CALI ADVENTURE COME FOR ADVENTURES
Los Angeles San Fransisco Carmel Ojai
MAY 2013
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Cover Story
As the summer’s golden, sun-filled hours gradually shorten and the evening air turns crisp and cool, Mother Nature takes her cue to begin a spectacular and colorful show of fall foliage in the Golden State. Autumn’s palette of deep reds, glowing yellows and warm, earthy browns may be enjoyed in many of California’s regions. Visitors taking a relaxing drive, hike or bicycle ride through the scenic countryside will be instantly immersed in the season’s breathtaking beauty.
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CALI ADVENTREU
April 2013 Cover Story 2 Fun Things from Los Angeles to San Francisco 4 36 Hours in Carmel-by-the Sea 8 Ojai 14
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Fun Things From Los Angeles to San Francisco J.C. Lewis, Demand Media
Los Angeles and San Francisco
two of California’s most popular vacation destinations, are about 400 miles apart, but don’t let the distance dissuade you from driving. The numerous charming towns and cities in between the two hubs, along with the spectacular scenery of the coast, make for an unforgettable road trip. Whether you plan to take your time and see all the sights along the way or are just looking for a few breaks from the road, there is no shortage of fun things to do within this beautiful stretch of California.
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Routes
The most direct route between Los Angeles and San Francisco is on Highway 101, which takes you from the heart of LA right into San Francisco, where it becomes Van Ness Avenue. With no major traffic jams and only brief stops, the journey takes six to seven hours. Unless you are determined to get to San Francisco as quickly as possible, a leisurely drive with some fun excursions and perhaps an overnight stop or two along the way makes the trip considerably more enjoyable. A slower but more scenic alternative to the 101 is Highway 1, or the Pacific Coast Highway. The 123-mile stretch of the Pacific Coast Highway from Morro Bay to Monterey is one of National Geographic Traveler’s “Drives of a Lifetime.” It’s possible to combine sections of the Pacific Coast Highway with sections of Highway 101.
Cities and Towns
The main cities and towns off Highway 101 between Los Angeles and San Francisco include sunny Santa Barbara with its Mediterranean-style architecture, Pismo Beach, San Luis Obispo and Salinas, which is famous as the birthplace of John Steinbeck. If you take the Pacific Coast Highway, the main towns include Morro Bay, a charming coastal community; Monterey, known for Cannery Row and the superb Monterey Bay Aquarium; and mellow, green Santa Cruz.
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Roadside Attractions
The Madonna Inn, right off Highway 101, is a California landmark, known for its 110 individually decorated rooms, each with a special theme, such as “Antique Cars” and “Pioneer America.” It also has a bakery and restaurant, making it an interesting lunch spot. The small town of Buellton, about an hour north of Santa Barbara, also has achieved local fame with cartoon billboards advertising its specialty -- pea soup -- for miles around. For a taste of California’s agricultural around. For a taste of California’s agricultural abundance, stop in Gilroy, the self-proclaimed “Garlic Capital of the World.” The roadside gift shops sell every imaginable garlic-related product, including surprisingly tasty garlic ice cream.
Historic Attractions
The California Coast from San Diego to San Francisco features a chain of 21 historic missions, representing the first arrival of non-native Americans in California. While driving along Highway 101, look for the distinctive curved poles of roadside mission bells that mark the historic El Camino Real route. All but five of the 21 missions are located between Los Angeles and San Francisco. The impressive Santa Barbara Mission is large and well preserved, but the smaller missions are also worth a visit. Hearst Castle, the sprawling mansion and compound built by publishing magnate William Randolph Hearst, epitomizes quirky California. This historic estate, which has 56 bedrooms and 61 bath bathrooms, is now a museum offering tours to the public.
Natural Attractions
If you have time, see some of the coastal California’s marine life on a whale-watching excursion. Boat trips are available from the harbors of Ventura, Oxnard, Santa Barbara, Monterey and Santa Cruz, offering the chance to see gray, blue and humpback whales. In the small town of San Simeon, near Hearst Castle off Highway 1, enormous elephant seals bask on the sand and can be viewed from a safe distance. Pinnacles National Monument, the rugged remains of an ancient volcano, is close to King City and Soledad on Highway 101. In the Monterey region, take a side trip along 17-Mile Drive to see the famous Pebble Beach Golf Course and a windswept, Spanish-mossdraped forest.
CITIES TO STOP BY Santa Barbara Pismo Beach San Luis Obispo Salinas Morro Bay Monterey ....
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36 Hours in Carmel-by-the Sea By JAIME GROSS WITH its architectural mishmash of storybook English cottages and Swiss Alpine chalets, the small town of Carmelby-the-Sea in Northern California resembles a Disneyland version of Europe. You half expect a bereted Parisian to saunter out of one of the ridiculously cute, Euro-themed bistros. But walk a few blocks to Carmel’s steep, sandy beach and the view is pure California: a rugged Pacific coastline spangled with rocky outcroppings, ghostly cypress trees and the electric green slopes of the famed Pebble Beach golf course. The one-square-mile village has no street lights, parking meters or even numbered addresses, but you wouldn’t call it low-key. Once a bohemian outpost for folks like Jack London, Carmel today is prime real estate, and the surrounding valley is abuzz with topnotch restaurants, boutique wineries and precious shops.
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Cocktail with client
Carmel has had its share of boldfaced residents, but few more enduring or beloved than Clint Eastwood, who was the town’s mayor from 1986 to 1988 and still lives in the area. You might catch a glimpse of him at his restaurant atMission Ranch (26270 Dolores Street; 831-624-6436;www. missionranchcarmel.com), his 22-acre property just outside of town, where he’s been known to eat with his family and greet old-timers at the piano bar. Order a glass of wine and snag a seat on the heated restaurant patio overlooking a striking tableau: sheep meadows, rolling hills and the shimmering ocean in the distance.
Monterey Mocca
Drawing foodies are two hotel restaurants that fuse French technique with California bounty. At the chef Michel Richard’s new Citronelle (Carmel Valley Ranch, 1 Old Ranch Road; 831-625-9500; www.carmelvalleyranch.com) — the original restaurant was in Santa Barbara, Calif. — the menu features artichokes, asparagus and other vegetables grown within an hour’s drive. Don’t miss the local abalone served with caviar cream. And for dessert, try the “deconstructed apple tarte tartin” — a whole apple slow-cooked in caramel sauce. Dinner for two is about $100 without wine. For a more intimate affair, try the 12-table Aubergine (L’Auberge Carmel, Seventh Avenue and Monte Verde Street; 831-6256500; www.laubergecarmel.com), helmed by the chef Christophe Grosjean, whose tasting menu celebrates the seasons in dishes like roasted lamb with cranberry bean cassoulet. Dinner for two is about $180 without wine. Saturday
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Biking for a view
Beat the gawking motorists and $9.25 entry fee for cars by waking early and biking the 17-Mile Drive, the jaw-dropping corniche that hugs the rocky coastline between Carmel and Pacific Grove. Adventures by the Sea (299 Cannery Row, Monterey; 831-372-1807;www.adventuresbythesea. com) rents bikes for $7 an hour and is an easy five miles from the drive’s most scenic stretches, which are lined with sandy beaches, golf courses and a 250-yearold cypress tree sprouting from a seaside boulder.
Mission museum
The San Carlos Borroméo del Rio Carmelo Mission (3080 Rio Road; 831-6241271;www.carmelmission.org; $5) was founded at its present site in 1771 by Father Junipero Serra and was once the headquarters for the entire California mission system. Known more simply as the Carmel mission, the site includes a poppy-filled garden, an abalone-strewn cemetery and a stone Basilica with original 18th-century artworks. At the Mission’s Convento Museum, you can peer into Father Serra’s spartan living quarters — a table, chair and a highly uncomfortable-looking wooden bed — and check out his book collection, identified as “California’s first library.”
Intown tastings
Scrap together lunch on a walking tour of some of Carmel’s best food shops. Here’s a cheat sheet: Bountiful Basket (San Carlos Street off Ocean Avenue; 831-625-4457;www.bountifulbasketcarmel.com) imports more than 100 olive oils and vinegars from around the world; Bruno’s Market and Deli (Sixth Avenue
and Junipero Avenue; 831-624-3821; www. brunosmarket.com) has gourmet tri-tip and barbecue chicken sandwiches; and the Cheese Shop (Carmel Plaza, Ocean Avenue and Junipero Avenue, lower level; 800-828-9463; www.thecheeseshopinc.com) stocks picnic fixings, wine and about 300 cheeses. They’ll let you taste as many as you like or they can assemble a customized cheese plate that you can nibble at the cafe tables out front.
Sip the valley
Thanks to its coastal climate and sandy, loamy soil, Carmel Valley is gaining renown for its wines. Most of the tasting rooms are clustered in Carmel Valley Village, a small town with a handful of restaurants and wineries 12 miles east of Carmel-by-the-Sea. Bernardus (5 West Carmel Valley Road; 800-223-2533; www. bernardus.com; tasting fees $5 and $10), the granddaddy of area wineries, is known both for the breadth and quality of its wines; its unoaked 2007 Griva Sauvignon Blanc ($25) and the French-style 2005 Ingrid’s Chardonnay ($50) are particularly intriguing. A newcomer, Boekenoogen Wines, (24 West Carmel Valley Road; 831-
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659-4215; www.boekenoogenwines.com; tasting fee $5), is a small family-owned winery and tasting room that opened last summer. It has just three varietals to date, including an exceptionally full-bodied and well-priced pinot noir ($45). Teetotalers can opt for topical wine treatments at Bernardus Lodge (415 Carmel Valley Road; 831-658-3560; www.bernardus.com), where a spa offers chardonnay facials ($135) and grape seed body scrubs ($140).
stuff for home
Walk off the buzz back in town, where 42 hidden courtyards and alleys shelter a plethora of stylish new galleries and boutiques. Trouvé (San Carlos Street and Sixth Avenue; 831-625-9777; www.trouvehome.com) is a well-curated collection of modern housewares and global antiques. The whimsical Piccolo (Dolores Street between Ocean and Seventh Avenues; 831-624-4411; www.piccolocarmel.com) is packed to the gills with handmade glassware, pottery, stationery and jewelry. And the working studio and gallery of Steven Whyte (Dolores Street between Fifth and Sixth Avenues; 831-620-1917;www.stevenwhytesculptor.com) sells the local sculptor’s hyper-realistic cast bronze portraits. Looking for something humbler? The Carmel Drug Store (Ocean Avenue and San Carlos Street; 831-624-3819; www.carmeldrugstore.com) has been selling handmade Swiss combs and grandma colognes and Coca-Cola in glass bottles since 1910.
Eat like an European
For dinner, make a beeline for one of Carmel’s über-charming French or Italian restaurants. La Bicyclette (Dolores Street at Seventh Avenue; 831-622-9899;www.labicycletterestaurant.com) resembles a rustic village bistro. The compact menu spans
Europe with dishes like beef with Gorgonzola and red wine sauce, and German sausage with homemade sauerkraut. Dinner for two: $60 without wine. Also worth a try isCantinetta Luca (Dolores Street between Ocean and Seventh Avenues; 831-625-6500;www.cantinettaluca.com), a two-year-old Italian restaurant popular for its wood-fired pizzas, homemade pastas, all-Italian wine list and a dozen types of salume aged on site in a glass-walled curing room. Dinner for two is about $60 without wine.
Surf and seals
Legend has it that Robert Louis Stevenson hit on the inspiration for the 1883 novel “Treasure Island” while strolling the beach near Point Lobos. Retrace his steps at Point Lobos State Reserve (Route 1, five miles south of Carmel; 831-624-4909; pt-lobos. parks.state.ca.us; $10 admission), a majestic landscape with 14 meandering trails. Don’t forget binoculars: you can spot sea otters, seals and sea lions year-round, and migrating gray whales December through May. Scuba divers take note: 60 percent of the reserve’s 554 acres lie underwater, in one of the richest marine habitats in California. Scuba diving, snorkeling and kayaking reservations can be booked through the park’s Web site.
Poodles and peppermints
In a town known for being dog-friendly, the Cypress Inn takes the cake with poop bags at the door, bone-shaped biscuits at the front desk and a Best-in-Show-worthy tea service. In addition to scones and crustless cucumber sandwiches, the afternoon service draws a head-spinning parade of Shih Tzus, toy poodles and other impeccably groomed pups taking tea with their equally coiffed owners.
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Ojai A magnet for artists, musicians, and health enthusiasts, Ojai is an idyllic town with oak-shaded paths, beautiful parks, art galleries, golf courses, and spas. In fact, it gained notoriety when the area was filmed to represent Shangri-La in the classic movie, The Last Horizon. Surrounded by mountains that create an evening glow that locals refer to as “the pink moment�, Ojai is a phenomenal place to gear down and relax.
This
s Town Make sure you check the Ojai events calendar before you plan your visit because the town has some exceptional happenings throughout the year. The line-up includes the Ojai Music Festival at the Libbey Bowl Amphitheater and the Ojai Wine Festival at nearby Lake Casitas in June, and the Ojai Valley Tennis Tournament in late April. Golfers can tee up at exceptional courses at the Ojai Valley Inn and Spa and Soule Park, an affordable public course with phenomenal views on the outskirts of town. To peruse art galleries, shop and dine, head to what the locals call “The Arcade”, which is a section of Ojai Avenue in the core of the town. Other important stops downtown include the Ojai Valley Museum and Ojai Library. If you’re traveling with children, a visit to Libbey Park in downtown Ojai is a must. Majestic oaks giving lots of shade surround a children’s playground and there are paths for hiking and picnic areas. A great place to meet the locals and bicycle, walk or jog is the Ojai Valley Trail, which has a parallel path for horses and runs more than nine miles.