting...it looked liked a resident hotel now.
Sign of the times?
You can't escape it
Not, in fact, the Martinez Amtrak Station
Martinez has a sizable waterfront park/wetland/openspace area separating downtown from the Bay...let's take a walk
An Amtrak train heading to Oakland/San Jose in the distance
Smokestacks in the distance
The cities of Benicia and a bit of Vallejo across the bay
The End. Hopefully I lived up to my promise Martinez was worth a look.
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Tour of California
1: Los Angeles, 2: Hollywood, Glendale, Pasadena, Beverly Hills, 3: Riverside, Santa Ana, Long Beach, 4: San Jose, 5: San Diego, 6: Fresno, 7: Stockton, Modesto, 8: Gold Country, 9: Eureka, Arcata, 10: Monterey, Carmel, 11: Santa Cruz, 12: Sacramento Pt One, 13: Sacramento Pt Two, 14: Roseville & Folsom, 15: Concord & Walnut Creek, 16: Tri-Valley, 17: Berkeley, Emeryville, 18: Fremont, 19: Santa Clara, Mountain View, Palo Alto, 20: Redwood City, Foster City, San Mateo, 21: Oakland, 22: Benicia, Vallejo, 23: Napa, St. Helena, 24: Petaluma, Santa Rosa, Sonoma, 25: San Rafael, 26: Larkspur, Mill Valley, 27: Sausalito, Tiburon, 28: Hollister, San Juan Bautista, 29: Long Beach 2008, 30: Venice, 31: Santa Monica, 32: Sacramento Pt 3, 33: Solvang, 34: Alameda, 35: Knights Ferry, 36: California Zephyr, 37: Colfax, 38: Davis, 39: Oakdale, 40: San Francisco Pt 1, San Francisco Pt 2, 41: Chico, Redding, 42: Kings Beach, 43: Merced, 44: Gold Country pt 2, 45: Gold Country pt 3, 46: Sonora, 47: Vacaville, Fairfield, Suisun City, 48: Orange, Fullerton, 49: Anaheim, Irvine, 50: Newport Beach, Laguna Beach, 51: San Francisco, Pt 3, 52: Lodi
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