Weekend Special : Getaways Without Going Far : Four Nearby Escapes for People With Different Tastes, Moderate Budgets and Little Time : Ojai : Lazy Days at a Country B

The idea was to slow down, and we couldn’t wait. By midday Friday, my wife and I were racing out of Los Angeles into the scrubby foothills along Interstate 5. A dogleg west on California 126, then another north on California 150. A cool cup of fresh-squeezed orange juice from a roadside stand in Fillmore. A final dash down the hillside into the Ojai Valley, and there we were, braking in a cloud of dirt and pebbles at our home for the weekend.

The valley is tranquilizing in its own right--farmland and fruit trees for miles; exclusive private schools; spiritualist retreats of various stripes (the followers of Krishnamurti used to gather here for lectures every year); the occasional artist’s studio, and more than a few hidden homes of the rich and famous, among them actor Peter Strauss and (under another roof) actress Mary Steenburgen. Lately, the locals say with mixed feelings, the place seems to be drawing in more and more refugees from the big city to the south.

Our destination was a 106-year-old Connecticut-style farmhouse about a mile outside of town. A large, lazy porch. Sunlight filtering down through orange trees. Upstairs in Room 1, a clawed bathtub and a four-poster bed. Ideal for the handy storage of bicycle helmets. There. Much better.

This was the Theodore Woolsey house, one among a handful of bed-and-breakfast operations in town (there are several mid-priced hotels and a couple of pricey resorts, as well).

Ojai’s population is about 8,000, with nearby unincorporated communities pushing the Ojai Valley’s population to around 30,000. The pace of life is loping. A prime attraction is the daily “pink moment” when the setting sun throws its fading light on the face of the Topa Topa mountains. The civic reputation, as reported on March 15, 1991, by the National Enquirer: “The Most Honest Town in America.” More of that in a moment.

The point of the weekend went unarticulated, but was clear: to take measure of the oak shade, to inhale of the artsy, rural vapors that hang in the valley, and to see just how . . . slowly . . . our pulses could . . . pulse.

Very, very slowly. Most of commercial Ojai lines Ojai Avenue, and is concentrated within about a mile, making the place a fine bicycling town. We brought our own. And we journeyed first to Bart’s Books, inspirer of the Enquirer’s label.

Bart’s is an Ojai institution, and has been offering a wonderful variety of used books in a sun-dappled patio setting for years. It is known beyond Ojai, however, because of its honor system: If you want a book from the rough wooden shelves that line the sidewalk surrounding the place, you help yourself, and leave your coins in the door slot. Hence the Enquirer headline.

Not surprisingly, it’s mostly dreck on those outside shelves. But a good long browse inside could yield almost anything. We left with a 1979 National Geographic (50 cents for all we wanted to know about Bahrain--who could say no?). We followed that good fortune with a pair of blueberry muffins from Bill Baker’s Bakery and a spell of window-shopping in the city’s white-arched arcade. In the Human Arts Gallery, beneath the arcade’s arches, we looked over a few works from the celebrated potter, nonagenarian and all-around personality Beatrice Wood, who maintains a home-studio off Highway 150 outside town. (Wood turns 100 in March.)

Time to rest. Back at the house, we napped on the four-poster and gave thanks to Mr. Woolsey, who built this place for his wife when she came down with tuberculosis and moved the family west from New England. She died several years later, and the house passed into other hands, eventually those of Ana Cross, who now owns it. The house still feels agreeably aged, especially late in the evening with a fire in the drawing room, but a swimming pool has been added in back.

For dinner, we splurged and sought out The Ranch House, an oasis of herb gardens and California cuisine on the fringes of town, in the community of Meiners Oaks. It’s one of the most expensive restaurants in town, and it required travel by automobile, but there was cause. Gentle music. Babbling water in tranquil pools. Meditation nooks. A menu that emphasizes fresh vegetables and herbs, and a reputation for having pioneered the movement known these days as California Cuisine. In a yellowing old news clip on one wall, Paul Newman is quoted acclaiming the place as his favorite restaurant anywhere. Between our salad and our entree, we strolled among the bamboo shoots. After dessert, we inched to the car, then home to huddle beneath those four posts.

Saturday: Transit via bicycle again. Breakfast under the rising sun at the Ojai Cafe Emporium, an indoor-outdoor operation that draws many locals along with the tourist trade. A midday of pedaling; Ojai has a biking, running and horse path that covers nearly nine miles of flat stretches and gentle slopes.

We lingered a little more along the arcade, nipped around the corner to Massarella Pottery (principal product: the accomplished work of Mr. Massarella himself) and the Ojai Art Center on Montgomery Street, where works of local artists usually hang. They’re not all wonderful, but it’s a pleasant setting.

Next we made a detour through Libbey Park, where the esteemed Ojai Music Festival is staged every spring in an outdoor amphitheater under looming oaks, next to the tennis courts. A pause for lunch at the Ojai Valley Inn’s Terrace restaurant, with a view of golf greens, oaks, sycamores, the rumpled Topa Topa mountains. And in the foreground, well-tanned men in tasteful leisure, talking about large amounts of money.

More pedaling, more napping, then dinner. This time we chose Roger Keller’s, a casual, less-costly place in the middle of town. Every table was full, and Mr. Keller himself was roving table to table, being hailed by his first name. Good big meal. Creeping sleepiness.

Sunday already? This morning, we took what the Woolsey House offered: pastries, fresh-squeezed orange juice, cold cereal, fruit and bagels. Then we killed a few more hours doing nothing in particular. And then ventured a few winding, tree-lined miles out Highway 33 for a final pair of indulgences.

First, lunch at the Wheeler Hot Springs restaurant, with tinkling piano and a great stone fireplace hulking in the middle of the room. Next came the soak.

We took the standard package--half an hour in a private, cubicle with a pitcher of ice water and two tubs--one full of clear cold water, one full of naturally, magically, pulse-paralyzingly, gravity-suspendingly hot spring water. Afterward, we showered, shuffled out into the oak-shaded day. We were clean, serene and ready, if only for a moment, to venture back into real life.

GUIDEBOOK

High on Ojai

Getting there: The standard route from Los Angeles to Ojai, about 80 miles, is a dash up U.S. 101 to Ventura, then an eastward leg on California 33. The inland alternative is to head north on Interstate 5, swing westward through Piru and Fillmore on California 126, then head north again on California 150 from Santa Paula to Ojai.

Where to stay: The Theodore Woolsey House, 1484 E. Ojai Ave., (805) 646-9779, includes seven rooms (three with private toilets and baths, two with private half-baths), at rates of $50-$110 nightly.

The Ojai Manor Hotel, 210 E. Matilija St., (805) 646-0961, is a six-room bed-and-breakfast in an updated 1874 building near the center of town. The rooms are filled with original artworks and custom-made furniture. The guest rooms share three bathrooms at the end of the hall, and run $90 each per night.

For those on tighter budgets, the Ojai Rancho Motel, 615 W. Ojai Ave., (805) 646-1434, is clean and convenient to town, with weekend rates $70-$95. For the health-conscious, there is The Oaks at Ojai, 122 E. Ojai Ave., (805) 646-5573, a fitness resort with all-meals-included rates beginning $125 per person per night on weekdays, $135 on weekends. For golfers and those in search of luxury, there is the Ojai Valley Inn & Country Club, Country Club Lane, (805) 646-5511, where double rooms run $190-$250 nightly.

Where to eat: At The Ranch House restaurant, 102 Besant Road at South Lomita Road, (805) 646-2360, entrees run $21-$24. At Roger Keller’s, 331 E. Ojai Ave., (805) 646-7266, entrees run $10-$18. Avanti!, 710 Ventura Ave., Oak View, 805-649-9001, is a wood-fired pizza and pasta place a few miles down the hill from Ojai; entrees $6-$15.

Where to soak: Wheeler Hot Springs, 16825 Maricopa Highway, (800) 227-9292 or (805) 646-8131, lies about seven miles north of Ojai, offering half-hour hot-tub sessions for $10 per person and weekend brunch-and-soak packages for $45 a couple. The restaurant also offers dinner-and-soak packages Thursday and Friday, $72 a couple. Massages are also available.

Calendar considerations: March 1-7, the GTE West Classic, a seniors PGA tour event, dominates the Ojai Valley Inn & Country Club. April 22-25, the Ojai Valley Tennis Tournament, the oldest amateur tennis tournament in the country, comes to town. June 4-6, the Ojai Festival, a 45-year-old gathering of prominent classical musicians and music-lovers, will take over the open-air stage at Libbey Park.

For more information: Contact the Ojai Valley Chamber of Commerce, 338 E. Ojai Ave., (805) 646-8126.