Sabrina kwong by Freestyle Academy

The Boathouse

Sabrina Kwong

Acknowledgements I would like to thank Freestyle Academy for providing the technology and instructions that made this book possible. I am also grateful to Christina Ferrari and her staďŹ&#x20AC; at the Shoreline Boathouse, all those who cooperated with me during the interviews, my mother, and the people who visit and support the park.

Table of Contents Preface Introduction Chapter One: Man Made hidden Beauty Chapter Two: As a Tourist Chapter Three: Tourism Mingling with the enivronment Conclucsion Works Cited

...7 ...9 ...13 ...19 ...23 ...31 ...33

Preface Shoreline park has been a place I used to frequently visit even

when I was little and also been a place I’ve had memories of. My mother told me many stories of how I loved going to Shoreline to eat my tuna sandwiches, play at the playground and have fun. It’s a very calm and soothing place that is full of wonders and I speciﬁcally chose the boathouse because I believe it’s the centerpiece of the park. What I found challenging was ﬁnding a great research topic that’s related to the Shoreline boathouse, and the only subject that came to mind was “tourism”. After much trial and error, I eventually found something to write about.

Introduction Hours of facing light from the bright screen causes your eyes to sting and tire, and you

want to escape from the long assembly line of work in the presence of your hands in and out. You put down your electronic device, as it makes the sound of metal thudding on the wooden table, you grab your bag and get ready to leave. The next thing you know, you are in a new environment, fresh and bare, which brings the scent of the bay rushing through your clustered mind. You are at Shoreline, with a wide and vast body of water and boats kissing the shore. Shoreline is a location in the Bay Area where many visit to escape from a life within four walls. “One summer, we had a young girl, maybe nine or ten, who enrolled in our windsurfing and sailing camp...her father called and needed to discuss something about his daughter. He proceeded to inform me that she was completely blind”, said Christina Ferrari, the head manager of Shoreline. This is the story of a girl who could not see, and yet tried to experience the life of the water.

Anyone could come and enjoy the Shoreline boathouse, even those who can’t see it, because they could stil exepericene the activities and the joys of the location. Tourism has been here for decades and is very common; however, what is its relationship with the boat house? Could one exist without the other? Does tourism bring beauty to a location, and vice versa? Shoreline is a place full of wonder, as it has various activities and beautiful sights to see.It is a beautiful example of a well-maintained, man-made environment. In other words, the beauty of this place seems to come from the people, both the locals and tourists, interacting with the natural and manmade environment.

Man Made Hidden Beauty.

Shoreline has

not always been a lake with boats, beautiful grasslands, and long winding roads; it was once a wasteland piled with unuseable products from the late 1960s. “It was not until 1983, some ﬁfteen years later, that the City’s plan came to fruition in the beautiful Shoreline Regional Park we now know”, from His-

tory at Shorlinelake. com. Shoreline lake is actually not a natural lake; in fact, it is a manmade lake. Huge amounts of water in the lake came from the the San Francisco Bay and have been carefully placed on top of a garbage land, as Christina says . However the water needs to be monitored if any problems occur; luckily so far there have been

none. Even though some might say that man-made lakes are unnatural and create an unbalanced ecosystem, the evidence supports the contrary: “Small man-made lakes frequently have no outﬂow point, and hence accumulate sediments and nutrients at a faster rate than natural lakes”, Parker. This is something that beneﬁts the lake. “The 13

lake house, “I usually come here result is that small man-made lakes on work days, we support different flora and fauna come on than natural lakes.” The point this website suggests is that man-made weekends occalakes have their benefits that let the lake fuse with its environment. sionally, and Moreover, the lake has its benefit rent of being a beautiful site. Shoreline park is not only a man-made lake, it a sailalso offers many activities and and boat or somesights to see. As one of the workthing ers named Kevin Drew said, “There like that, are people who come here to rent the trails non-motorized boats like rowboats, paddleboats, canoes, kayaks, wind- are wonderful just to walk around besurfing boards, stand up paddle cause you see lots boards.” Some even bring their own of birds.” Rick licensed boats to enjoy the saillike many other ing of the lake. Boating seems to visitors enjoys be a great experience and what the beauty of the boathouse has to offer is very the lake through rich.” Here’s an anecdote of Rick it’s activities, Baldridge, a frequent visitor, that sights, food and accesillustrates his connection to the 14

sibility at times when as surprising because the Amphitheatre is you want some peace. more known than the However, there appark, because most pears to be a severe people come to the lack of people,the parfront of Shoreline ticipation from the just for the concerts. community is someHowever, despite the what lacking, even Shoreline park being from old locals who surrounded by buildknow about the boathouse at Shoreline. An ings and corporations, article from the Silicon the boathouse, along with the other parts Shores Corporation states, â&#x20AC;&#x153;Many people, of the park, have highlights, activties and including life-long resibeauty that keeps atdents, are surprised tracting visitors. to discover beautiful Shoreline Lake on the doorstep of Mountain View, as well as the quality of services the Aquatic Center and CafĂŠ provide within this wildlife sanctuary.â&#x20AC;? Some may see it

â&#x20AC;&#x153;Shoreline is a rest pit for people...a quiet escape.â&#x20AC;? Christina Ferarri

“Get on the water. Even if it’s something you have never done...one of my favorite philosophy is ‘Adventure is rethinking adversity’, go out and struggle a little bit.” Andrew Hart

As a Tourist Tourism has ex-

isted for quite a while, from around the 1900’s till the very present. “The World Tourism Organisation (WTO) estimates that in 2007 the US encompassed 904 million tourists who spent 855 billion US dollars. They thereby supported a global system with roughly 100 million employees in the modern leisure and experience industry.” According

to USA Today, “When these people spend their wages on goods and services, it leads to what is known as the “multiplier eﬀect,”

creating more jobs.” However, what does this have to do with the Shoreline park and boathouse? The ﬁrst researchable top-

There are also many ic that came to mind activities the Shorewas tourism and visiline boathouse has to tors; the people who come here. The visitors vary for different times of oﬀer. Some come the day, in a week, for the windsurfand seasonally. Those who decide to explore ing, paddle boating, dining at the diner, Shoreline could be a family of three, an en- walking around with family, biking, or gineer working nearby, a group of teenag- simply enjoying the sight of the wide lake ers, or just someone looking to escape their that is surrounded by tech buildings such as busy life or work. 20

Google. Baldridge, a common visitor and solar engineer says, “I do come out and bring a pocket camera and every now and then, I have seen hawks, and I actually seen a hawk do a kill, you know, it’ll actually come out and nail a squirrel or something else and it’s like a part of nature,

you get to see it and it’s quite amazing.” The boats and water

the peoactivities are manual ple who and windriven. From what some of my inter- come here and they viewees had said, the relationship with the said they people and the location are fun, advenis that a good location turous, can’t be shared without the people coming seeking respite to it. As quoted from some of the fish and rest pit, Rick baldridge, Kevin bird activities is quite and embraces what drew, Christina Ferbit different.” An emrari, and Andrew Hart, there is at shoreline. ployee said that there Some have different they were asked for are great windsurfing perspective of why one word to describe programs, one of the Shoreline best in the bay area, is unique. and have real things to As what do here. Another perBaldridge says, “you son said that Shoreline is unique because it’s don’t get that in the man-made, saltwaterbased, and pretty seregular cretive. freshwater lakes 21

Tourism mingling with the enironment

There are many

things to see, explore and experience at Shoreline, including the natural environment, with its variety of birds and wildlife. One honorary mention would be the endangered owl species, the Western Burrowing owl whose population in the Bay Area declined. Rick Baldridge quotes that he

and his family have seen the burrowing owl and thinks that it is amazing. However, even a place that looks super wellmaintained must have had some adverse effects done by many visitors and there have been a few at Shoreline as well. To illustrate, some say that wherever there are people, there will

always be trash, however the employees of diďŹ&#x20AC;erent parts of the park try their best to maintain the cleanest environment for visitors and animals. As a matter of fact, non-native species brought to California over the past hundred years and its impact are still felt. Andrew Hart, a sailing instructor says, 23

“It’s a really fun place to come either to just walk around, bike around and if you feel like running a sailboat or something similar.” Rick BAldridge

“Everybody that comes here come to do something active, whether its walk around or learn how to sail or windsurf.” Kevin Drew

“The problem with the Bay Area is actually we are one of the most non-native area in California, from around the 1870s to 1930, there were new species introduced about every six weeks”, says Andrew Hart. He brought out an issue which also relates to the Burrowing owls as they are also non-native and it’s habitats and means of survival are linked with humans. Nonnative species were brought in over a hundred years ago that still have an impact. Even though when humans come and take over a location,

there will be some negative impact on the environment and wildlife, however, in some cases, it doesn’t. Here, Hart points out a good point about the relationship with visitors and it’s environment and how that in Michigan, clear cutting has always been seen as negative, however, in this situation,

it instead brought beneﬁts to the environment, “What it did for Michigan is that it actually caused this huge boom in wildlife. Because they used to only have very dense branches and bushes, and when you clear all that out, it makes room for grass and... other things that thrive on those small-

er living things.” The essence of Hart argument is that it supports how man-made environments aren’t always that horrible, which further suggests that those who come and visit Shoreline, aren’t entirely bringing negative eﬀects to its environment as some may believe. Sometimes it may bring good. “Same with tourism, it impacts things in some ways and you also see impacts in other ways.” As what Hart said 28

about visitors and the environment, no matter what, there will always be some sort of eﬀect on microclimates which will aﬀect the overall climate when people have been brought in.

At times it may seem bad, but at times it may bring room for new species. Along the same lines, Ferrari states that tourism also educates people because it lets them know about the

location in addition to conservation efforts and prevention efforts that help maintain the area. The effects tourism it has on it’s environment vary and although some may argue it could be bad, some

argue the latter. The park at Shoreline and the boathouse keep in harmony with the environment as there are rules and maintainence that regulates the park and its animals.

Conclusion

From a land that was called a dump that slowly transformed into a beautiful tourist site for people to experience, Shoreline truly is an amazing place that oďŹ&#x20AC;ers many great activities, sights to see, and thing to discover. What makes the Shoreline boathouse what it is today is people continuing to go there to embrace what it provides. Despite people feeling like the only way for nature to thrive is from no human impact, Shoreline proves that sometimes human impact is beneďŹ cial. It is not only beautiful because of its natural and man-made environment, but also because of the visitors and all the activities they engage in its lake recreation.

Works Cited -Baldridge, Rick. Personal interview. 2 March 2015. -Drew, Kevin. Personal interview. 2 March 2015. -Ferrari, Christina. Personal interview. 5 March 2015. -Hart, Andrew. Personal interview. 5 March 2015. -Parker, Amanda K. “Man-Made Lakes.” New Georgia Encyclopedia. 30 October 2014. Web. 02 April 2015. -Gyr, Ueli: The History of Tourism: Structures on the Path to Modernity, in: European History Online (EGO), published by the Institute of European History (IEG), Mainz 2010-12-03. 01 April 2015. -Simm, Carole. “Positive & Negative Eﬀects of Tourism”. Demand Media. traveltips.usatoday. com. 20 -10 Jan , 2008. “Burrowing owls vs. Google”. www.mv-voice.com. 23 March, 2015. -Silicon Shores Corporation. “Mountain View’s Best-Kept Secret Announces 10th Anniversary”. www.shorelinelake.com Feb 2010. 19 March 2015. -Schira, Mike. “Clear cutting can be an option for managing pioneer tree species”. Michigan State University Extension. 15, August 2012. msue.anr.msu.edu. March 29, 2015.

Sabrina Kwong is a cheerful Junior at Mountain View High School and Freestyle Academy with lots of smiles to give. She went to a boarding school in China for her middle school years and for her sophomore year, she returned to the U.S to continue her academics. Reading diďŹ&#x20AC;erent genres of Japanese graphic novels, along with drawing, watching variety of tv dramas, reading, and eating all sorts of food are what Sabrina loves doing. She has been playing the piano for several years and enjoys singing along with the radio in the car.