Category Archives: California

Savor Santa Barbara cuisines with 54 epicure.sb events

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Savor Santa Barbara’s cuisine, libations and culture with epicure.sb this month.  Restaurants, tasting rooms, museums, hotels and more have come together for the month-long celebration.

This annual gastronomic event returns for its sixth year with a new theme: epic-scoop.  Visitors can now experience the bounty of Santa Barbara County as a local would, with 90 offerings including 54 events and 26 special menu’s – and all of this over 31+ days.  With so much to do, pack your bags and stay awhile with 13 epicurean inspired hotel packages.

Grab your fork and spoon, as we are giving the epic-scoop to access special offerings, exclusive prix fix menus, secret menu items & libations, specialty tastings, VIP experiences, behind-the-scene exclusives, cultural performances, and much, much more!  Below is a highlight of recent offerings, for a complete list go to epicuresb.com.

  • Isabella After Hours: Foodie Film Series (Oct. 24) – Enjoy a food-based movie on a large projector screen at Isabella Gourmet Foods, complete with homegrown movie snacks, including locally made popcorn, candies, chocolates, beverages and more.
  • Junior Chef Classes (Sunday’s in Oct.) – Hey, kids! Let Williams Sonoma at La Cumbre Plaza show how fun and easy cooking can be. Kids will learn to make delicious recipes, with plenty of tasting along the way.
  • Featured Dish & Cocktail at Four Seasons (Oct. 1-31): Experience the best of Santa Barbara cuisine at Bella Vista, featuring a special Uni appetizer with indigenous Santa Barbara ingredients.  After, head to Ty Lounge for a libation inspired by Santa Barbara’s Spanish heritage, the Peña Flamenca.
  • Savor the Sauv (Oct. 1-31) – Mention “epic-dish” at Grassini Family Vineyards for a special tasting flight of library and reserve Sauvignon Blancs along with a Meyer Lemon truffle, paying tribute to a local fruit flourishing on Santa Barbara’s hillsides.
  • Sideways 10th Anniversary Hitching Post Wine Flight (Oct. 1-31): At Hitching Post II, local favorite and featured restaurant inSideways, enjoy a flight of 3 signature Highliner Pinot Noirs that commemorate the wine in the cult film that helped put Santa Barbara County wines on the map.
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Mendocino County puts the fun in fungi this fall

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As the flavors of fall arrive in Northern California’s Mendocino County so does the annual crop of coveted candy cap, chanterelle, porcini and morel mushrooms.

Straddling historic Highways 1 and 101 with nearly 2,500 sq. miles of live oak, pygmy forests and stately redwood groves, the region is a natural hotspot for some 3,000 mushroom varieties.

The annual haul is nothing short of historic, nurturing nirvana for local mycologists, chefs and fungi foragers.   Add to the mix a cache of artisanal chefs, 95+ wineries, a formidable craft beer and hard cider scene and the annual salute to Mr. Fungi sprouts into action November 7-16, 2014 www.visitmendocino.com/mushroom-wine-and-beer-festival; 866.466.3636.

Visitors can tap into a variety of adventures from mushroom hunts by horseback, foraging excursions, Pinot and porcini menus, educational seminars, art exhibits and the annual Skunk Train trek and cook-off deep in the depths of the Noyo River forest.  To cap the event, regional hotel properties and restaurants are offering special menus and packages throughout November.

 FUNGI FORAGING

Pack a pair of boots and a sense of adventure as mushroom foraging season hits full stride this fall.  During the festival, guests can track and taste Mr. Fungi in a variety of formats.  Top excursions include:

Ride with the Hunt – Mushroom Hunt at Richochet Ridge Ranch 

“Mushroom Hunt” horseback rides every day during the festival.  Equine, wine & hotel packages also available. Ricochet Ridge Ranch, Fort Bragg; 707.964.9669; www.horse-vacation.com.

Hunt for the Wild Mushroom Mountain Bike Ride

Put the fun in “fungi” with daily bike tours through the local forests in search the magical mushroom.  All levels, rentals available.  Nov 8/9 and 15/16.  Mendo Bike Sprite, Fort Bragg; 707.962.4602;www.mendobikesprite.com.

Mushrooms at the Mendocino Coast Botanical Gardens

Join staff mycologist Mario Abreu for a series of mushroom workshops and walks at the Botanical Gardens. Daily.  Fort Bragg; 707.964.4352×16; www.gardenbythesea.org.

 Pygmy Forest Ecological Staircase Hike & Educational Hunt

Daily tours from beach to bluffs traversing 100,000 years in geology on each of the five terraces.  Forage for fungi enroute.  Jug Handle State Reserve, Caspar; 707.937.5804; www.jughandlecreekfarm.com/staircase-trail.

Mushroom Exploration Tours

Join local mycologist Adrienne Long for all things mushroom at the Stanford Inn before heading out to the forests and meadows for a full immersion.  Daily.  Stanford Inn, Mendocino; 707.937.5615;www.stanfordinn.com.

 

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Hotel del Coronado offers Labor Day package in San Diego

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Hotel del Coronado shines at dusk in San Diego. (Photo courtesy of Hotel del Coronado)

Hotel del Coronado shines at dusk in San Diego. (Photo courtesy of Hotel del Coronado)

For those looking to celebrate a long, Labor Day Weekend with a glimpse into classic Victorian architecture dating back to the holiday’s origin without sacrificing the modern amenities of today, Hotel del Coronado is offering two packages for some end-of-summer savings.

Del Beach & Breakfast Package

Start the day with an ocean-view breakfast, and then lounge all day on the new “Del Beach” and enjoy the warm sun and sparkling blue waves while sipping a cocktail or enjoying a beach lunch. The “Del Beach & Breakfast” package includes:

15% off overnight accommodations (two night minimum stay)

  • Daily breakfast buffet for two at Sheerwater (includes tax and gratuity)
  • One full-day rental of two luxury lounge chairs and a half-moon cabanette at Del Beach
  • Promo Code: DELBEACH1

 Del Perks Package

Get some added perks included in your room rate when you stay two nights or more! With the “Del Perks” offer, your room rate includes your:

 Daily resort charge (a $56 value based on a two-night stay)

  • Overnight self-parking (a $74 value based on a two-night stay)
  • A daily $50 resort credit (a $100 value based on a two-night stay)
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Mammoth Mountain: Beginning mountain bikers welcome

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By Richard Irwin, Staff Writer

Beginning mountain bikers should head over to the Discovery Zone to learn the skills they’ll need on Mammoth Mountain. The Pioneer Practice Loop is an easy quarter-mile loop that can build riders’ confidence in being able to handle the mechanical marvels that are today’s mountain bikes.

The Adventure and Discovery trails match a mellow slope with smooth turns and surfaces. Both are great beginner trails served by the Discovery chairlift behind the Main Lodge.

Once the beginner trails are mastered, riders move up to the Explorer Trail with its banked paver turns, slightly steeper pitch and skills park. This park introduces riders to the man-made features on the trails, from small drops to rainbow bridges.

Every Saturday, Woolly, the mountain-biking mascot — joins the riders on the Discovery Trail headed for the Adventure Center. How the rider in the bulky woolly mammoth costume can see where he is going is beyond me, but it is hilarious fun.

The Bike Park closes in late September, but it goes out with a bang with the Mammoth Kamikaze Bike Games Sept. 18-21. The ultimate mountain biking event features pro GRT downhill, the Kamikaze Downhill, enduro, gravity fed cyclo cross, cross country, dual slalom and kids races.

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Mammoth Mountain: Bike park offers 80 miles of single track

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By Richard Irwin, Staff Writer

Mammoth Mountain’s Bike Park boasts 80 miles of single track. With a vertical rise of more than 3,000 feet, the resort offers 3,500 acres of riding.

More than half of the 42 named trails can be handled by beginner and intermediate riders. Another third are reserved for advanced riders, while 20 percent is recommended for professional riders only. They can all be reached from the Panorama Gondola.

Some of the downhill trails have developed a cult following. Some brave riders take Kamikaze, the first trail dating back to 1987, which sends them barreling down 2,000 feet of fire road from the summit to the Main Lodge.

The Twilight Zone ski trail has carved-out berms and pavers. Then there’s Pipeline, a trail with many man-made features including dirt jumps, wooden ramps, trestles gaps and a great step-up jump.

A little less harrowing is Beach Cruiser, a wonderful 4-mile intermediate track. It climbs through large Lodgepole pines before looping around Reds Lake for a long roller coaster ride back to the Main Lodge.

Then there’s Paper Route/Skid Marks/Manzanita, the intermediate course used for the resort’s 8/24 Endurance Race. This rolling loop offers fast downhills and technical sections, as well as a couple switchbacks at the far end. (This year’s race, originally scheduled for this weekend, was cancelled.)

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Mammoth Mountain: Ventura family rolls Off the Top

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By Richard Irwin, Staff Writer

Visitors can take the gondola up to the peak for the scenic view, and some passengers bring their mountain bikes along. Once on the top, mountain bikers can go rolling down the steep slopes, navigating around the boulders that are usually hidden deep in the snow.

A Ventura family rolled their bikes off the gondola, ready to tackle the mountain. The Boudreaux clan, including mom Tina, her husband and their two teenage sons, Tyler and Trevor, had spent the morning riding around the lower trails and were ready for a big ride.

“It’s really, really fun so far,” said Tina Boudreaux. “The weather is perfect.”

The adventurous family was going Off the Top. That’s the name of the intermediate trail zigzagging down the back of the mountain. Just as it does for ski trails, the resort has classified the bike trails from beginner to expert.

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Mammoth Mountain: Dodger the Bulldog frolics in the snow

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By Richard Irwin, Staff Writer

Mammoth Mountain can be a lot of fun in the summer if given a chance. I’ve only been there skiing in the winter — it is one of my favorite ski resorts — so I didn’t have a clue about what it offers in the sunny summer months.

To my surprise, there were still patches of snow on the 11,000-foot summit. Which made for some fun for Dodger, a burly English bulldog, who hadn’t seen snow before.

The Shryne family of Whittier brought Dodger along with their sons, Nathan and Brady. The family of four was vacationing at nearby June Lake to get some trout fishing in, and decided to take a break and visit the mountain.

“I wanted to show them the great views, and show Dodger some snow,” said Joe Shryne.

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Borrego Springs: Desert town makes great weekend getaway

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Photo courtesy of San Diego Visitors and Convention Bureau

Photo courtesy of San Diego Visitors and Convention Bureau

By Steve Scauzillo, Staff Writer

If hiking, botany or four-wheeling are not your things, Borrego Springs can be a great weekend getaway for the metropolitan couple or the Southern California family. Though remember, this is not Frank Sinatra’s Rat Pack desert. You are far from the car-choked boulevards of Palm Springs or the highway-close Indian casinos.

Borrego Springs (borrego is Spanish for bighorn sheep), is a fancy name for an isolated desert valley east of Temecula and west of the Salton Sea.

The town has two main streets: Palm Canyon Drive and Yaqui Pass Road. You know you are there when you see the traffic circle, known as Christmas Circle. From here, actually a city park, spin a cluster of restaurants and inns.

Some notable places to stay include the Borrego Valley Inn, a 15-room hotel; the Borrego Springs Resort & Spa, a 1970s-like throwback with a karaoke room and a bar that is straight out of “Mad Men,” one of our favorite places to hang out (don’t miss the all-day happy hour); or the low-budget Hacienda del Sol motel. For RVers, there’s the Leapin Lizard RV Ranch in nearby Ocotillo Wells, and the Desert Sands RV Park in town.

We stayed at the newly restored La Casa Del Zorro, a 42-acre resort with five swimming pools, main room and individual casitas. We went in early June and the air conditioning at the place didn’t work. Even the AC in the casitas, where they finally moved us, didn’t bring down the temperatures inside the bedroom to less than 82 degrees.

Learn from our experience: Don’t go in the summer unless you don’t mind heat. In fact, most tourists visit in February and March, but Raffetto advised booking a stay for November or December, when the highs are 77 degrees and 69 degrees, respectively, as opposed to June, July and August, when the mercury tops out above 100 degrees.

From desert wildflowers to dazzling sky displays including a glimpse of the Milky Way, Borrego Springs makes you feel like you’ve left civilization behind.

In a way, you have.

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Borrego Springs: Feasting on grand canyon at Font’s Point

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By Steve Scauzillo, Staff Writer

My cautious side resisted the suggestion.

“Really, it is a tradition here in Borrego Springs,” explained our guide, Joe Raffetto of California Overland Desert Excursions.

My wife, Karen, and I hadn’t noticed that Raffetto had tossed his grimy baseball cap in the yellow Jeep we rode in on and put on a suede cowboy hat. He was ready for what would happen next.

I gave in. “OK,” I answered, lowering my head.

“Stand together. Look down at your feet. Walk 10 big steps, then stop and look up,” he instructed. I could hear my tennis shoes squishing against the coarse sand until I stopped and looked out.

My eyes feasted on a 360-degree panorama of the badlands of Anza-Borrego Desert State Park, sprawled in Technicolor reality.

This Grand Canyon-like place appeared out of nowhere. The precipice held steady as hot desert winds tickled my back. I felt like “The Lion King’s” Simba on Pride Rock surveying my kingdom.

We had arrived at Font’s Point, a landmark four miles off County Road S-22 and Route 78, not far from the golf courses and emerging resorts of the small town of Borrego Springs, yet separated from civilization in both space and time.

Font’s Point, named after Father Pedro Font, the chaplain who accompanied Juan Bautista de Anza on the journey to Monterey in 1775, amazed those pioneers then and is still delivering today.

From the edge, I could see striated rock canyons carved by ancient riverbeds. It’s a place of mammoth fossils from the Pliocene Epoch unearthed by paleontologists. It was a place once teeming with giant mammals until the Colorado River veered south and left it dry.

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The Mission Inn: Fine dining offers steak, seafood, pizza and brunch

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54 Degrees at Duane's (Photo courtesy of The Mission Inn)

54 Degrees at Duane’s (Photo courtesy of The Mission Inn)

By Richard Irwin, Staff Writer

For more upscale dining, try Duane’s Prime Steaks and Seafood at The Mission Inn. The very elegant restaurant has received the AAA Four Diamond Award since 1996, as well as Wine Spectator’s award of excellence.

We loved the warm amber decor and marveled at the central masterpiece, “Charge Up San Juan Hill.” The 8-by-6-foot painting of Teddy Roosevelt and the Rough Riders is one of the largest paintings in The Mission Inn.

54 Degrees at Duane’s wine bar next door offers 28 wines by the glass and 285 wines by the bottle. The simpler Mission Inn Restaurant is famous for its champagne brunch on Sundays, with unique food stations and a mimosa bar.

Las Campanas Mexican Cantina in the front courtyard offers seating under shady umbrellas. We sampled the signature margaritas and Mexican cuisine for lunch.

Bella Trattoria Italian Bistro, located under an outside arcade on the pedestrian plaza, offers southern Italian cooking with pizzas baked in a brick oven, custom pasta dishes and pressed panini sandwiches.

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