From all its traveling, the Pleasanton Weekly newspaper would appear to be weathered, but it hasn’t skipped a beat. Over the past eight years–yes it has been that long–Pleasanton residents have participated in our “Take Us Along” feature, bringing us to far away islands, glaciers, cruise ships, camping trips, national landmarks, foreign landmarks and even underwater! About the only place we haven’t been is to the moon–and we dare you to try it.
Since its inception in 2001 when then-Police Chief Tim Neal sent us a picture of himself, the Weekly and the Statue of Liberty, and unofficially inaugurating Take Us Along, we’ve visited all 50 states and hundreds of countries. When we celebrated seven years, the only state we hadn’t been to was North Dakota, not exactly known as a “must see” destination. But luckily for us, 20-year Pleasanton resident Brandt Esser took notice of our desperate plea to visit the 19th largest state in the nation.
“There was an article in the paper that said the only state the Weekly hadn’t visited is North Dakota, and I said, ‘I can fix that,'” Esser said.
Since its inception, the Weekly has now published over 1,000 vacation photos and they keep coming.
About the Cover
It’s not every day that the Weekly gets brought 57 stories high to the top of the Golden Gate Bridge, where in our cover photo, it is being held by Peter and Kenneth Milliken of Pleasanton.Don’t adjust your eyes, and no it’s not Photoshopped–father and son are really standing 574 feet high above the famous San Francisco landmark.
Peter Milliken said the opportunity to get a bird’s eye view of the Bay Area came from his nephew Kenneth Milliken, who paints the rust-colored bridge five days a week.
“He goes places where a lot of people wouldn’t go,” Milliken said of his nephew.
In the time his nephew has painted the bridge, Milliken said the only time the workers were ever sent home due to dangerous conditions was about three weeks ago during some fierce rainstorms.
The weather on the day the Millikens were there couldn’t have been more perfect.
“When I got there, it was blowing 9 to 12 miles per hour at the base of the bridge. When I got to the top, it was very calm,” he said. “We watched the ships come underneath.”
If you’re wondering how the Millikens got that high up atop the bridge, they were lifted up in a compact elevator.
“It was a very, very small elevator,” he said. “There were three people in the elevator, which was meant for two. It took five to seven minutes to get up there. I couldn’t even watch once we got in the elevator.”
Milliken said he decided to bring the Weekly along for the ride because he wanted to raise the bar on photo submissions.
“We’ve been taking this Weekly for years,” he said. “We keep seeing it and thinking how cool (Take Us Along) is and then when I got the opportunity, I told my wife ‘I’m taking the paper with me.'”
Milliken and his son are wearing construction hats from Peter Milliken’s company, Top Grade Construction of Livermore, where coincidentally, he’s a safety engineer.
As you could probably imagine, taking the photo with the Weekly wasn’t a piece of cake. It took some careful precision.
Milliken’s nephew stood out on a cantilever to frame the shot, which was difficult since they were in such tight quarters. But the result turned out better than they imagined.
“I wish everybody could do it,” Milliken said of his experience.
Reading with the dolphins
Caroline Paraskevopoulos and Cindy Lee share some hometown news with Nina and Nemo (dolphins at the Dolphin Cove in Ocho Rios, Jamaica) after a long day at work for the sea mammals.NYC the Weekly
Students from Amador Valley High School and Hart Middle School (Linett Rasmussen, Karl Haller, Ian Coblenz, Jenna Nibert, Rhianna Schaefer, Annika Ragsdale and Emily Lundin) pose with the Weekly in Times Square. On their trip, they also traveled to Europe, visiting Berlin, Prague, Munich, Lucern and Paris. German teachers Manja Benadjaoud and BettyGail Hunt accompanied them.Weekly expedition
Nancy Pennell, Patty Rabada, Betty Dawson, Betty Holland, Jolene Gibson and Pam Copeland went on a 16-day expedition through Africa, visiting the Cape of Good Hope, Chobe National Park, Namibia, Zimbabwe, Cape Town and Botswana. While there, the group went on safari camps in the bush, where Nancy reports she ate crocodile, ostrich, wildebeest and worms.Pitching stories in the Weekly
Steve Carroll, Bryan Hernandez and Brendon Kyle, with coach Mike Sa, get the Weekly a little dirty on the baseball field after competing in the Hawaiian Classic Baseball Tournament in Oahu last summer.A long way from home
Pfc. Joel Catalano holds the Weekly in Iraq. Here he is sitting on top of a Humvee, sitting next to his XM14 rifle, holding an appropriately veteran’s-themed copy of the paper.Weekly brings peace
Janice and Sammie Flanzbaum and Monica and Ava Chinn pose inside the Peace store on State Street in Santa Barbara. The girls were on a mother-daughter trip to the Central Coast to look at colleges and shop.Cliff’s notes
Martin Donlin uses the white cliffs’ reflection from the sun to light up the Weekly for some good reading. Donlin, an English artist, was commissioned by the city to design the glass for the marquee at the future Firehouse Arts Center. The cliffs he’s standing near are in Dover Shock.A sandy Weekly
Ian and Nancy Grant take in a moment with the Weekly while outside their Bedouin tent after watching the sunrise in the Sahara desert in Morocco.An ancient Weekly
Grego Kosinski tries to hang on to the Weekly in the wind at the Parthenon on the Acropolis in Athens, Greece.Reed-ing the Weekly
Ellis Schott and his granddaughter Lauren MacDonnell took the Weekly to the shores of Lake Titicaca in Hautajata, Bolivia. There, they visited Aymara Indians who still practice the traditional art of building reed boats.An altruistic Weekly
Diana and Howard Mendenhall took the Weekly with them on a humanitarian trip to Northern Mongolia for Habitat for Humanity.Ice, ice baby
Mark and Sonia Sanchez bundle up with the Weekly as they stand on top of Mendenhall Glacier in Juneau, Alaska. The stop was one in a number of ports on their Alaskan cruise. They took a helicopter ride to the top of the glacier where they went on a 2-mile trek.Campaigning Weekly
Joe Streng packed the Weekly in his luggage when he went to Zambia. On his trip, he learned how the Campaign for Female Education (www.camfed.org) is helping girls in rural areas go to school.Notre Weekly
Erin Whitbread, studying abroad in London, and Danielle Miller, studying in Paris, meet up at Notre Dame to get their Weekly fix.Transfiguring Weekly
Hildegard and Dave Melander pose near the Transfiguration Church on Kizhi Island on Lake Onega in Russia. The church was built with wood and no nails in the early 1700s.Toboggin reading
The Faria family (Debbie, Mike, Alexis and Hunter) took the Weekly along on their travels to the island of Madeira in Portugal. Here, they are sitting in a Medeiran toboggan that was invented for transportation in 1850. Drivers push and steer using rubber-soled boots as brakes. The Farias are happy to report that they rode from Monte to Funchal in 20 minutes, covering over 4 kilometers (2 miles).Ziplinin’ with the Weekly
Good thing the Weekly isn’t afraid of heights! The Papp family (Ashleigh, Meagan, Ethan and Isabel) zip lined over the tops of the Arenal Rainforest in Costa Rica. The Papps rode on 10 different zip lines ranging from 150 feet to 1,200 feet and said it was “better than any rollercoaster ride.”–Janet Pelletier
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