Letter from the editor

BY LISA WRENN

Driving down Highway One, I had an epiphney. This was years ago, when the stresses of living in the Bay Area were weighing so heavily I was contemplating a move to somewhere less expensive, less congested, less exhausting.

The familiar view of the Pacific’s grandeur took me back to a family road trip when I was a kid and we moved to Berkeley for a summer. My dad drove us there by way of Big Sur and the whole family reeled in terrified wonder as the station wagon rounded the cliffside corners. We’d never seen anything like it.

It was the ’60s and that summer, as a child of the desert, I fell in love with everything I saw here — cable cars, redwoods, Stinson Beach, the color of bougainvillea and eucalyptus against the bluegray fog as it rolled in under the Golden Gate Bridge. By the time we left, I knew where I wanted to live when I grew up.

I made my way back right after college. Over the years I’ve revisited those beautiful places, and discovered dozens more. My sweet spot, however, remains anywhere off Highway 1 — which takes us back to my epiphany: How ridiculously fortunate was I to live so close to Lake Tahoe, Monterey, Yosemite, all places that other people have to fly halfway around the world to experience.

That’s when I knew I was here to stay, and I’ve never second-guessed myself again. Instead, I’ve kept that thought in front of mind and whenever the pressures of Bay Area life have gotten the best of me, I plan my next adventure, even if it’s a day trip to San Francisco or Monterey.

With Escape, our goal is to help you do the same by showcasing a different destination for each month of the year. Look at this as an inspirational planning guide for 2018.

The truth is, many of these spots are spectacular year-round. But we wanted to focus on a region’s character at a time of year when it shines brightly. And we tried to match each destination with the writer who holds it deepest in his or her heart.

Shortly before deadline in mid-October, one of our chief destinations — the Napa-Sonoma Wine Country — erupted in flames. Our story was shelved and replaced by Chuck Barney’s thoughtful look at the charred landscape soon after the fires were finally tamed.

What he found was heartening and not surprising. Despite the staggering devastation, there was hope. Much of the Wine Country is back in business, and plans are in the works for rebuilding. As anyone who lived through the 1989 Loma Prieta earthquake, the 1991 Oakland Hills fire, and the great rains of 2017 that resulted in massive landslides in Big Sur and the Coyote Creek flood in San Jose knows, the people who live here are resilient.

They also are generous, and in the Wine Country competing winemakers are often the first to help out a neighbor in need. As Rob Mondavi Jr., grandson of the late Robert Mondavi, puts it in our story: “This is how we care for each other. It’s a beautiful, opendoor tradition that has existed for decades.”

A hot air balloon flies over the Bolen Family Estates winery in Napa. Sonoma and Napa already have begun recovering from a series of wildfires that tore through Wine Country in mid-October.

What the Wine Country also needs is us. After Hurricane Katrina, a key to New Orleans’ resurrection was the influx of tourist dollars. Napa and Sonoma also depend on tourism and they need visitors in the very same way. Renewing your wine club subscription is a great gesture. Better yet, go spend a weekend there, maybe the one you were planning when the fires broke out. Waiters, baristas, masseuses and proprietors of B&B’s are hurting, too.

As nature continually reminds us: What makes California a geographically risky place to live are the same elemental forces — earthquakes, floods, fires — that created its unique beauty in the first place. As 2017 comes to a close, we can only hope for a 2018 in which nature is friend, not foe.

Let’s also let the recent tragedy serve as a reminder to make plans. Life is short, Bay Area living can be hard and some of the world’s A-list escapes are just a short road trip away.

Escape Staff

Editor Lisa Wrenn

Managing Editor Ann Tatko-Peterson

Contributing writers Elliott Almond, Chuck Barney, Jackie Burrell, Karen D’Souza, Jim Harrington, Angela Hill, Lisa Krieger, Gary Peterson, Martha Ross, Jessica Yadegaran and Lisa Wrenn

Photo Editors Ray Saint Germain, Ann Tatko-Peterson

Designer Jennifer Schaefer

Copy Editor

DeAnne Musolf

Cover Illustration

Paul Thurlby

Inside Illustration

Dave Johnson