There are a number of different Chinatowns in California these days. The one in San Francisco is probably the best known, as it’s fairly large and still thriving, very popular with tourists. In contrast, San Luis Obisbo’s Chinatown has very nearly disappeared, with only one original building remaining — Ah Louis store, first built in 1874. One of the main […]
Clovis is a classic small California town, founded back in 1891 and now growing beyond anything Mr. Clovis Cole could have imagined. I’ve never spent much time in this part of the state, but if you’ve ever traveled to the southern Sierra near Huntington or Shaver lakes you would have passed right through Clovis — just east of Fresno — […]
These days you’ll find a lot of vineyards in other parts of California, but Napa is still a strong wine-producing region. Still, as Huell has said, there’s so much more to this beautiful Northern California county. I’ve never spent much time in the Napa Valley, but my short visit to the Calistoga area last May was a super fun experience. […]
When Huell attended the grand reopening of the railroad depot in Perris on January 31, 2009, it was not his first visit to this community in Riverside County; you may recall his tour of the railway museum from 2003. I always love to see California towns embrace their history as they move forward into the future, and Perris seems to […]
If you get a kick out of succulents, you’ll enjoy this episode of Visiting, originally aired November 2002. With a laid-back central coast vibe, a wide variety of cactus, and plenty of room for local artists to work out their creative urges, this former nursery along the coast a few miles south of Hearst San Simeon State Park was definitely […]
The Audubon Kern River Preserve is located between Weldon, California and Isabella Reservoir, on the South Fork of the Kern River. First established in 1979, it’s now recognized as a Globally Important Bird Area: over 200 species nest each year in this prime area along the Pacific flyway. Through a series of purchases from local landowners, over the years the […]
Another beautiful day in Southern California and another state beach I have never had the pleasure of seeing in person. This episode of California’s Golden Parks, originally aired in February 2006, features Carpinteria State Beach is just twelve miles south of Santa Barbara and is a great family destination that offers a mile of beach for swimming, surfing, fishing, tidepool […]
I’ve lived in Northern California all my life, so maybe it’s no surprise that I never really knew about the “world-famous” surf at Trestles in the San Onofre State Beach — although I do remember traveling along Interstate 5 and seeing the cooling towers of the nearby San Onofre Nuclear Power Plant (shut down since 2013). Still, Huell’s enthusiasm is […]
The early history of California is filled with not only Spanish missions and gold discoveries (not to mention the indigenous peoples) but huge tracts of land operated as cattle ranches by the Californios. Here in Northern California, the neighborhood I’m sitting in was once part of the vast San Juan Rancho land grant; and down in Southern California it’s just […]