Page 24 - 2019 Travel Guide to California

CITIES
SHOPPING UNDER THE FALL COLORS in
Big Bear Lake, right; the Cal Poly campus
and San Luis Obispo from above, bottom;
West Hollywood at night, opposite.
shore of magnificent Monterey Bay. A city
of 65,000, it boasts alternative lifestyles
and innovative education at the University
of California Santa Cruz along with the
proudly retro 1907 Santa Cruz Boardwalk
and the Santa Cruz Pier. The boardwalk,
flanking mile-long Santa Cruz Beach, show-
cases the charming 1911 Loolf Carousel and
adrenaline joys of the Big Dipper, a 1924
wooden roller coaster. The boardwalk is a
prime place to score corn dogs (“made from
a secret family recipe’’), chocolate-covered
bacon, deep-fried Twinkies and other belly-
busters while you watch surfers shoot the
curl. The world’s first Surfing Museum is
right nearby. Inland, the shops of Pacific
Avenue offer plenty of retail therapy and
health-minded markets and eateries. North
of town via Highway 17 in the Santa Cruz
Mountains is Henry Cowell State Park, with
its old-growth forest of California’s soaring
signature trees: redwoods.
22 2019 TRAVEL GUIDE TO CALIFORNIA
SAN LUIS OBISPO:
Culture, Wine, & the Outdoors
Nestled between the Pacific Ocean 11 miles
to the west and the Santa Lucia Mountains
just to the east, this central coast city of
47,000 is located midway between San
Francisco and Los Angeles. Easily accessible
by train on Amtrak or via U.S. Highway 101
and famously scenic California Route 1, the
historic core of the city clusters around the
1759 Mission San Luis Obispo de Tolosa.
This is the place to find restaurants, cafés
and shops. Music and theater productions
are mounted on the campus of California
Polytechnic Institute (“Cal Poly’’). Out-
doorsy visitors and locals alike hike and
bike the Nine Sisters hills. The marine-
minded head to the sometimes-chilly,
foggy coast with their wetsuits for surfing,
kayaking and windsurfing. South of the city
is prime territory for winery touring and
tasting: the expansive Edna Valley wine-
producing region.
MARINA DEL REY:
Art, Sea, Open-Air Dining
This unincorporated coastal community of
9,000 located south of Venice and just four
miles north of Los Angeles International
Airport is dedicated to the life aquatic. Cre-
ated in 1965 out of salty wetlands frequented
mainly by duck hunters, Marina del Rey
today has the largest manmade small-craft
harbor in North America with some 5,000
boat slips. Yacht charters, kayaking, stand-
up paddling, dining cruises, fishing trips
SAM RICE/BIG BEAR LAKE; LARRY HABEGGER. OPPOSITE: VISIT WEST HOLLIWOOD