Page 17 - 2020 Travel Guide to California

tempts you, Shaw’s Cove tide pools in the
Laguna Beach State Marine Reserve and the Ter-
ranea tide pools in the Point Vicente State
Marine Conservation Area in Rancho Palos
Verdes showcase sea anemones, crabs, urchins,
sea slugs, sea stars and more. The five islands of
Channel Islands National Park, accessible only
by boat or plane from Ventura and Oxnard, pro-
vide a peaceful, pristine home for more than
2,000 plant and animal species, including 145
found nowhere else on the planet.
Cultural Connoisseur
If you love culture, you’ll find a treasure
trove of activities in the Golden State, from
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 edu-
cation 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 Theatre. 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 His-
toric 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 out-
growth of the popularity of these markets,
more and more farms are now offering vis-
itors 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 Cali-
fornia Cuisine, of course, a culinary
revolution spearheaded by Berkeley’s
Alice Waters—whose Chez Panisse is still
serving extraordinary food 49 years after
it opened. That revolution has spawned
numerous other channels of creative culi-
nary 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,
an interactive website and printable map
(cheesetrail.org) that features artisanal
cheese makers throughout the state.
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, Ventura, Madera and
Temecula.
Whatever interest has drawn you to
California, you’ll find almost infinite rea-
sons to be seduced and stay.
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