Wining and dining on the Ventura coast

Ask a Venturan and he or she will tell you that the city is both the end of Southern California and the beginning of the central part of the...

Hotels get into beekeeping business

— Thanksgiving dinner guests at Carmel Valley Ranch can expect the Central California resort to serve a honey of a meal.

Monterey Peninsula's bargain hotels, food and activities

Clint Eastwood knows how to set a scene on screen or at Mission Ranch, his strikingly handsome hotel and restaurant in Carmel.

Monterey's a family-friendly destination

After a long car ride, my wife and I stopped at Lovers Point Park in Pacific Grove to let our 4-year-old daughter, Ediza, release some...

Slowing down in Big Sur

Until recently, my relationship with central California's magnificent Big Sur coast was all about the drive. Ninety-three miles of...

Bargain guide to Santa Barbara's hotels, restaurants and attractions

I pulled aside the curtain and peered out the motel window. Palm trees swayed gently in the breeze. A cyclist pedaled along the oceanfront....

Keeping the Old West alive in Santa Ynez Valley

Santa Barbara County's Santa Ynez Valley is known for its fine wines and upscale horse farms, but some of the Old West remains, including...

Gilroy: A fascinating history with more than a hint of garlic

Lori Guerriero was on her knees cooing at and cajoling 14-month-old Alexis Garcia, the son of a friend, to smile at her while she tried to...

Highway 1 with kids: 10 fabulous pit stops between Los Angeles and San Francisco

I often lament having left Los Angeles, my hometown, to live in San Francisco, especially now that I have a son. After Kai was born, we...

At Pinnacles, looking in on a condor nursery

I'd never accuse the good rangers at Pinnacles National Monument of pulling a bait-and-switch, but they did have to recently perform some...

Hollywood discovered Guadalupe Dunes decades ago

Beneath untold tons of sands, the ancient Egyptian city is no longer intact. But what remains is in good condition. Shielded from the...

Holy mackerel, that's a great white!

Dawn is coming soon. The lights are off, the sound system silent and the beasts of the Monterey Bay Aquarium have the place mostly to...

A view of Weston country in Carmel

Carmel

In Big Sur, a simple beauty

Once upon a time, a young couple purchased a hillside parcel on the southern Big Sur coast and dreamed of retiring there someday, turning an...

In the market for local color

San Luis Obispo

One Wild Ride: Exploring Santa Cruz's wine country

On the continuum of things that make no sense to me, spitting good wine into a tin bucket falls somewhere between intelligent design and...