Page 13 - 2018 Travel Guide to California

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 every-
thing from classical music to bluegrass
bands each summer, or the Joan and Sanford
I. Weill Hall on the California State Univer-
sity 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 lov-
ingly restored to its former glory is Fresno’s
Warnors Center for the Performing Arts,
listed on the National Register of Historic
Places and distinguished 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 history,
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
experiences include the Monterey Bay
Aquarium, the California Academy of
Sciences and the Exploratorium.
Food Aficionado
For food aficionados, California is a won-
derland 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
strawberries, 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 47 years after it opened.
That revolution has spawned numerous
other channels of creative culinary fresh-
ness and fusion, blending Asian, European
and Latin American ingredients and tradi-
tions, 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 Cali-
fornia Cheese Trail, an interactive website
(cheesetrail.org) that features artisanal
cheese makers throughout the state, as well
as the Sonoma Marin Cheese Trail map that
highlights cheese makers from Point Reyes
and Valley Ford 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 Livermore,
Paso Robles, Madera and Temecula.
Whatever interest has drawn you
to California, you’ll find almost
infinite reasons to be seduced
and stay.
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