Another “I lived a few miles away and never knew?” moment. The cruise around Newport Harbor in a Duffy boat. This place is huge! Not some cozy little body of water like Alamitos Bay in Long Beach. Among Newport Harbor’s attractions:

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A county fair is a curious thing. Made curiouser by some stretch of time out between visits. Like, say, while out of the country for a couple of years. Deep-fried Snickers? Pig races? “Amazing” shower-door scum removers? A fair is probably as telling a slice of Americana as can be imagined, and as such is […]

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I had been planning for months to go to the August 9 Dodgers game. Ever since we finalized plans to be in Southern California the second week of August. Duke Snider Bobblehead Doll night. A classy former Dodgers great and Hall of Famer. The Phillies, who have three former MVPs (Rollins, Utley, Howard) in the […]

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Thanks to the hospitality and generosity of releatives, we moved from one welcoming environment in the Southern California foothills to another on the coast, to one of the most-coveted addresses in the country, if not the world. Balboa Island, Newport Beach.

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I decided to jogwalk through the old neighborhood today, at East Highlands Ranch, in the foothills of the San Bernardino Mountains. Early August, close to the zenith of a long, warm summer in this part of the world. Temperature pushing 90. Decided I needed to get moving by 10 a.m. so as not to fry. […]

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I wish I could be an Angels fan. It’s not like the club won’t allow it. But you can’t really have an emotional connection with a team three decades into a lifetime of following baseball. I remember when the idea that the Angels might be the best team in the Los Angeles market, or all […]

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Wake up in Santa Barbara, and everything is mild and sunny and upbeat, even from the vantage point of a Motel 6, and then the drive down the 101 to Los Angeles, which I know too well and have too much information about, and poof, vacation/reverie over. Conditions may be the same in the northern […]

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How did this happen? Three of us touring vineyards in greater Arroyo Grande … and I’m the designated driver? Well, yes. I was. It made for two happy passengers, anyway.

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We rolled out of bed at the World’s Greatest $79 Motel and drove up to the assembly point for Hearst Castle. I last saw the castle perhaps 45 years ago, with my family, and even as a kid I was impressed. I’ve always wanted to go back. Now, as we rode in the creaky buses […]

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Our journey of exploration down the coast of California, the home state I lived in for so long but never really knew as well as I should have, continued today. We started in Monterey and ended in San Simeon, and it was another “wow, this is amazingly nice, and I lived here all that time […]

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