22 minute read
Here come the Holidays!
Here Come the Holidays!
From festive day trips to weeklong adventures, these six getaways will make your holiday season bright.
By KRIS GRANT
Whether you have just a day or a full week to venture out this holiday season, I’ve got some recommendations for you. Some are daytrips; others will whisk you away to snow-covered wonderlands. All are guaranteed to get you into the spirit of the season.
Let’s start with a trip up the coast to San Simeon and William Randolph Hearst’s “La Cuesta Encantada,” Spanish for “Enchanted Hill.” That’s what the newspaper magnate called his palatial home that most of us know as Hearst Castle.
I had visited Hearst Castle decades ago and thought that was enough. But that was before I saw the castle decked out for the holidays in 2023 in the same tradition as Hearst and his mistress, the actress Marion Davies, did when they entertained countless Hollywood stars including Clark Gable, Greta Garbo, Douglas Fairbanks and Mary Pickford, studio heads like Louis B. Mayer and Jack Warner and world leaders like Prime Minister Winston Churchill and President Calvin Coolidge. Thomas Edison also made his way to San Simeon as did writer George Bernard Shaw.
Hearst inherited his family fortune in 1919, including 48,000 acres of land along the Central California Coast. He eventually expanded those land holdings to 250,000 acres, heading inland to what is today Highway 101. He had always immensely enjoyed outings down to the ranch, and decided to build a home that was “somewhat more comfortable” than sleeping in tents. He enlisted architect Julia Morgan for the project that he assured her would only require six months of her time, start to finish. But after visiting the site and hearing what her client envisioned, coupled with her own informed ideas, Morgan knew the job would take years.
Morgan had been introduced to W.R., as he liked to be called, by his mother, Phoebe, and he had subsequently enlisted her to do a few other projects including a cabin at the Grand Canyon and a Mission-style building to house his Los Angeles Examiner newspaper. She was imminently qualified: she was the first woman to graduate from University of California Berkeley’s College of Engineering, the first woman to study architecture at the School of BeauxArts in Paris, the first female architect to head her own firm and the first to win the American Institute of Architects Gold Medal. For nearly 30 years, she worked with Hearst, ultimately designing and often redesigning his castle, as Hearst often changed his mind mid-stream on projects. She served not only as architect, but interior designer, landscape architect, personnel manager and shipping and logistics director. This latter responsibility included shipping European antiquities, including entire marble fountains, priceless tapestries and artwork. Morgan even designed the animal enclosures for Hearst’s zoo, at one time the largest zoo in the world.
So let’s talk about your next visit to Hearst Castle, hopefully this Christmas.
Hearst Castle is about 40 miles north on Highway 1 from San Luis Obispo, so it’s about a six or seven-hour drive from Coronado, meaning this is a three-day trip. I encourage you to stay in the delightful town of Cambria, about 14 miles south of San Simeon, which is little more than a collection of roadside hotels. I recommend any of the hotels at Cambria’s Moonlight Beach, where you can hike the beachside boardwalk, or the Bluebird Inn in the center of town.
Your Hearst Castle tour will start at the base of the hill, where you will board an air-conditioned tour bus to take you up the winding drive to the castle. None other than the voice of the late Alex Trebek entertained us on the five-mile trip, with tidbits on the history of the castle. On your return trip down, you’ll see the enclosures that once housed Hearst’s bears. Alas, all the animals except for zebras that you might spy grazing with the cattle on the rolling hills were sold off to the Los Angeles Zoo. In fact, Hearst was such a poor financial manager that most of his assets including much of his land holdings had to be sold off in the late 1930s. He held on to his beloved castle. Hearst’s health compelled him and Davies to leave the castle for the last time in 1947; it was still unfinished but was comprised of 165 rooms plus 123 acres of landscaped, grounds, terraces and pools. Hearst died in Los Angeles on Aug. 14, 1951. The Hearst family gave the castle and many of its contents to the State of California in 1958 and it opened to the public that June, now officially known as San Simeon State Historical Monument. Tour reservations can be made up to 60 days in advance at www. ReserveCalifornia.com or by calling (800) 444-PARK (7275). Tours sell out, so you’ll want to be sure to do this well in advance.
Do arrive a couple of hours early, so that you have time to take in the 45-minute movie on Hearst and the building of his castle at the Visitor Center. It’s included with your tour ticket. There’s also dining facilities, an ice cream kiosk, and an excellent gift store. On the opposite side of the highway by the very dock where all the materials were received that went into the building of the castle, Hearst Ranch Winery now offers oceanfront wine tasting. Reservations are required, at www.hearstranchwinery.com, with lunch options available from outside vendors and food trucks.
Oh, one more thought – about 4.5 miles north of Hearst Castle on Highway 1 is the California Elephant Seal overlook. There’s free parking and viewing areas. Seals are present most of the year.
Solvang: Julefest
I’ve been trekking to Solvang ever since I was a high school student who lived just an hour and a half away in Thousand Oaks. I’d drive up the 101 past Santa Barbara and Goleta, then head east, away from the coast at Gaviota State Park. Emerging from the Gaviota Gorge tunnel, I always got a thrill of anticipation when the gently rolling hills and pasturelands dotted with oak trees came into view. I still do, as the turnoff for Buellton, Lompoc and Solvang are on the valley floor.
Absolutely the best time of year to visit Solvang is during “Julefest,” which it celebrates each year in late November through December. Many events take place in Solvang Park, which is where Mr. Claus holds court from noon to 4 p.m. daily in Santa’s Village and where 10-minute light and music shows take place nightly on the hour from 5 to 9 p.m. If you’re in town on Dec. 6, don’t miss the tree-lighting ceremony here that begins at 5:30, complete with ballerinas, musical entertainment and Santa.
Solvang’s huge Julefest Parade takes off the next morning, Saturday Dec. 7 at 11 a.m. with floats, bands, horses and more than 400 participants marching and cruising down Solvang’s main avenues – Mission Drive, Fourth Street, Copenhagen Drive and Alisal Road.
More holiday highlights include the “Maker’s Market,” held this year from 3 to 7 p.m. on Dec. 4, 11 and 18, featuring crafters and local artisans selling their wares at an open-air Christmas market at Solvang Park. The renowned Christmas Matters Holiday Carolers, decked out in Dickensian outfits, will roam through the downtown on the three Saturdays leading up to Christmas, with performances from 4 to 7 p.m. The Solvang Trolley also offers Christmas Lights tours of the Santa Ynez Valley, complete with hot chocolate, on several December dates; book at www.solvangtrolley.com.
If you will be in town on New Year’s Eve, you can join in the “Copenhagen Countdown,” with a party from 2 to 4 p.m., the same time Denmark welcomes in the New Year.
Solvang was settled a little over a century ago when three Danes purchased 9,000 acres of ranchland in the Santa Ynez Valley. They then recruited Danish farmers and ranchers mostly from Nebraska and Iowa where towns like Pella and Orange City were strongholds of Danish settlements, extolling the area’s fertile soil and sunny year-round climate. I attended California Lutheran College (now University) in my hometown, where several students with last names like Larsen and Olsen hailed from Solvang. The city of Solvang is relatively young, incorporated May 1, 1985. You can learn more about the region’s history by visiting the Elverhoj Museum.
In the last 20 years, Solvang’s fame has grown, with a big bump in tourism prompted by the 2004 release of the movie “Sideways,” which was filmed partly in the town and in the nearby Foxen Canyon wine region. What used to be a two, maybe four, block tourist area back in the ‘70s has grown to roughly a 30-block area. Yet, as it has grown in fame, Solvang has retained its “hygge,” a Danish word that translates to something like coziness. But it’s more than that – it’s quaintness and tidiness, most evident when you drive through the surrounding residential area, where homes are neat as a pin. Likewise, Solvang’s pastries are as pretty as they are tasty and, in truth, it’s those pastries – particularly the petit fours filled with luscious cream and topped with butter cream or chocolate ganache, that habitually taunt me to make the ten-mile round-trip detour off the 101 when I’m going or coming from Paso Robles or Monterey or the Bay Area. Yes, I’ll pop into one of those Danish bakeries – Mortensen’s or Olsen’s or my old standby, Birkholm’s Bakery – purportedly to pick up a box of pastries for friends. But make no mistake, there’s another box just for me!
Riverside: Mission Inn’s Festival of Lights
It’s hard to believe that the Mission Inn and Spa’s Festival of Lights has only been in existence since 1992. That’s when the Inn’s owners, Kelly and Duane Roberts, introduced the lights extravaganza as a way to give back to their community. In 2019 USA Today named the Mission Inn’s festival the Number One outdoor lights event in the country.
Do come on opening night when the Inn throws the switch on its nearly five million twinkling lights and follows up with a fireworks show.
The free event runs seven weeks, from Nov. 23 through Jan. 6. In addition to the lights adorning the Inn’s Spanish Revival-style architecture, festivities extend into downtown Riverside, with a holiday wonderland pedestrian mall featuring animated sculptures that you can walk through, trees wrapped in colored lights and a lively arts and crafts market. It’s a great spot for holiday gifts, and treats like hot chocolate and gingerbread cookies. There are horse-drawn glass carriage rides round the inn and a merry-go-round at the inn’s entrance; an ice-skating rink is nearby at the Cheech Marin Center.
Why not stay at the Mission Inn and get the full experience? The hotel was built as a cottage boarding house in 1876 but didn’t operate as a full-service hotel until the early 1900s. And then it just got better and better, expanding in 1903 to more than 200 guestrooms and the addition of the Mission Wing, built in Mission-Revival style and incorporating architectural features from 20 of the California missions. Over the next three decades, three more wings were added.
Countless movie stars and ten presidents have stayed at the Inn; President Richard and Pat Nixon were married there and the Reagans spent part of their honeymoon there.
But from the 1950s through the 1970s, the inn changed hands multiple times and one subsequent owner sold off antiques and engaged in substandard restoration work. Finally, the inn closed, while preservation groups and the city of Riverside banded together to save the Inn from demolition.
It was in 1985 that Duane Roberts, who was raised in Riverside, and his wife Kelly rescued the Inn. Duane grew up in his family’s meat business and made his fortune by inventing the first frozen burrito. With annual sales of $80 million and the production of one million burritos per day, Duane sold the business in 1980.
He had the means, and the heart, to save the Inn. After a seven-year, $55 million renovation, the Robertses reopened the Inn in 1992 and Kelly introduced the first Festival of Lights.
On August 8 this year, Historic Hotels of America announced that Kelly and Duane Roberts had been named recipients of the 2024 Historic Hotels of America Steward of History and Historic Preservation Award for their efforts.
Redlands: Holidays at Kimberly Crest House & Gardens
Have you ever been to Redlands? It’s at the foot of the San Bernardino Mountains; hence the city enjoys a slightly cooler climate than other parts of the Inland Empire. Once upon a time it was covered with orange groves and the intoxicating scent of orange blossoms enticed many a Midwesterner to the city.
Many of these wealthy snowbirds built beautiful Victorian mansions, several of which still grace the outskirts of Redlands.
One of these mansions, the Kimberly Crest House and Gardens, was bequeathed to the citizens of Redlands and is the site of festive holiday events.
The landmark French Chateau was commissioned in 1897 by Cornelia Hill, who shortly thereafter moved to a smaller home. Helen Cheney Kimberly and her husband John then purchased the home. (He was the Kimberly of the Wisconsin-based Kimberly-Clark paper goods company.) In 1905 Helen Cheney Kimberly commissioned the design of the Italian gardens and interiors. Her daughter, Mary Kimberly, married a naval officer, Elbert Walker Shirk in 1905. During World War I, he died of injuries sustained when he dove off a steamer ship to rescue a Belgium soldier. Mrs. Shirk moved to Redlands to live with her parents and never remarried. She lived at the Kimberly-Crest home for the rest of her life of 99 years. She became a beloved philanthropist, supporting a wide swath of charities throughout the city, and was particularly known for her sponsorship of Kimberly Juniors, which trained young girls to become leaders. She held many dinners featuring luminaries of the time – one included aviatrix Amelia Earhart.
The Kimberly-Crest holidays kick off with the “Windows into Christmas Past” celebration on Sunday Dec. 1. Tickets are $5. Gates open at 5:30 p.m. with a lighting ceremony of the mansion at 6 p.m. The event is entirely outside but when the lights go on, characters in period dress are visible inside the mansion.
Regular daytime tours of approximately 45 minutes continue throughout the holiday season. Additionally, special evening tours, “Holiday Lights and Victorian Nights,” are held at various times beginning at 4 p.m. on Thursdays, Fridays and Sundays during December and are $20. These tours include all interior decorations lit up, plus guests receive ginger cookies made with Mrs. Shirk’s recipe.
Both tours take you through the first and second floors with docents presenting a glimpse of life in the early 1900s. Guests will hear endearing stories about the people who once lived and worked at the house.
Garden admission is free and open to the public from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m., Monday through Friday and Sunday, 1 – 4 p.m. Note: closed Saturdays. House tours are $15 for adults, $8 for children nine years and under and $12 for seniors, veterans, active military and students.
The Kimberly Crest Mansion is at 1325 Prospect Drive, Redlands.
Corning, New York: Crystal City Christmas
Looking for a Hallmark Channelworthy Christmas town? Check out Corning, New York, known as “the Crystal City,” owing to its glass-making history that dates back to the 1860s. That’s when the Brooklyn Flint Glass Company relocated from New York City to Corning and subsequently changed its name to Corning Glass.
Today, Corning, Inc., a Fortune 500 company, operates worldwide from its Corning headquarters. Not only did Corning invent such household favorites as Corning Ware, Pyrex bake ware, and Corelle kitchenware, it has also manufactured glass windows for the Space Shuttle and invented Gorilla glass, the glass that’s used in most cell phones.
At the Corning Museum of Glass, a magnificent tree in the lobby, composed entirely of glass ornaments, makes a splendid backdrop for an annual holiday photo. You can also make your own ornaments at the museum’s Studio.
Just across the Chemung River from the museum, Corning’s historic Gaffer District kicks off the holiday season Nov. 1. “That’s when all five blocks of the historic district are transformed into Christmas,” said Emilie Agee, communications director of the Gaffer District, the organization charged with bringing “feet to the street” of the district. A gaffer is a master glassblower, Agee explained. “We’ve been called Hallmark-esk,” she said, praising design specialist Annie Koerner on the Gaffer District staff for her work with individual merchants in designing and lighting their shop windows each year. Indeed, over the past two years, the Hallmark Channel has set up a webcam in the district’s Centerway Square.
This year, the district will have its own webcam set up at www.gafferdistrict. com, just in case you can’t make the trip to Corning. By the way, you can easily fly into the Corning/Elmira Airport and rent a car.
Two dates stand out on the Corning’s holiday schedule: Nov. 30 the town celebrates national Small Business Saturday, with the Gaffer District giving away commemorative shopping bags and gift cards. That night is the Parade of Lights that begins at 7:30 p.m. with more than 100 entries including brightly lit floats, bands, and dancers traveling the five-block historic route.
The following Saturday, Dec. 7, marks the 50th anniversary of Sparkle, the biggest event of the year in Corning. Streets are closed to vehicular traffic, and more than 100 vendors and food trucks set up shop, offering art, crafts, wreaths, farmer’s market produce, and Christmas trees for sale, in addition to special promotions within the district’s stores and restaurants. Carolers will perform in each block and on the Centerway stage, with Santa again at his Crystal House headquarters. The event runs from 5 to 9 p.m.
Sun Valley, Idaho: America’s First Ski Resort
I toured Sun Valley Resort in October this year, and got a preview of how special Christmas is to guests lucky enough to stay here for the holidays, and to everyone who is in town on Christmas Eve.
It’s a fabulous resort, with round pools that remain open throughout the year, with temperatures kept at 98 degrees, and an ice-skating rink that also operates year round.
The ice-skating rink, with tiered seating where you can order drinks and meals, is the site of a Christmas Eve pageant on ice, followed by a torchlight parade of ski instructors down Bald Mountain, followed by a fireworks show.
It’s all free to visitors and everyone in the community.
Here’s a little history on the Sun Valley Resort: W. Averell Harriman, the Chairman of the Union Pacific Railroad, hired an Austrian Count, Felix Schaffgotsch, to scout out the western states for a suitable ski resort. Harriman had met the young Count while staying at his family’s hunting lodge in Austria. Years later when the Count had moved to America and was engaged in banking, he had intrigued the railroad executive with tales of Austrian ski resorts, which attracted tourists who were transported there via trains from ports on the English Channel. Harriman hired the young Austrian, who also happened to be handsome, charming and erudite, to assess the viability of such a resort in America, and its potential impact for his railroad empire.
Harriman’s instructions were for the Count to find “a place close to Union Pacific tracks but far enough from a city to prevent it being overrun by weekend skiers arriving in their automobiles.
… A valley with sun pouring in, a dry climate with not too much snow, and yet enough for skiing. …” It had to be powder snow and “not too wet or too much of it.”
After scouting various sites throughout the west that included Mount Rainer in Washington, Mount Hood in Oregon, Yosemite and Lake Arrowhead in California, plus the mountains of Utah and Colorado, Schaffgotsch had about given up. Then he was encouraged by a train agent to investigate the area around Ketchum, Idaho, which could be reached by a spur route of the Union Pacific.
Schaffgotsch arrived in Ketchum on Jan. 16, 1936. Eleven months later, on December 21, 1936, Sun Valley Lodge opened its doors, and the Count worked there for the first three seasons.
And then the world went to war.
Schaffgotsch returned to Austria. He became a first lieutenant in a Nazi cavalry outfit made up of ethnic Germans from outside Germany. In 1942, he was killed while fighting on the Russian front. He was 38. Sun Valley closed for the duration of the war and a hill just north of Bald Mountain that once bore the name Schaffgotsch Mountain stands nameless.
Sun Valley was the site of America’s first ski lift, still standing in a residential district of the valley.
Both before and after the war when the resort reopened, celebrities flocked to Sun Valley, including Clark Gable and Carole Lombard, Ava Gardner, Bing Crosby, Ingrid Bergman, Marilyn Monroe, Gary Cooper, Lucille Ball and Desi Arnaz, and the “Rat Pack’s” Frank Sinatra, Sammy Davis, Jr. and Dean Martin.
Ernest Hemingway fell in love with Sun Valley and made it his home; he is buried in Ketchum’s Cemetery. At Sun Valley Lodge, in Suite 206, he finished his novel, For Whom the Bell Tolls. Today, Sun Valley Lodge features an entire village within its campus, with wonderful restaurants and shops. I recommend you dine at The Ram, where you can order steak and seafood, or order from the “Heritage Menu” featuring dishes from the restaurant’s storied culinary history. I’ll have the Ram fondue, thank you.
You can choose from five types of lodging, including the original Lodge, which looks like it’s constructed of wood, but is actually steel-reinforced concrete, along with condos, townhouses, cottages for larger groups, and the more modest Sun Valley Inn.
Skiing includes Bald Mountain, with 3,400 feet of vertical slopes and Dollar Mountain with beginner-friendly slopes, 16 trails and five lifts.
Should you have any down time, you can venture out to the restaurants and shops of nearby Ketchum. But that’s another story…just wait till next month!
