Los Angeles & Southern California - Andrea Schulte-Peevers [7]
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TAILORED TRIPS
IT’S KIDDIE TIME
It’s no secret: kids love Southern California, with its glorious beaches, sunny skies and head-spinning trove of theme parks, outdoor adventures and cool museums. It will leave you thrilled and exhausted, but there’s no question an audience with Mickey at Disneyland is an essential SoCal experience. To meet the adorable Peanuts, head to nearby Knott’s Berry Farm, America’s oldest theme park, which pairs Old Western themes with futuristic roller-coasters and Camp Snoopy. Hard-core coaster freaks, though, will feel the g-force pull of Six Flags Magic Mountain, with its fleet of stomach-wrenching brain-blasters. Lest your kids think SoCal is all about thrills, take them to such fabulous interactive museums as the Discovery Science Center in Orange County or the Aquarium of the Pacific in Long Beach. San Diego is also about animal magnetism: the famous San Diego Zoo has an entire Noah’s Ark worth of critters, while at SeaWorld you’ll enjoy the antics of Shamu, the killer whale, and his finned friends. And don’t miss the Wild Animal Park, where large mammals such as giraffes and zebras roam ‘freely’ in large enclosures.
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SIDE-TRACKING SIDEWAYS
Following in the footsteps of Miles (Paul Giamatti) and Jack (Thomas Haden Church), the anti-heroes of the 2004 surprise hit movie Sideways, has become a popular diversion in the Santa Barbara Wine Country. In Buellton, Miles and Jack stay at the otherwise unremarkable Days Inn and walk to the Hitching Post II and their meeting with Maya (Virginia Madsen). Nearby Solvang is where the two have breakfast at the Solvang Restaurant. North of Buellton, Zaca Station Rd heads off Hwy 101 past the Firestone Vineyard, where the two couples – Jack and Stephanie (Sandra Oh), Miles and Maya – share some romantic moments in the perfectly lit cask room. A bit further, Foxen Canyon Rd is a star in its own right. The Fess Parker Winery does almost too good a job posing as the pedestrian Frass Canyon Winery (you know they make a mean merlot). North, Foxen Winery also does a star turn (it’s the tiny roadside place where Miles and Jack surreptitiously chug). In the south, Foxen Canyon Rd ends at Los Olivos where the couples have a romantic meal at Los Olivos Café.
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MAY THE SPIRIT MOVE YOU
Judging by the gossip rags, you might think SoCal is Sodom and Gomorrah reincarnate, but the region is actually among the most religiously diverse in the nation. After all, its recorded history begins with a string of Franciscan-founded missions, starting with Mission San Diego de Alcalá and moving north to Mission San Juan Capistrano, San Gabriel Mission, Mission San Fernando Rey de España, Mission San Buenaventura and Mission Santa Barbara. Beautifully restored, they provide a window on a time when SoCal was just a remote and dusty outpost. Jump two centuries ahead and you have some of the world’s finest architects building new houses of worship, most notably Rafael Moneo’s boldly modern Cathedral of Our Lady of the Angels in LA and Philip Johnson’s glass shrine, Crystal Cathedral in Orange County, the base of Robert Schuller, one of the first televangelists. In fact, the Southland is famous for spawning new religious movements, including Yogi Paramahansa Yogananda’s Self-Realization Fellowship Retreat & Hermitage, headquartered in Encinitas with another outpost in Pacific Palisades, LA Click here. In Carlsbad, Deepak Chopra is one of the leading New Agers with his Chopra Center, and spiritualists are also drawn to the zen powers of the town of Ojai.
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MODERNIST MASTERPIECES
Being on the leading edge has been a SoCal characteristic since the early 20th century, and this is true of the field of architecture as well. As early as 1908, the brothers Charles and Henry Green created the seminal Craftsman bungalow, the Gamble House in Pasadena, whose terraces, sleeping porches and overhanging