Page 14 - 2019 Travel Guide to California

EDITOR’S NOTE
Finding Your
Favorite Place
Once again this past year I made what has become
an annual pilgrimage to Tuolumne Meadows in the back-
country of Yosemite National Park. I go in September,
when the summer crowds have diminished but warm
weather hangs on for a few weeks before the deep freeze
of winter comes to the high country. Here I take the time
to reflect on the good fortune in my life while hiking to
my favorite spots—Lembert Dome, Soda Springs, Cathe-
dral Lakes, Lyell Canyon, Elizabeth Lake. Even to a
favorite old tree with a hollow at eye level where I once
saw two mountain bluebirds coming and going to feed
their young.
It doesn’t take much to find favorite places in Cali-
fornia. For road trippers, there’s the serpentine,
cliff-hugging Highway 1 along the Big Sur Coast, the
Avenue of the Giants in the land of the redwoods, or the
lightly traveled Highway 395 that skirts the Sierra’s eastern
edge through the high desert.
For beachgoers, it’s easy to fall in love with the sands
of San Diego, Orange and LA counties, or any one of seem-
ingly dozens of beach towns all up the Central Coast. And
the cooler climes of the North Coast offer beaches and
coastal areas every bit as magical, sometimes more so
with fewer people joining you on your explorations.
If you love the outdoors, you’ll never forget Lake Tahoe,
Mammoth Lakes, Yosemite and Sequoia and Joshua Tree
and Lassen Volcanic national parks. The Mojave Desert
and Death Valley will seep into your soul.
Wine lovers can tantalize their palates just about any-
where. We all know about Napa and Sonoma valleys, but
superb wine also comes out of Mendocino, Monterey,
Paso Robles, Santa Barbara, Santa Ynez, the Central Valley
12 2019 TRAVEL GUIDE TO CALIFORNIA
town of Lodi, the Gold Country counties of Amador,
Calaveras and El Dorado. You’ll find your favorite wine
along with your favorite place, but you may have a hard
time choosing because there are so many.
When it comes to cities, there are favorites large and
small, and favorites within favorites: neighborhoods,
parks, museums, galleries, restaurants, bars, cafés. The
last few years I’ve expanded my theater horizons to the
Berkeley Rep, and recently saw a scintillating world pre-
miere of Paradise Square, a musical set in Civil War-era
Manhattan that I expect is destined for Broadway. Even
when you’ve lived here for decades you can still discover
new things, find new adventures right in your own city.
Favorites, naturally, are personal, and that’s half the
fun. What you set out to discover might turn out to be
something you never expected, and you may return home
with a new appreciation of art, wine, fine dining, an
activity such as cycling or surfing or rock climbing, or just
the exquisite pleasure of spending time in a transcendent
natural environment.
In these pages we help you prepare, with profiles of
each of the state’s 12 tourism regions, essays on history,
cuisine, museums, theme parks and many other topics,
plus resource pages with information on visitors bureaus,
driving distances, California Welcome Centers and more.
As you make your plans for a trip to the Golden State,
it’ll be fun to wonder which places will become your
favorite spots. One thing for sure, you’ll find many,
because just about any direction you turn can lead to an
experience you’ll never forget.
—LARRY HABEGGER, Editor
ÉRNE Mc CABE