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 backcountry 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, Cathedral 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 California. 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 seemingly 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 anywhere. 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 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 premiere 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.