Page 23 - 2014 Travel Guide to California

mountains, and head to High Country
attractions such as Lake Tahoe. The Gold
Rush is memorialized at the Miners
Foundry Cultural Center and by historical
mining exhibits in City Hall. Eye-pleasing
and walkable, much of downtown Nevada
City is listed on the National Register of His-
toric Places. The Nevada Theatre, a smartly
restored heritage building, hosts a variety of
live entertainment.
ture such as the grand 1886 Carson Man-
sion at 2nd and M streets. Shops,
restaurants and B&Bs occupy some of a
staggering 1,500 Eureka buildings listed on
the National Register of Historic Places.
One-million-acre Six Rivers National
Forest is a near neighbor.
the Performing Arts, and visitors can view
mid-20th-century commercial buildings
and homes on free architectural tours.
EUREKA: Redwoods & Victorians
Tucked into the northwestern corner of
California, Eureka, 270 miles north of San
Francisco on Humboldt Bay, has the largest
deep-water port between San Francisco
Bay and Washington’s Puget Sound. The
city of 27,000 also serves as the unofficial
capital of the state’s Redwood Empire.
Once famed for its timber, mines and fish-
eries, Eureka is a leading West Coast
purveyor of succulent farmed oysters.
Most significantly for visitors, Eureka is an
attractive preserve of Victorian architec-
PALM DESERT: Low-Profile Oasis
Eleven miles from high-profile Palm
Springs is sunny Palm Desert, a city of
48,000 in the Coachella Valley. Palm
Desert combines the manicured lawns,
golf courses, tennis courts and swimming
pools of a manmade oasis with rugged
cycling, off-road hiking and 4-wheel-drive
excursions in the surrounding desert. Golf
is available at 10 city-owned golf courses,
plus prime links such as the J.W. Marriott
Desert Springs Resort’s 18-hole Palm
Course. The city displays more than 130
public-art pieces, many clustered along El
Paseo or Fred Waring Drive. Culture is on-
stage at the 1980s McCallum Theatre for
PASADENA: Rose Bowl & Bungalows
Located 10 miles northeast of Los Angeles
at the foot of the imposing San Gabriel
Mountains, this pretty city of 140,000 is
best-known for the Granddaddy of ’em All:
the annual Rose Bowl football game, its
ever-popular Tournament of Roses Parade
and delightful parody the Doo-Dah Parade.
Some 800 restored early 20th-century
wooden bungalows, clustered in the Bun-
galow Heaven Historic District, give
Pasadena a signature architectural look.
Shopping and dining are abundant along
pedestrian-friendly South Lake Avenue, in
the Playhouse District and in revived, 22-
block Old Pasadena. The Huntington
combines a distinguished library complete
with a Gutenberg Bible, centuries of priceless
fine-art pieces and extensive and beautiful
botanical gardens all in one place.
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