Travel

On a recent one-day drive through San Jose, my wife, Sarah, and I took in a wealth of rich sites, from the red salty shore of Alviso Marina County Park, the splashy shops of Santana Row, and to the north, the calm and rolling...

Editor's note: This the second part of a two-part series on travel writer Tarmo Hannula's recent trip to Paso Robles. To see part 1, click here. On a recent overnight road trip to Atascadero, after exploring the innards of the Salinas Valley, my wife Sarah...

On a recent road trip to Atascadero, a city that lies about 115 miles south of Watsonville, my wife Sarah and I took umpteen diversions off the main highway to gather a better sense of the Salinas Valley and surroundings. Heading out San Miguel Canyon...

On our one-night journey to San Francisco recently, my wife Sarah and I wrapped up day one with dinner at Mister Jiu’s, 28 Waverly Place in Chinatown.  Our seat at the bar gave us a front-row taste of the goings on at the popular and...

Road trips around California—including Sacramento, Atascadero, the desert, San Diego or north to Half Moon Bay and Fort Bragg—have time and again proven worthy of the fuel, hotel costs and drive time for me and my wife Sarah over the past several years.  Whether an...

I’ve been visiting San Jose since the mid-1970s.  My first stop there was when a friend dropped me off at the airport after we drove from Eugene, Oregon. I was headed to San Diego to see my parents and that drive cut my trip in...

Two nights at Miracle Springs Resort and Spa in Desert Hot Springs, as it has in the past, offered a relaxing, quiet spot in the center of Palm Desert that served as home base as we branched out across the desert floor.  Breakfast at the...

On day two of our two-week road trip, my wife Sarah and I said goodbye to Bakersfield and drove southeast on Hwy 58 toward the Mohave Desert.  We were greeted with fierce rain as we climbed Tehachapi Pass on Highway 58. Our interest in taking...

Thanksgiving this year included a 2,575-mile road trip, 21 relatives, two states, eight motels and a wide array of restaurants, both great and not so great. My wife Sarah and I left Watsonville on Highway 129 to Highway 152 in Gilroy for breakfast in Casa...

Since I was born in Columbia in the Sierra foothills, I’ve returned there a number of times to soak in some of the history and get a deeper understanding of California’s Mother Lode. Heading east of Modesto along Highway 49 my interest spikes as the...