The Traditionalist’s La Jolla : Back to the roots of a seaside town where sunsets are a major attraction

A picturesque seaside town with roots in Spanish California and a love of mission-style architecture, La Jolla can be packed with sightseeing visitors in summer or winter.

But just a few blocks away from town center, there is a lazy local flavor that is surprisingly laid back. Blazing flower beds bright with blossoms are La Jolla’s natural neon. Tide pools gleam among the rocks; screaming gulls swoop down at the busily burrowing sand crabs, and restaurants with cuisines as carefully tended as the flower beds offer choices ranging between the familiar and the exotic.

All down the coast, low clouds of fog shrouded the beaches, making it difficult for my sister Linda and I to tell if actually there was an ocean out behind the fog bank. But by the time we reached La Jolla, like a good omen, the sun had come out. The sea glittered blue at the western fringes of town, and gulls soared like kites beyond the sandstone cliffs that are one of La Jolla’s trademarks.

Things have changed in La Jolla in the last three decades. The Spanish hacienda core of town is still here, but avant-garde architecture punctuates the traditional arcades and Monterey-style balconies, and the knickknacks for sale come from Tiffany’s, not Tijuana. Still, there is enough of the old left to give flavor to the new, and diverse newcomers have added layers of sophistication to La Jolla’s small-town atmosphere.

Linda and I checked into The Bed & Breakfast Inn at La Jolla on Draper Avenue, and there, all at once, was the quiet peacefulness we had been hoping to find. Located across the street from the La Jolla Museum of Contemporary Art and half a block from the Bishop’s School, a coed private high school and prestigious La Jolla landmark, the inn was built in 1913, designed by architect Irving Gill in the then-fashionable Cubist style (basically a square, enhanced by archways).

The lush gardens, originally planned by that notable garden architect, Kate Sessions, flow around the house in a sea of green. The present owners have kept the old dining room just as it was for the inn’s lavish buffet breakfasts (included in the room rate), or guests can eat out beneath the trees in the garden, whose peaceful seclusion is more or less guaranteed by the fact that it’s bordered by a church garden on the other side. Each room is individually furnished, and prices run from $100 a night for a room with private bath to $250 in the Irving Gill Penthouse. Our twin room, the Shores, was $135, which included the all-you-can-eat breakfast and wine and cheese between 4 and 6 p.m.

After checking in, Linda and I wandered the few blocks into town. La Jolla’s two main shopping streets are Prospect, which winds around the perimeter of the town, and Girard, which intersects it, running north to south. The shops are a strange amalgam of Beverly Hills and California beach town. On Girard Street, in the Arcade Building, a proto-mini-mall dating back to the 1920s, John’s Waffle Shop is a hole-in-the-wall, time-machine trip to the La Jolla of earlier days. Waffles and sandwiches, coffee and milkshakes are served on its original counter and scattering of tables, and La Jolla regulars patronize it.

We had planned to eat at John’s, but it was closed, so we walked around the corner to another La Jolla tradition--The Spot, on Prospect. Established as a tavern/restaurant in 1916, it has windows that open onto the street, and it is decorated like a British seaside pub, with model ships, old life preservers and a row of brightly colored flags. Light glowed through a wall of wine bottles as through a stained glass window, and out in the street golden girls with golden hair floated by, the breeze blowing their candy-colored summer dresses out behind them. We ordered some of the best lemonade I have ever had, clam chowder and French-dip sandwiches.

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From La Jolla you can visit the San Diego Zoo, the San Diego Wild Animal Park, Sea World or a host of other attractions. Linda and I decided to go to the beach. We went swimming at The Cove, a picturesque half-moon of beach enclosed by cliffs. The Cove is to La Jolla what Hanauma Bay is to Hawaii. Swimmers, snorkelers and scuba divers plunged into the emerald-green depths. The La Jolla Trench, an undersea marine Grand Canyon, takes off from here, and world-famous Scripps Institute sifts the ebb and flow of marine life in the seas.

After an afternoon at the beach, relaxed and hungry, we were ready for dinner. Not too far from The Spot, where we had eaten lunch, is Alfonso’s of La Jolla, one of the city’s best Mexican restaurants. The inside isn’t too exciting, but the extensive patio offers a comfortable view of the passing parade on Prospect. We ate plates of carne asada tacos heaped with chunks of steak, guacamole, salsa fresca and sour cream ($4 per taco), drank pink lemonade ($1.50) and watched La Jolla amble by.

After dinner we returned to the cliffs not far from The Cove. On the grass-covered cliffs above the low tide, locals had come with picnic suppers, wine coolers full of champagne and collapsible chairs to enjoy sunset over the Pacific. California brown pelicans soared just above the cresting waves while gulls, like black sculptured silhouettes, hovered high in the darkening sky. The sea was threaded with streaks of gold and orange, and occasional fishermen sat motionless on humpbacked rocks near the foaming surf.

Linda and I headed for the tide pools, an underwater treasure available for prospecting only at low tide. In the holes and crevices of the soft sandstone, small brown fish with white dots on their backs swam in pools lined with hermit crabs, barnacles, limpets and the waving flowery tentacles of sea urchins.

Finally, it got too dark to see anymore, and we finished the great Pacific symphony with a coda of pelicans disappearing on the horizon to a chorus of oohs and aahs.

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Budget for Two

Gasoline: $12.00

Bed & Breakfast Inn: $148.63

Lunch, The Spot: $26.04

Dinner, Alfonso’s: $16.28

FINAL TAB: $202.95

The Bed & Breakfast Inn at La Jolla, 7753 Draper Ave., La Jolla, CA 92037; tel. for reservations (800) 582-2466, or (619) 456-2066.