The library and the beach

The words Marine Research Library and kids just don’t seem like a good match. So I have always avoided the stairs leading up to the library at the Cabrillo Marine Aquarium in San Pedro. Between the whale fossils and touch tanks, authentic shark recordings and nearby beach access, it always seemed like a full day anyway by the time we reached that sign.

Boy, were we wrong.

The library is an oasis from the Cabrillo Beach crowds that just happens to understand exactly what kids need to settle down. Its oceanfront reading table, which is as long as a dining table at Versailles, is full of sea creature sketches and boxes of beautiful crayons and markers, just beckoning the little ones to sit down and check them out. Surrounding it all is a decade’s worth of National Geographic magazines, books on marine life and displays on the damage plastic can do to the ocean (I guarantee you will never purchase a disposable umbrella again). Half a dozen computers are available, too, also with ocean views.

The $400 weekend getaway

It came down to this: Two exhausted parents needed a quick getaway while grandparents were in town to babysit. Should we spend our limited budget on one night in a luxury hotel near home or two nights at a no-frills beachfront inn? We opted for the extra time and booked a room for $125 a night at the three-story Inn on the Beach in Ventura. We weren’t disappointed, and the whole weekend was enhanced by the fact we weren’t racking up the credit card bill.

Don’t expect luxury at the Inn on the Beach, but it’s clean and friendly. You will be accosted by Victorian-esque wallpaper (pink and green and very unhip) upon entering the lobby and rooms, but this is quickly trumped by the uninhibited ocean views from all the 2^nd and 3^rd floor rooms. We took long walks on the beach, discovered a great fish and chips place nearby, and spent hours reading and watching the waves from the balcony. I won’t soon forget waking up the first morning and sipping my first cup of coffee while gazing at those magnificent Pacific waves.

One of these days, we’ll check out the Langham Pasadena, but we have no regrets at all about our budget beach getaway. All in, the weekend cost us about $400, including gas and meals.

Navigating Koreatown’s spas

“Number 15. Number 15, please.” The old woman in black-lace bra and panties navigates around the lounging bodies and loofah sponges. She is looking for me.
I’m Number 15. It’s mid-day at a brightly lit Korean spa in the basement of a historic building on Wilshire Boulevard, and I have checked my identity at the door.

For at least an hour or two, everyone who enters this little spa becomes, blissfully, just another number. Not a spouse, not a mother, not a daughter. Not a payer of bills, not even someone who needs to keep track of the car keys.
Spa Week has come and gone, but the dozens of Koreatown spas remain as an inexpensive and easy way to relax and detox in Los Angeles. At most of them, $15 or $20 gets you access to multiple Jacuzzis (hot, icy plunge, herbal tea and mugwort), sauna steams, and DIY body scrubbing equipment. For an extra $20 or $30, that nice woman in black bra and panties will scrub about a pound of dead skin from your body, wash and condition your hair, and send you off with a motherly pat.

I discovered Koreatown spas about two years ago while doing research for my book, Peaceful Places: Los Angeles. I disappeared into Beverly Hot Springs Spa on a Saturday afternoon and emerged a couple of hours later with a reinvigorated body and ready to tackle another chaotic dinner-bath-bed ritual with unusual relish.

I often get asked how it all works, so here’s a brief rundown on what to expect (followed by a couple of my favorite spas):
You check in at the front desk. A reservation is good if you’d like a massage or other service, but not usually necessary. You will be given a key and locker number. You will be told to shower and hang out in the sauna or Jacuzzi area until your number is called. Afterward, you can return to the Jacuzzis, or nap on a lounge chair (most spas have small quiet areas).

A few other things to know:
*You will probably see more naked women in one place than you ever have in your life.
*The massage/body scrub tables are spaced as close together as the tables at Starbucks.
*Expect unlimited quantities of cucumber water, hot barley tea, hair dryers, combs, and lotions.
*It’s not just for women. Most spas have separate facilities for men.

Here are two of my favorites:
Natura Spa, 3240 Wilshire Blvd. (213) 381-2288, www.natura-spa.com. Super clean, very bright, with a large (free) parking lot and a café on premise. The $80 body scrub and massage is terrific.
Beverly Hot Springs, 308 North Oxford Ave., (323) 734-7000,  www.beverlyhotsprings.com.  The Jacuzzi area is a little dark with a Costa Rica-meets-Gilligan’s Island waterfall, but the massage rooms are private, unlike most other Koreatown spas.

Harbor seal haven in Carpinteria

It isn’t often that you hear about a great California coastal destination by word of mouth. Seems like it has all been written about, photographed, and visited before. But my neighbor recently told me about a little-known place her Santa Barbara-based daughter had shown her: the Carpinteria Seal Rookery. About 100 harbor seals make their home at the bottom of the Carpinteria cliffs south of town. In December, they give birth and from a viewpoint atop the cliff, anyone can watch the mamas and babies frolic, waddle, argue, dive for fish, and sleep. It’s a beautiful show and worth the half-mile walk from the parking lot. It’s also an ideal place to stretch your legs to or from a trip up the coast. Be sure to stop and say hello to the friendly hot dog vendor near the entrance.

More information: http://www.carpinteria.com/points_of_interest/thesealrookery.

A wilderness preserve in Glendale

Gas prices and apprehensive curiosity brought me to the trails of Deukmejian Wilderness Park last Saturday. I wanted to test out a new phone application (more on that to follow in a separate post), but didn’t want to drive across town to do it ($4.29 a gallon!?).

The Station Fire ripped through this park in 2009, turning it into an apocolyptic wasteland, and it was closed for more than a year. I had heard parts of it had reopened, but was reluctant to check it out and destroy my peaceful memories of the place.

News flash: it’s as beautiful as ever.

Tucked into the northernmost Glendale, the park is named after George Deukmejian, former governor of California. Some serious money went into spiffing it up before the economy tanked. There is a wide lawn with picnic tables overlooking the Verdugo Mountains for post-hike relaxing and a restored barn surrounded by robust rows of grapevines.

The main loop trail (LeMesnegar) is slightly shorter than I remember (about 1.8 miles), but it’s in good condition and has a couple of nice turnoffs that lead to viewpoints. Half the trail has distant views of the 210 Freeway and the other half views of chaparral-covered hillsides that make you forget civilization is just around the bend. Charred oaks dot the landscape, but in hopeful contrast, wildflowers and wild fennel also coat the hills and illustrate nature’s power to fight back and survive. Interestingly, while cars jammed the pullout next to the La Tuna Canyon trails just across the freeway, Deukmejian only had a handful of cars in its ample lot. The longer and more strenuous Rim of the Valley trail is closed for the time being, so that may be one of the reasons.

Lemon Heaven

It’s sad but true: Lemons are taken for granted in southern California. We grow them in our backyards or have access to them practically year-round at grocery stores and farmers markets. We celebrate the avocado and the orange and strawberry with festivals and myriad recipes, while the lemon sits in our kitchens, loyal and versatile, only noticed when we run out or realize they have gone up to a dollar apiece and we are being scandalously ripped off.

This summer, I discovered a place where the lemon gets its due. Limoneira Ranch in Santa Paula is one of the oldest working lemon ranches in the country. Its citrus groves stretch across 1,800 acres on ocean-kissed hillsides a few miles east of the Ventura coast. Avocados are also a major crop.

Started as a citrus co-op that pre-dated Sunkist, Limoneira has added real estate and beauty and bath products to its coffers, yet its ranch still takes you back to old California. The wood-shingled packinghouse dates to the early 1900s and boasts a factory line with workers who hand-sort the lemons (in I Love Lucy-style hairnets) before they are packed up and trucked to Philadelphia, Dallas, and other places with a sad lack of citrus-friendly features.

Anyone may take a tour of Limoneira for $20 ($10 for seniors). It’s not exactly a bargain, but it’s a rare opportunity to see what happens to lemons between picking and being loaded onto supermarket-bound trucks, and it includes stops at a solar-powered orchard (home to 5,000 photovoltaic solar panels and a collection of miniature English sheep who keep the weeds at bay) and the visitors center, which doubles as a museum with fantastic displays of 1920s-era fruit crate art. Best of all, you get a small bag of near-flawless lemons and avocadoes to take home. For some reason, the ranch also has what just may be the most scenic bocce courts you will find anywhere. Bocce tournaments are held some weekends, but the ranch also encourages pickup games if the courts are open (just call ahead to make sure a wedding party isn’t in the middle of a photo opp).

When you’ve lived in L.A. awhile, it can be challenging to find a place that’s both new and engaging enough to be worth the drive. Here’s a truly unique destination that manages to showcase the area’s rural beauty and history. Long live the lemon.

Upper Arroyo Seco is Back in Business

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I walked the upper Arroyo Seco trail from JPL to Gould Mesa Campground for the first time in three years, and it’s just as peaceful and New Hampshire-like as I remember it. The sawhorses, trucks, and KEEP OUT signs are all gone. Heavy rains washed out parts of the trail in 2008, then the Station Fire came perilously close to the trailhead in summer 2009.

There are still signs of fire damage, but also plenty of signs of growth and the creek is still surprisingly robust for mid-summer. I made it as far as Gould Mesa campground (which can also be accessed from La Canada), though it looks like you can keep going farther into the forest. This trail is a local treasure that so many Altadenans and others seek out for exercise, shade, and quiet moments.

Chilling in Long Beach

I wasn’t really expecting to discover anything new and peaceful on a recent weekday visit to the Aquarium of the Pacific. I love the place and was looking forward to showing it to Theo, but this was at least my fifth trip here and I knew what to expect: impressive collections of sting rays, sharks, and clownfish, surrounded by lots and lots of kids on school field trips.

But we took our time exploring and reached the tanks of sea jellies after the pint-size crowds had thinned. I never had a chance to stop and appreciate their graceful beauty before. Some tanks housed dozens of tiny luminescent jellies, while others featured just one or two as big as basketballs hovering amid an ethereal blue background. Theo dubbed them flowers at first, but was persuaded to say jellyfish by the end of the day.

The other peaceful element of our trip was lunch on the balcony of the aquarium’s restaurant, Cafe Scuba. I had always assumed it was just another overpriced eatery within an attraction. But the fried fish tacos, at a reasonable $7 and made from locally caught sea bass, rank right up there with east L.A.’s finest. I’m sure the deck gets busy on weekends, but T and I had it (and its fabulous marina views) all to ourselves.

Things to do in L.A. before you die (or move back to Iowa)

For a very brief window last month, it looked like we might pack up and leave Los Angeles, and I admit I was a little freaked out. Despite my East Coast roots, I have come to love this city and my never-a-dull-moment existence. So…instead of worrying about the usual tornado of things brought on by moving an entire family across the country (schools, property taxes, and adjusting to more than 6 overcast days a year, e.g.), I focused on all the places I must visit here before departing.

High on my L.A. bucket list (on par with a happy-hour Ray’s Mistake at the Tiki Ti and a hike up to Mount Lowe) was a stop at House of Silvanas in Hollywood. This little bakery-within-a-restaurant makes delectable buttercream cookies that can’t be duplicated elsewhere (except maybe their two other branches in Northern California and the Phillippines).

Silvanas taste like a lighter, ethereal cross between a French macaroon and a cream puff — you may feel the urge to put on an Enya CD or rent “Peter Pan” as you bite into one. They are sold in $10 boxes of 12 and flavors include strawberry, mocha, lemon, and plain buttercream (my favorite).

Even though we’re staying put for now, I ran over and picked up a couple of boxes this week. The little kiosk was still there inside Kusina, a turo-turo market (Filipino fast-food joint) near the corner of Fountain and Vermont Avenues. The braised pork stew at the lunch counter looked good, but on this day I had eyes only for the silvanas.

Check back as I compile and check off more items for my L.A. bucket list. I’m thinking beaches and burgers are next!

Hiking in Solace

I was looking for a little down time Sunday before the Halloween activities reached full tilt. So I snuck away for a walk through one of my favorite neighborhoods, Mount Washington. Its Jack Smith Trail isn’t really a trail so much as a very pleasant nature-meets-city walk, but I included it in my book, 60 Hikes within 60 Miles: Los Angeles. It’s a great workout if you start at the steps on Marmion Way. They used to follow a funicular railway that carried Mt. W residents to and from their hilltop homes.

It was as nice and tranquil as I remembered it, but what made the walk even better was a detour down Seaview Lane just past Mt. Washington Elementary School. Follow the road until it ends, then continue on the dirt path.

You won’t be disappointed; when I saw the bench, I really wished I had brought along coffee and the Sunday papers.

Keep following the dirt path around and you will see that it reconnects with San Rafael Ave. From here, you can follow Moon Avenue, then noodle your way downhill to the Southwest Museum and Marmion Way. Next time I’ll take the kids (and skip the steps)…but on this day, I had the clear views and incredibly clean post-rain air to myself.