LETTERS

I believe Jane Engle needs to check out Carpinteria once again. Thanks to articles such as “Places Underrated” [April 19], it is no longer the beach town nobody knows about.

Our family has been camping there for 40 years, but it has become so popular that we can no longer get reservations during the summer. Engle is right about Carpinteria being a nice one-day trip during the summer, but readers should know that it is crowded. Perhaps she refers to Carpinteria as “heavenly without the hype” during non-summer days because it is a great place to visit, but once June hits there is no room.

Nadia Myers

La Crescenta

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Thanks for including the Flint Hills of Kansas in your underrated travel spots. I find them more than beautiful, very comforting and reassuring.

When William Least Heat-Moon was writing “PrairyErth,” his “deep map” of Chase County and the tallgrass prairie, he was asked by a puzzled friend why he would waste so much time on “all that grass.” He said, “The prairie is only grass like the ocean is only water.”

Evie Rapport

Lawrence, Kan.

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It was interesting reading your article about the Flint Hills. My wife and I live in Orange County, and we just returned from a weekend getaway there. I have to second your thought that this place is about as much of a “non-L.A.” place as you can imagine. And that is not a bad thing.

We enjoyed the rolling hills of the prairie and the wonderfully hospitable people there. There is a pervasive sense of real history that was a major part of the formation of our country, and the people still hold true to our forefathers’ values. Did I mention the pace? Our hosts continually apologized for not providing more time for relaxing, but, for us, the pace was much slower than what we are used to in Orange County.

Pat Larkin

Tustin