California

By Brian E. Clark For decades, so the story goes, Paso Robles was a mere pitstop off California’s Highway 101 for wine aficionados on their way to the Napa and Sonoma valleys.  But that began changing about two decades ago, and Paso Robles – which means Passage of the Oaks in Spanish

By David McKay Wilson  The snow kept falling during our spring break in South Lake Tahoe – on the shores and in the glorious mountains nearby North America’s largest alpine lake. It flurried at Sierra-at-Tahoe during our warm-up day, as we floated through powder in a magical lichen-covered forest.  It

Words by Jules Older. Photos by Effin Older. Guerneville, California. It floods. And floods, and floods, and floods. Even now, it’s still replanting, rebuilding, re-opening from its most recent flood which, in February 2019, poured four feet of water over Main Street. While it’s indisputably true that floods cause heartache

  Photos by Effin Older. Words by Jules Older When you say Benicia, San Franciscans tend to scorn. “Why go there?” they sigh. Here’s why. Just an hour or so north of the Bay Bridge, Benicia is a surprise-filled with surprises.     For 13 months in the 1850s, it

By Brian E. Clark The  360-degree view from Mount Soledad, which rises to a height of 822 feet above La Jolla and is home to a veterans’ memorial, is stunning in its expanse:  One a clear day, you can see Orange County to the north. To the south, downtown San Diego and beyond

Story and photos by Bart Beeson It’s difficult to truly appreciate the scale and sheerness of Yosemite’s El Capitan monolith until you’re standing right beneath it. The rock wall rises up from the valley with a jarring suddenness. On a recent trip to Yosemite, my first time to the park,

by Kim D. McHugh Pop quiz: name the six architects that were most influential in defining Desert Modernism during the 1930s, 40s and 50s. Stumped? So was I until I took the Essential Palm Springs Tour, a 90-minute ride along showcasing the works of William Cody, Albert Frey, Hugh Kaptur, William Krisel,

By Jules Older Photos by Effin Older   Technically, I wasn’t a Santa Cruz virgin. When I was a grad student living at the VA Hospital’s staff quarters in Palo Alto, on a lark, a gang of us drove down to Santa Cruz. We slept on the beach, and when

Story by Jules Older, Photos by Effin Older Drive north from San Francisco and you’re in celebrated wine country. Napa, Sonoma, Mendocino — all the northern counties are famous. All but one. The odd one out is Lake County, just east of Sonoma and Mendocino. Lake County — it’s underpriced,