“What would you like to do for Mother’s Day?” my LA-based son was asking over the phone last week. Our entire family had been together in San Diego in April, which was the best Mother’s Day I could have asked for – never mind that it wasn’t the exact date to celebrate. This chance to … Read More
California
Exploring LA’s Huntington Gardens: Art Museum, Rare Books & World-Themed Botanical Gardens
“A garden to walk in and immensity to dream in – what more could he ask? A few flowers at his feet and above him the stars.” ~Victor Hugo It’s a sun-filled Saturday morning in San Diego, and the sky is the color of a peaceful cerulean sea. The relentless rains of winter have finally … Read More
The Salton Sea: A Ghost of Former Glory in the California Desert
The Salton Sea. It’s a poetic name for a place that is neither poetic nor a sea. The landlocked body of water in the California desert is actually the state’s largest lake, a saline-filled depression in the earth with a higher salt level than the Pacific Ocean and a story that reads more like science … Read More
Spending the Night in a Lighthouse: Sweet Dreams Over San Francisco Bay
“I can think of no other edifice constructed by man as altruistic as a lighthouse. They were built only to serve.” ~George Bernard Shaw The narrow road to Point San Pablo Harbor winds its way through a small forest of gnarled trees, the fallen brown leaves of late October scattered along the drive. We pass … Read More
Stopping by Pyramid Lake: In Praise of Getting Off the Beaten Path
We must have driven this route more than a dozen times these past two years. Interstate Highway 5…the main artery between Northern and Southern California, and the delicate thread of a lifeline that winds its way to our two little grandsons, one born during the throes of the pandemic; the other making his appearance just … Read More
Touring the Salinas Valley: California’s “Salad Bowl of the World”
“It’s the state vegetable of California,” Evan Oakes says proudly as he hands me a flowery green stem. “In fact, 90 percent of all artichokes in North America come from Monterey County.” I’m standing at the edge of an artichoke field at Pezzini Farms, the first stop on Evan’s Ag Ventures tour of the Salinas … Read More
Hiking to the Hollywood Sign: LA’s Iconic Hillside Landmark
“The purpose of life is to live it, to taste experience to the utmost, to reach out eagerly and without fear for newer and richer experience.” ~Eleanor Roosevelt Bucket lists are a curious thing. There are the splashy, someday places we dream about that often take a lifetime to reach. And then there are the little aspirations, … Read More
La Jolla’s Coast Walk: Keeping Traditions on New Year’s Day
“For last year’s words belong to last year’s language And next year’s words await another voice.” ~T.S. Eliot, Little Gidding I’m not exactly certain how it all began, but one New Year’s Day in the early 2000s, our family decided to head out on a walk along the La Jolla coast. As we welcomed a … Read More
A Love Letter to Carmel-by-the-Sea: Enchanting Village on the California Coast
“We love the things we love for what they are.” ~Robert Frost, Hyla Brook I first fell in love with Carmel-by-the-Sea after being swept off my feet by the movie Play Misty for Me, Clint Eastwood’s suspenseful thriller set in the idyllic town on the California coast. It was 1971, and my teenage self was … Read More
Monterey, California: Hanging Out with the Sea Otters on Elkhorn Slough
“An ecological treasure at the heart of Monterey Bay.” ~Elkhorn Slough National Estuarine Research Reserve It’s Saturday morning in Monterey, California, and the sun won’t be rising for almost an hour. The air is brisk and biting, causing me to question my decision not to have packed a wool hat along with my warm gloves, … Read More