Wine and waves at the Deep Sea Tasting Room in Santa Barbara, CA
We needed to make up some ground. We were in California, the country’s top wine-producing state, for two months before sampling even a single locally-produced vintage. That changed in Santa Barbara, on the Central Coast, where some of the regions winemakers have made tasting their merchandise as easy as taking a stroll through town.
The Getty Center, Los Angeles, CA
L.A. museums get a bum wrap. While researching things to do there, I noticed message board commenters often recommended that out-of-towners take in the city’s museums before immediately adding a caveat. Almost by way of apology, it seemed, they would note that the museums were worth a visit “but” weren’t as impressive as those in other cities like New York.
While it’s true that many museums fall short in a head-to-head with New York’s legendary Metropolitan Museum of Art, Los Angeles has plenty to offer art lovers. Here are three museums well worth a visit…on their own merit. And in addition to impressive artwork, both the Getty Villa and the Getty Center have an added bonus that Manhattan museums do not: Pacific Ocean views.
“Balboa Park, San Diego’s great…cultural and recreational asset has gone to war along with the nation,” reported a newspaper on December 12, 1941, five days after the attack on Pearl Harbor. Some buildings on the park’s grounds were requisitioned for military use during World War II, including the one housing the San Diego Museum of Art (SDMA). Paintings and other works were removed to make way for an operating room and beds for wounded soldiers when the grandiose edifice was transformed into a makeshift hospital.
After fulfilling its wartime mission, the building reverted to its original purpose as a destination for art enthusiasts. Opened to the public in 1926, the SDMA is one of the draws at Balboa Park, which packs more cultural punch in its 1,200 acres than do most entire towns.
Mayan ruins are the main draw at Tikal in northeastern Guatemala, but we were equally interested in the other chief attraction: monkeys. Before we had even left the grounds of our hotel we crossed paths with a group of spider monkeys, including this little guy, who energetically entertained us by swinging from his tail and other antics—our first-ever sighting of primates in the wild.
I sat on the edge of the boat, clutching the side and staring at the nurse sharks and south rays circling in the water below—lured by our guide, who threw sardines to entice them to swarm en masse for our benefit. I might have stayed in the boat, foregoing the snorkeling, if Brian hadn’t thrown down the gauntlet with his post How to Become Fearless. So I jumped in…and lived to tell the tale.
Everywhere Once 