Hey! Wallace the Waterdrop here, coming to you from beautiful California... wait a minute. I'm getting ahead of myself. I don't want to tell you where I'm at until I tell you the story of how I came to be here. Sit back, enjoy your favorite beverage (maybe it's a glass of ice water), and listen to the tale of my life!

You'll never guess where I started this journey. I was water vapor, hanging around the atmosphere, just minding my own business. Suddenly, I felt myself becoming heavier and colder, and I began falling from the sky! I thought, “Hey! What's going on here?” But before I knew it, I had landed in a stream that carried me to the Sacramento River in northern California. It was a pretty cool place to be. There were a bazillion other waterdrops to visit with. I saw rainbow trout splashing around, aquatic insects zipping on the river's surface, and lots of waterfowl. There was nothing much for a drop of water to do, except float around. That is, until gravity pulled me downstream!

I found myself floating through a huge lake called Lake Shasta. If I had landed here 100 years ago, the lake wouldn't have been here, and I would have just been carried into the Bay of San Francisco where my journey would have ended. But in 1937, a dam was commissioned that allowed Lake Shasta to be formed. The purposes of Lake Shasta's dam were flood control, power generation, and irrigation. Not to mention, recreation! There were lots of people swimming, boating, and fishing on the huge lake. It seemed like a good place to hang out, but I wanted to do something more meaningful than be recreational water. I definitely didn't want to end up in somebody's swimming pool! I wanted to be used to raise crops! So, I let myself go over the spillway.

I found myself in a bigger version of the Sacramento River. This one was headed towards farming country in the Sacramento Valley, right where I wanted to go!

While I was floating downstream I thought about what crop I wanted to help produce. I knew I needed to keep watch for the perfect crop. One day while I was bobbing along I found myself being diverted into an irrigation canal. I knew the time was coming close.

While in the canal, I flowed past all sorts of interesting farms and crops. I saw orchards of all sorts. Rice fields were everywhere. But none of those interested me. I had my sights on finding a tomato field.

One day, I felt myself being pulled from the canal by a pump. I realized it was finally time to help produce a crop. I just hoped it would be my dream: tomatoes! Sure enough, I caught a glimpse of the green leaves and small red fruits of the tomato plants. I had arrived, and not a moment too soon! Those tomatoes needed me!

So here I am, the water needed to help produce an important crop in the sunny state of California. I am so excited to help produce such a healthy fruit! Did you know that tomatoes have lots of vitamins A and C? They have high potassium, and they are very good for people. Some things in tomatoes have been found to help fight cancer! That's why I am so proud to have helped produce some of the over 10 million tons of tomatoes in California. One day I even noticed some of the field workers were eating their lunch, and they had a bottle of ketchup! I couldn't help feeling proud that maybe it came from some of my tomatoes!

So, in the future, when you are enjoying your favorite spaghetti sauce, think of me, Wallace the Waterdrop, and remember my amazing journey to the California tomato fields.