Go fish, and picnic

Re: “10 Spots to Picnic,” by Mary Forgione, May 28: Owens Valley is about a 3 1⁄2-hour drive from Southern California. Right now, creeks and streams are running high and fast, so although we have some beautiful little picnic areas alongside streams, if you have little ones, maybe it’s not a good choice.

But nearby Mt. Whitney Hatchery in Independence has picnic tables, shade trees, lawns and the beautiful fish hatchery itself.

Inside the hatchery, which once belonged to the state but now belongs to Friends of the Mt. Whitney Fish Hatchery, we (I say “we” because I am from Independence) have an interactive visitors’ program so you can learn how trout are planted in the local streams and lakes, an amazing video showing how the hatchery was built in 1906, served for many years, and then became what it is now, a place for people to enjoy free.

There is a gift shop, a thrift store (always full of treasures donated by friends), and the views from the picnic area are breathtaking. You see the valley spread out before you and the Inyo Range and, if you know where to look, you can even see the monolith named Winnedumah.

Bring a picnic, relax, enjoy and thank the volunteers working there for putting so much time and love into saving a beautiful, half-timber-style building. SONIA ROBLEDO

Riverside May 28) and could only laugh. I would love it if all personal devices were banned and only seat-back entertainment were allowed.

Last time I checked it is a business and it should set the rules to prevent all the hostility that comes with personal devices.

I have all the devices and then some, but I think everyone can survive unscathed if they ban them all. Take a book, then donate or trade it to whatever local bookstore you’re near. This should stop all the unnecessary confrontations. MATT ANDERSON

Whittier

We humans create our own problems and seem to add to them as life progresses. Case in point: Hester’s article on e-devices.

Before smartphones and other e-devices, a typical flight consisted of the meal service, the cost of an alcoholic beverage and a movie.

Today, as Hester pointed out, it’s a mass of wires and too many distracted travelers not responding to the flight attendants’ requests.

Not quite sure how to resolve these new high-tech issues in the sky, but let’s hope that these same distracted people who create travel problems at 35,000 feet do not have those same issues while behind the wheel of a car. BILL SPITALNICK Newport Beach

To Elliott Hester, from one flight attendant to another, thank you for writing this piece.

I love watching movies and listening to my iPod while traveling too.

But I was raised to look at someone while they are speaking to you.

Simple manners go a long way in 2017, folks. LAURA LACKTEN

Corona