A.M. Murrow

Some of the best steak dinners in California are not served in fancy downtown dining rooms with white tablecloths. One of them sits near a busy stretch of highway in a small Solano County town, inside a building that looks a lot like a log cabin. Folks drive in from Sacramento, the Bay Area, and […]

Some summer plans are worth making months ahead, and this one comes with a bucket attached. Up in the Butte County foothills above Chico, nine acres of organic blueberry bushes are resting through the off-season and getting ready for June. The farm is small, family-run, and easy to miss if you do not know where

You walk in needing one zipper and two yards of cotton. An hour later, you are holding a velvet remnant, a bag of buttons, and a plan for three projects you did not have this morning. That is the magic of a truly big fabric store, and California has some of the best ones around.

Highway 395 is a long, lonely ribbon of road, and the small towns along it tend to blur together until one of them gives you a reason to hit the brakes. In the tiny Owens Valley town of Big Pine, that reason has a smoker, a service window, and a parking lot that fills up

Some bookstores take ten minutes to browse. This one in Berkeley, California, asks for your entire afternoon and usually gets it. Four floors of shelves climb above a busy street near the university, packed with used titles, rare finds, academic texts, and enough fiction to fill a small town library. People walk in planning to

Highway 41 carries a steady stream of cars toward Yosemite, and most drivers never guess what is hiding in the trees just off the road. A short distance from the pavement, a historic steam locomotive pulls open cars along a winding track into a part of the Sierra National Forest that no car can reach.

Cars are not allowed on the main streets here, and that single rule changes everything. Horses pull a working stagecoach down the road, a blacksmith keeps busy at the forge, and kids crouch over troughs hoping for a fleck of gold. Shops sell candy, hats, and leather goods from storefronts that look like they were

Some Sacramento residents set their alarms for a reason that has nothing to do with work. They drive across town in the dark, park in a small lot, and line up at a window for a box of maple bars. The shop they visit has no seats, no dining room, and no fancy menu boards.

Every fall, a stretch of hilly orchard country above Placerville turns into a weekend ritual for thousands of California families. Cars line up under apple trees, kids race toward ponies and a duck-filled pond, and grown-ups leave carrying pies stacked like trophies. Some families have made the trip for nearly fifty years, and they now

Trains once rolled through the suburbs east of the Oakland hills, and today bikes, sneakers, and scooters have taken over their old route. The path is flat, mostly paved, and long enough to fill a whole Saturday. Riders link town centers, stop for lunch, and roll home without sharing a lane with a single car.

Some roads are built for getting somewhere fast. This one is built for slowing down. On certain days in far Northern California, a ten-mile ribbon of pavement through ancient redwoods closes to cars and opens to bikes, and the whole forest suddenly belongs to people on two wheels. The trees here were old long before

Thrifting in Fresno has changed a lot, and not every shop still feels like a real bargain. Some of the big names have raised prices, which sends smart shoppers looking for smaller stores that still treat a deal like a deal. This list covers nine Fresno thrift shops that keep pulling people back, from nonprofit

From the parking lot, the building on El Cajon Boulevard looks like a modest row of storefronts. Inside, it keeps going, room after room, with bolts of cotton lined up by color, theme, and collection. Quilters drive for hours to shop here, and some admit they plan their weekends around the weekly sales. Garment sewists

Some families mark birthdays with cake at home. Others put on their best jackets, line up at a valet stand in Pico Rivera, and head inside a wood-paneled dining room that looks like it never got the memo about casual dining. For decades, this steakhouse has been the go-to spot for anniversaries, Mother’s Day dinners,

Somewhere in Pasadena, a model train hangs from the ceiling, and nobody minds looking up. Down below, the walls hold track pieces, scenery kits, tiny buildings, and rows of railroad books. This shop has been serving model railroad fans since 1984, which makes it older than most of the people who walk in asking for

Some of the best meals on the California coast come out of tiny counters, takeout windows, and harbor shacks with picnic tables out front. This list follows Highway 1 and the harbors along it, from the oyster country of Tomales Bay all the way down to Malibu. Each stop serves real seafood with real views,

Some dogs live for the moment the leash comes off the hook and the car keys start jingling. California has an amazing mix of trails that welcome four-legged hikers, from shady redwood groves near Oakland to breezy ocean bluffs in Santa Barbara and canyon creeks in San Diego. This list rounds up 13 spots where

Some downtown shortcuts get you from one street to the next, and that is about it. One narrow passage in Redlands, California, decided to aim higher, quite literally. Hundreds of multicolored umbrellas float above the walkway, painted walls line both sides, and little cafe tables wait for anyone ready to slow down. Not long ago,

When the calendar flips to fall, some cravings show up right on schedule, and a good pot pie sits near the top of the list. In Arcadia, a small family restaurant has been building its whole reputation around that one dish for decades. Families who grew up eating these pies now bring their own kids,

Some places chase trends, and some places simply keep the grill going for half a century. In Riverside, California, one family-run stop has been serving charbroiled burgers and thick shakes since 1974, long before anyone carried a phone in their pocket. The sign still glows, the patio still fills up, and the menu is long

Some shoppers in Visalia have a weekly ritual, and it has nothing to do with the mall. They head to one small thrift store, flip through crowded racks, grab a coffee from the counter inside, and almost never leave empty-handed. Shirts can go for about four dollars, the playlist is part of the charm, and

Some walks fade from memory before you even reach the car. This one tends to stick around for days. Just north of San Francisco, a flat, well-kept path winds past some of the tallest trees on the planet, and you do not need hiking boots or a fitness plan to enjoy it. The catch is

Some of the best dessert stops in California come with a garden walk built right in. These seven cafes sit inside nurseries, botanical gardens, historic estates, and flower-covered cottages, so you can stroll past roses, koi ponds, or ocean bluffs before you sit down for something sweet. It is an easy plan for a birthday,

Most loaves of bread travel a long road before they reach your kitchen. The wheat grows in one state, gets milled in another, and lands on a store shelf after a trip that nobody ever talks about. In a small Ventura County town, one bakery has cut that road down to almost nothing. The wheat

Big chain craft stores are fine for basics, but they rarely carry the bolt that makes you stop in your tracks. California has a quieter network of fabric shops where the shelves run high, the button drawers run deep, and the prints are hard to find anywhere else. Some are decades-old institutions, some are warehouse-sized

Most beach days on the California coast involve a towel, a cooler, and a hunt for parking. A few lucky people trade all of that for a saddle and a horse that already knows the way to the sand. Just north of Half Moon Bay, a working ranch sends riders across coastal fields, through a

California and cheap housing rarely share a sentence, yet one small northern town keeps proving the rule has exceptions. Far from coastal traffic and bidding wars, listings here can still land under $75,000, a number that sounds like a typo to most Californians. Families priced out of bigger cities have noticed, and the curiosity keeps

Grown adults are tearing up in front of old pencil sketches, and nobody here finds that strange. Tucked into a historic corner of San Francisco, one museum tells the story of a Missouri farm boy who turned doodles into a worldwide dream. The exhibits hold original drawings, rare footage, personal letters, and a giant model

Some bookstores ask you to hurry. This one seems built for the opposite, with long aisles, little stools at the ends of the shelves, and a pace so relaxed that a shop cat would feel right at home curling up between the paperbacks. Sacramento readers have trusted this shop for generations, and it recently moved

Some restaurants chase trends every few months, and some just keep the coffee pot moving and the griddle hot. In Chico, there is a family diner that has been feeding the town since the 1960s, and it still opens its doors at 6:30 every single morning. The menu leans on pancakes, waffles, hearty breakfast plates,

Fewer than 300 people live in this mountain town, yet it carries the title of county seat. That is a big job for a small place. Tucked into the northern Sierra Nevada of California, it sits where a river cuts a deep path through steep, forested country. Long ago, people came here chasing gold. Today,

Some of the best soaks in California come with no ticket booth, no towel service, and no price tag at all. Just east of a small mountain town, a bumpy dirt road climbs to a handful of steaming pools carved into pale rock, with jagged Sierra peaks lined up across the horizon. People drive hours

A lace curtain and rod once flew off a closed front door with nobody in sight, and that was before the tour even started. Moments like that keep a certain old house in San Diego’s Old Town busy from morning until well after dark. Some guests come for the history, some come hoping for a

California once had drive-in theaters on the edge of nearly every town, and a handful still flip on their projectors when the sun goes down. These spots let you watch new movies from your own car, tune the sound in on your radio, and grab popcorn from an old-school snack bar. Some sit along desert

Some shoppers plan a quick stop for a zipper and walk out two hours later with a cart full of cotton, linen, and fleece. That happens a lot at one family-owned fabric warehouse in Anaheim, California. Sewists drive an hour or more to reach it, and some even fly in from other states and come

Some restaurants ask you to dress up for dinner. One steakhouse in San Dimas, California, asks you to do the opposite, and it enforces the rule with a pair of scissors. Show up in a necktie and a server will happily cut it off, then hang it on the wall with hundreds of others. Nobody