California
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The Greatest Diving Sites in the World
The vertiginous void of the Great Blue Hole offers divers the feeling of facing off with the edge of the world
March 28, 2012 |
By Alastair Bland
Booze Cruise: The Best Local Liquors to Try While Traveling
Fermentation has been replicated independently in nearly every region of earth, and many of the drinks various cultures brew are well worth a journey
March 22, 2012 |
By Alastair Bland
The World’s Best Uphill Bike Rides
Long, steady climbs on a bicycle are the holy grail of athletic conquests. We hill climbers measure the worth of a landscape by its rise over run
March 20, 2012 |
By Alastair Bland
Wildflower Hunting in the California Desert
March is the traditional time to view the fab flora in Joshua Tree National Park
March 15, 2012 |
By Susan Spano
Why Do You Travel?
What is it we look for over mountains and across oceans? What do we find, or hope to find? Answer our survey and we'll publish responses in the May issue of Smithsonian
March 12, 2012 |
By Alastair Bland
Great Walks of the World
The fact that people opt to walk today, in the age of the wheel and the combustion engine, tells us there is something virtuous and irresistible in the plodding of one foot forward after the other
March 06, 2012 |
By Alastair Bland
L.A.’s Answer to the Yellow Brick Road
A group including the actor Jack Nicholson has tried to get Dirt Mulholland on the National Register of Historic Places
January 30, 2012 |
By Susan Spano
Evolution World Tour: La Brea Tar Pits, California
Just a short drive from the mansions of Beverly Hills lies a site where paleontologists have found over three million fossils
January 01, 2012 |
By Marian Holmes
Best Bets to See a Big Predator
Get your grizzlies, polar bears, big cats, wolves and crocs here
December 30, 2011 |
By Alastair Bland
The Most Pungent Prize: Hunting the Truffle
“As a journalist working on a story about truffles, it felt like risky business. There’s a lot of cash flowing around, there’s a black market, and I felt like I was entering a world where I wasn’t wanted”
December 06, 2011 |
By Alastair Bland
Books on Bike Perfection and Women’s Bike-Won Freedom
Women's clothing was a problem, and to efficiently ride a bike there was only one thing to do: Take it off
December 01, 2011 |
By Alastair Bland
How to Install a 340-ton Work of Art
Michael Heizer waited decades to find the perfect rock for his Levitated Mass, and now he awaits its slow journey from the quarry to an L.A. art museum
November 09, 2011 |
By Michal Lemberger
California’s Disappearing Apple Orchards
In Sonoma County, apple growers battle against the wine industry and cheap Chinese imports
November 02, 2011 |
By Alastair Bland
Downtown L.A. Edges Toward Livability
In downtown L.A. the vibe remains edgy, but that's the point
October 10, 2011 |
By Susan Spano
William Faulkner’s Hollywood
William Faulkner fans have more territory to explore than Oxford, Mississippi. The great Southern novelist spent notable years in Los Angeles, where many of his favorite haunts remain
September 16, 2011 |
By Susan Spano
Making Beautiful Art out of Beach Plastic
Artists Judith and Richard Lang comb the California beaches, looking for trash for their captivating, yet unsettling work
July 14, 2011 |
By Jeff Greenwald
Turning Bamboo Into a Bicycle
A cycling entrepreneur has turned to the durable plant as a low-tech and affordable option for building bikes
June 29, 2011 |
By Jeff Greenwald
The Historic Saloons of Central California
Not even rumors of apparitions could stop a group of eager drinking companions from investigating these ghost town bars
June 24, 2011 |
By Matt Kettmann
The California Surf Museum
Learn about the evolution of the surfboard from 1912 through 2008 in this small gallery in Oceanside, California
June 2011 |
By Rodes Fishburne
The Museum of Jurassic Technology
A throwback to the private museums of earlier centuries, this Los Angeles spot has a true hodgepodge of natural history artifacts
June 2011 |
By Tony Perrottet
