Elyse's Summer Work for Chevron in California

Upon finishing her spring term at LSU Baton Rouge, Elyse headed for California to work for Chevron on projects related to her major in Environmental Engineering. She had worked for Chevron last summer, partly on an oil rig out in the Gulf of Mexico. Early in her Sophomore year in Baton Rouge she received an advance offer to work for Chevron the next year in California.

Elyse had told us that she would be working in California for Chevron, but we didn't know where in California and were very interested in where she would be living for the summer. Texting her during the time of her move brought the reply that she would be living in El Cerrito. Rod recognized that el cerrito meant "little hill" or "little mountain" in Spanish, but we still had to search to find it and find that she would be living close to San Francisco. El Cerrito was a small part of densely populated region on the bay shore north of Berkeley and included in the region of Richmond. It may well be that the name El Cerrito contains reference to the forested ridge between it and the lake shown at the top right of the image above.

With the address, I could zoom in with Google Earth to find that the address 510 El Cerrito Plaza referred to apartment buildings that were aross a railway from a sports complex with football and baseball fields.

Elyse's housing address was about 8 miles from the Chevron Long Wharf along I-580 at the edge of San Francisco Bay. Elyse had some experience with the ships at this wharf and some experience with some large tanks which may have been in this area.

Fitly named the Chevron Long Wharf, this extended structure can accommodate several ships at a time.

On June 6, soon after Elyse arrived in California, she got to go to a baseball game in the large Oracle Stadium. That is an impressive large screen to watch! Oracle Park is a San Francisco Ballpark in the South Beach neighborhood of San Francisco. Since 2000, it has been the home of the San Francisco Giants of Major League Baseball. Oracle Park is widely regarded as one of the premier ballparks in all of baseball.

The view of the baseball game from the stands was also impressive. But most impressive of all to me was the group of young people below. It appears that Elyse has quickly gotten to know some other young workers and that they are already spending time together!

This close view of a ship alongside the Chevron Long Wharf is dated June 10, 2025 so it may have been one of Elyse's first view of this setting. It is an impressive view across the San Francisco Bay toward the northwest. It shows the bridge which takes Interstate 580 across the Bay.

Elyse was one of a number of young interns of Chevron. It didn't take her long to become acquainted with other members of their youthful summer team. Elyse was working on an online course in fluid mechanics during the summer and she mentioned that she met someone else in the group that was also doing an online course.

The scenario above would seem to be the kind of view you would expect in the arena of the giant oil company Chevron. Giant tanks in the vicinity of ships that might transport the oil. It also might be expected that young employees might be found on top of some of these tanks as Elyse is at right. These two photos are dated June 26, 2025, so Elyse had not been at the site very long and is being given a variety of tasks. This reminds me of experiences of inspecting tanks when I was about Elyse's age and worked a summer at Buckeye Cellulose Factory in Perry, Florida.

Chevron apparently had a sizable group of young workers for the summer, and it didn't take long for them to get to know each other and explore together. The Chinatown section of San Francisco is certainly one of the great attractions for visiting. This gathering in Chinatown is dated June 14, 2025, so it was soon after their arrival.

Elyse and a friend visit the Palace of Fine Arts in San Francisco on July 4. Being so close to San Francisco gave her a lot of opportunity for sightseeing. Visiting the Palace of Fine Arts gave them great views of the Golden Gate Bridge. It was originally built for the 1915 Panama-Pacific Exposition. This area of great views is called the Marina District.

Earlier in the day they had visited the Japan Malls and sampled some Japanese food.