Sausalito, CA This artists’ village is just off the Golden Gate Bridge in upscale Marin County. Most of the small city offers a spectacular view of the Golden Gate Bridge, Richardson Bay, and many houseboats in the bay. It’s a popular day-trip destination, with sheer cliffs and a rugged shoreline dotted with trails and villages….
5 Seaside Getaways to take this summer from Boston, while safely Social Distancing: Cape Cod, MA No matter where you are coming from, Bostonians always call it “the Cape.” Cape Cod is known for beautiful beaches along its 400 miles of shoreline. My favorite beaches are the ones along the Cape Cod National Seashore, especially…
Santa Barbara, known as “the American Riviera”, is a beautiful ritzy beach town with a mountain backdrop. Every year in college I participated in an event called the All Sorority Volleyball Tournament (ASVT) at UCSB; all I witnessed was beautiful college students taking their beach cruiser to the beach to play volleyball or surf. Playboy…
San Luis Obispo (or SLO for short), is a small city in California’s Central Coast. SLO’s location makes it a popular and manageable weekend getaway for Los Angelenos and San Franciscans alike, as it’s 3 hours from LA and 3.5 hours from San Francisco. SLO was originally developed around the Mission San Luis Obispo de…
The Santa Cruz Mountains are dappled with houses among wooded forest. This is what I picture Marin County, thirty years ago before it was turned over by tech yuppies looking for a rustic home. The “Mountain Folk” as my friend who lives there adoringly calls herself and her neighbors, are friendly and remind you of…
The urbane, classic New England town is located about 25 miles north of Boston via route 93. It is home to one of the most prestigious and oldest prep schools in the country, Phillips Academy, colloquially known as “Andover” to its preppy student body. The downtown sidewalks are lined with historic brick buildings and…
Carmel-by-the-Sea is a small beach city on the Monterey Peninsula, two hours south of San Francisco. Historically a Bohemian artists village, Carmel-by-the-Sea has been home to many famous people such as Doris Day, John Madden, Ansel Adams, and John Steinbeck. Clint Eastwood was not only a resident, he was elected Mayor of Carmel. The picturesque…
Oakland, a melting pot of all cultures. The birthplace of the Black Panther Movement. At one time or another, home to writers Gertrude Stein and Jack London. Continually labeled the Brooklyn of the West, Oakland has been rapidly gentrified with a notable infusion of hipsters and young professionals. Older buildings are being refurbished buildings, as…
The rolling green hills are decorated with honey-colored limestone houses with stone shingled roofs. Each village seems quintessentially British with a local pub and tea shops downtown. With the industrial revolution and the development of cotton this region saw a major economic decline and many people left the countryside for the city. Now it’s a…
St. Augustine, the oldest European settlement in the United States, was founded by the Spanish explorer Pedro Menendez de Aviles in 1565. It was originally called La Florida (“Land of Flowers”) by Spanish explorer Juan Ponce de Leon, who claimed the land in the name of Spain on March 27, 1513. The Land of Flowers…
Located in the Puglia region of Italy, at the top of the heel, Martina Franca is an ancient town known for its fine food, home-grown wine, textiles, soccer and opera music. The white sandstone buildings are tanned with age and rooftop crevices provide space for wildflowers to grow. The green and blue shutters provide a…
Located just across the Charles River from Boston, Cambridge is easily accessible by public transit, with multiple stations on the MBTA’s red line and one station on the green line. As the home to Harvard University and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (M.I.T.), Cambridge attracts many academics and hosts many high-tech companies. It is the…