* Looking for a new neighborhood to...

* Looking for a new neighborhood to explore? Here are a few suggestions, culled from recent stories. Complete stories can be accessed at https://www.calendarlive.com/go/discover.

Corona del Mar: All Spruced Up for Christmas Walk

Any walk through an area with side streets named Dahlia, Iris, Poinsettia and Poppy should begin at a garden. Such is Corona del Mar. Behind a wall covered with greenery is the Sherman Library and Gardens (2647 E. Coast Highway, [949] 673-2261). The babble of fountains beckons visitors to the 2.2-acre site, which for 33 years has offered welcome respite from the hubbub of the highway just a few steps away. The grounds feature a library dedicated to Pacific Southwest history, a horticultural display garden and another designed for the blind, with plants that appeal especially to the senses of smell and touch. There are also collections of ferns and roses. Admission is $3 for adults, $1 for children 12-16. Admission is free on Mondays. Open daily 10:30 a.m. to 4 p.m.

For those who hunger for more than visual and olfactory treats, the gardens’ restaurant, Cafe Jardin, serves lunch 11:30 a.m. to 2 p.m.

Its tongue twister of a name suits Toy Boat, Toy Boat, Toy Boat (3331 E. Coast Highway, [949] 673-3791), the buoyant store fashioned after a village toy shop, with an emphasis on the classics: a pedal-powered fire engine with a bell; a black-and-white patrol car; a rubber chicken.

Coast Highway businesses from Avocado Avenue to Hazel Drive will be dressed up in their holiday finery today for the 21st annual Corona del Mar Christmas Walk. Festivities run 11 a.m. to 4 p.m. and include refreshments, strolling musicians, costumed carolers, bungee jumping and pictures with Santa. For details, call the chamber at (949) 673-4050.

Getting there: From the Corona del Mar or San Diego freeways, take MacArthur Boulevard south. Turn left on Coast Highway.

Brea: Take a Walk Back Through History

Brea Boulevard once teemed with traffic--from Model Ts in the ‘20s to muscle cars in the ‘60s--before Brea Mall and Imperial Highway siphoned much of its life away. But redevelopment has brought bustle back to downtown, where shiny new shops and restaurants cozy up to a pair of movie megaplexes just north of Imperial. Head south from Imperial Highway and you’ll discover an area as eager to try something new as it is to maintain links to the past.

The wide-shoe business seems a few giant steps removed from Hollywood and the entertainment industry except in the mind and in the store of Jack McCulloch. The connection strikes you the moment you pull up to McCulloch’s Wide Shoes (685 S. Brea Blvd., [714] 529-7872) and park in a space reserved for Charlie Chaplin, Judy Garland or Marlon Brando. Then you enter under a sign that says “Sound Stage 25,” walk across terrazzo floors inlaid with stars, like Hollywood’s Walk of Fame, and sit in a plush theater seat that looks as if it had been rescued from a movie palace of old. All this to try on a pair of wide-width Hush Puppies.

Break in your new pumps or sneakers with a short walk across Fir Street to Brea’s Best Burgers (707 S. Brea Blvd., [714] 990-2615). Sample the savory Brea’s Best quarter-pound cheeseburger ($2.35), the piled-high pastrami sandwich ($4.20) or the equally sinful avocado BLT ($3.75). Fresh ingredients and attention to detail are the reasons more than 80% of their customers are regulars. Health-conscious customers like the Mediterranean salad ($3.95) and a variety of burgers, from turkey ($2.35) to garden ($2.85) and even ostrich ($3.45).

Somehow it’s nice to know that parking problems are really nothing new to downtown Brea. A 1922 photograph displayed at the Brea Historical Society museum (652 S. Brea Blvd., [714] 256-2283) shows Brea Boulevard (then called Pomona Avenue) lined on both sides with some of Henry Ford’s early models. The storefront museum also features pieces of Brea’s prehistoric past. The museum is open 11 a.m. to 2 p.m. Thursday and Saturday, or by appointment.

Getting there: Take the Orange Freeway to Imperial Highway and go west. Turn south on Brea Boulevard.

* A new Discover Orange County will run next Sunday in the Orange County Calendar.