I grew up hearing the late California anchorman Jerry Dunphy begin his daily newscast with the slogan, "From the desert to the sea, to all of California, a good evening." My adventures on the freeways and backroads of California gave me great respect for the diversity of geography and culture of California. I learned how much California had to offer from attending public schools in the pre-proposition-13 years. Field trips were plentiful and took us to such places as Olveras Street in L.A. for Cinco de Mayo, viewing priceless antiquities at the original J. Paul Getty Museum in Malibu. We heard the LA Philharmonic at The Dorothy Chandler Pavilion, and explored marine life in the tidepools of Laguna's Crescent Cove.

Inland Valley residents often boast of our impressive radius of adventure within an hour (or so, we say, depending on traffic). We have beaches for sunbathing, surfing, dog-walking. We keep our snow in the mountains (where it belongs), easily reachable for skiing, snowboarding, and other snowplay. When it's raining here in the valley, a short trip across the Cabazon Pass into the Cochella Valley provides blue skies and sunshine for golf and tennis.

World class performances at the Walt Disney Concert Hall, the Orange County Performing Arts Center, or the legendary Hollywood Bowl are a short jog on the freeway. We can have courtside seats at Staples Center or sit behind home base at two different baseball stadiums only an hour (or so) away. We may not have a professional American football team within our radius, but we have British footballer David Beckham playing soccer with the L.A. Galaxy.

The beaches of Orange County, the culture of Los Angeles, and the wildlife of the mountains and desert were pieces of a mosaic that pictured a certain California lifestyle connected by freeways. The only place I remember going as a child that didn't require a freeway hop was the long trek to San Diego. For those Inland Valley residents who remember the days before I-15 brought San Diego within an hour (or so), San Diego was accessible from the Inland Valley only through old state route 395. It could take two or even three hours from Riverside to San Diego on Old Highway 395, a two-lane route that climbed and crawled through the hills and valleys.

Back then San Diego was a naval port city with a famous zoo. There was no Sea World, no convention center, no Seaport Village or Harbor Island. You saw naval ships moored in the harbor, not cruise ships. The Gaslamp District was just another downtown grid of businesses and there was no Petco Park overlooking the harbor.

The transformation of San Diego is as spectacular as the freeway connection of north and south. From the October opening of its newest luxury resort, The Grand Del Mar in North County, to the legendary Hotel Del Coronado in the south, to camping on the sand in tents or RVs, San Diego is freeway close, San Diego has retained that "getaway" mentality for Inland Valley residents.

I love a getaway. In next Sunday's Press-Enterprise you'll read about one of my favorite weekender locations about an hour (or so) south on the 15--San Diego.

Be sure to check out this week's travel feature from the Sunday Press-Enterprise: Road to Baja.

1 Comments

AJ Harbison on April 9, 2008 5:48 PM said:

I love the "hour (or so)"--so true!

I'm sad to say that I haven't yet attended a performance at the Walt Disney Concert Hall, but I love OCPAC and the Hollywood Bowl. Laguna Beach is awesome because it's the only 24-hour beach in the area (that I'm aware of, at least--the others generally close around 10 pm, which is far too early for us college-and-career types). And I have yet to visit the Getty but the girlfriend and I have it on our list of future dates. I'm looking forward to next week's article on S.D.!

AJ

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