Open Up Your Golden Gates…California Here I Come!

I am a Nor Cal girl, born and raised.  So, as we prepare to celebrate Memorial Day, what better way to enjoy it then a day in the city honoring our golden gates.

The Golden Gate Bridge has everything: good looks, a gorgeous setting, a distinct color, a famous city on one side and steep, rolling hills on the other.

It has style and sweeping curves. It appears and disappears in the fog, it has myths and legends..and this weekend it turns 75!

This shot was taken from Baker Beach, the same shot and location my husband and I had our engagement photo taken…

Originally designed by Charles Ellis, Joseph Strauss and Irving Morrow, the 1.7-mile suspension bridge opened on May 27, 1937, at the time making it the longest suspension bridge in the world.  Some 200,000 people crossed the bridge by foot and on roller skates the day before the official opening, and the surrounding festivities lasted an entire week.

Tens of thousands of people are expected to flock to San Francisco this weekend…so come by foot, bike, bus or boat, but leave the car at home.  The Golden Gate Festival is on May 27th, 2012, marking the 75th anniversary of the Golden Gate Bridge.

Organizers are saying there will be no shortage of festivities. There will be a waterfront festival from 11 a.m. to 11 p.m. from Fort Point to the Marina.  The day will include vintage cars, a flotilla of ships, a popup museum of bridge history, performances by Mickey Hart and Beach Blanket Babylon, along with the fireworks show. Plenty of surprises are promised as well! Click here for a list of activities.

“California, Here I Come” is a song written for the 1921 Broadway musical Bombo starring Al Jolson.

It is often called the unofficial state song of California.

Click here to watch Al Jolson sing it from Soldiers Field in 1949

Here are the words that include the famous golden gates:

When the wintry winds starts blowing
And the snow is starting in the fall
Then my eyes went westward knowing
That’s the place that i love best of all
California i’ve been blue
Since i’ve been away from you
I can’t wait ’till i get blowing
Even now i’m starting in a call

California, Here I Come
Right back where I started from
where bowers of flowers
bloom in the spring
each morning at dawning
birdies sing at everything
a sunkissed miss said, “Don’t be late!”
that’s why I can hardly wait
open up that golden gate
California, Here I Come

California, Here I Come (yeaaaaaah!)
Right back where I started from
where bowers of flowers
bloom in the spring
each morning at dawning
birdies sing at everything
a sunkissed miss said, “Don’t be late!”
that’s why I can hardly wait (come on!)
open up (open up! open up!) that golden gate
California, Here I Come