Page 13 - 2015 Travel Guide to California

museum and art gallery exhibitions to
shops showcasing contemporary handi-
crafts and timeworn antiques, and from
performances of theater, dance and music
to displays at aquariums and hands-on
education centers.
For music, the world-class concert halls of
Los Angeles and San Francisco are well-
known, but equally appealing are smaller
sites such as the Redlands Bowl in the Inland
Empire city of Redlands, where an elegant
amphitheater spotlights California’s oldest
free concert series, presenting everything
from classical music to bluegrass bands each
summer, or the Joan and Sanford I. Weill Hall
on the California State University Sonoma
campus, where warm-weather concert-goers
can spread a blanket on the terraced lawn for
an alfresco music fest.
A lively variety of performances,
including ballet, theater, variety shows,
comedy and even onstage conversations,
are presented at Oakland’s ornately Art
Deco Paramount Theater. Another multi-
faceted venue lovingly restored to its
former glory is Fresno’s Warnors Center for
the Performing Arts, listed on the National
Register of Historic Places and distin-
guished by a pipe organ that replicates the
sound of a full orchestra.
From the Siskiyou County Museum in
Yreka to the San Diego Museum of Art,
museums and galleries celebrating his-
tory, human endeavor and artistic heritage
abound throughout the state. Creative
exploring will yield access to small-scale
museums that specialize in everything
from comics and cable cars to surfing and
sewing. Other outstanding educational
institutions that focus on interactive expe-
riences include the Monterey Bay
Aquarium, the California Academy of Sci-
ences and the Exploratorium.
Food Aficionado
For food aficionados, California is a wonder-
land of tastes, textures and innovative
culinary creations. One of the most
delightful and enlightening experiences is
visiting a farmers market, where fresh-
from-the-farm produce will be on delicious
display and fresh-from-the-field farmers
will be happy to offer samples and stories.
Farmers markets can now be found
throughout the state. As a further outgrowth
of the popularity of these markets, more and
more farms are now offering visitors the
opportunity to pay to pick their own straw-
berries, peaches or plums and savor the
sweetness of just-plucked fruit. Some farms
even offer travelers the chance to stay and
work, which reveals from the inside the rites
and rhythms of modern farm life.
California is the birthplace of California
cuisine, of course, a culinary revolution
spearheaded by Berkeley’s Alice Waters—
whose Chez Panisse is still serving
extraordinary food 43 years after it opened.
That revolution has spawned numerous
other channels of creative culinary freshness
and fusion, blending Asian, European and
Latin American ingredients and traditions,
which are showcased throughout the state.
As Alice Waters and her followers focused
attention on local purveyors, food-related
opportunities for travelers expanded. One
result today is the California Cheese Trail,
which connects artisanal cheese makers in
Sonoma County, from Point Reyes and
Bodega to Santa Rosa and Sonoma.
Wine trails have long drawn travelers to
California, but these have expanded as
well in recent years. In addition to world-
renowned regions such as Napa and
Sonoma, up-and-coming areas that offer
their own winery routes include Liver-
more, Paso Robles, Madera and Temecula.
Whatever interest has drawn you to Cal-
ifornia, you’ll find almost infinite reasons
to be seduced and stay.
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