Where in the World are the Wendells: October 2025

Dodger Stadium

Emerald Bay, Lake Tahoe

Sequoia N.P.

Los Angeles

We stayed in Chinatown since it's an easy walk to Dodger Stadium. Chinatown LA is much smaller than San Francisco's, and less characteristic as well. We attended the Phillies-Dodgers game while in LA. It's a very big climb up to Chavez Ravine to get to Dodger Stadium, which is the third-oldest baseball stadium after Fenway and Wrigley. The stadium's midcentury modern architecture looks like something from the Jetsons, and there are views of San Gabriel Mountains beyond the outfield.

In downtown LA, El Puebla is the site of the original Spanish settlement of Los Angeles in 1781. Olvera St has two blocks of restaurants and native (Mexican) stalls selling nearly everything; on Olvera we had a decent dinner at El Paseo Inn.

El Pueblo park

La Plaza Church

Olvera St, 1781 monument

Rose Bowl

Pasadena: We attended the Penn State-UCLA game at the Rose Bowl. It was great seeing the historic stadium. Penn State actually played in the very first game in the Rose Bowl in 1923 - they lost that one as well! Rocco's Tavern is a great sports bar on Green Street (other restaurants there as well), with great boneless wings and surprisingly good pizza.

Fox Theater Bakersfield

On the drive to northern California we stopped at Bakersfield to see the iconic Fox Theater, which is really the only noteworthy site in the town.

Visalia

Fox Theater Visalia

Visalia is a convenient place to stay when visiting Sequoia NP, and is worth visiting in its own right, including some important historical elements. Visalia was a critical stop on many overland routes into California, on the western edge of the Sierra Nevadas. The walking tour (get a map from the Tourist Information office) was interesting, with 18 historic buildings described, plus a monument to the stage stop on Butterfield's Overland Mail stage coach service that stopped at Visalia on its route from St Louis to San Francisco from 1858-1861. An historical marker identifies the former stage coach stop on Main Street.

Butterfield Overland Mail

The Darling Hotel is an art deco 1930's city hall converted to a hotel with a nice rooftop lounge. Lunch at Bistro Bufala was very good. Dinner at Brewbaker's, the blackened salmon chowder was exceptional, chicken tortilla soup was very good, great fries, the pizza burger was creative.

Sequoia National Park

We had breakfast at the Gateway Restaurant and Lodge, right outside the park; it had an outdoor deck with a beautiful view of the Kaweah River strewn with huge boulders.

Gen Sherman Tree Sequoia

Sequoia Keweah River

Sequoia

Gen Grant Tree

Sequoia NP

Driving through the Giants Forest is amazing, with massive Sequoia trees looming overhead. The General Sherman tree is the largest living organism on earth, standing 295 feet tall and a trunk 30 feet in diameter. The General Grant tree is not quite as large, but it is 1500 years old! King's Canyon road is incredible - we were above the clouds looking down into a mile-deep canyon. Cedar Grove is down in that valley, looking up at sheer granite cliffs. At the end of that road, Zumwalt Meadow is a tranquil spot nestled in the valley between those cliffs. Driving the winding, narrow road to Promontory Point was worth the spectacular view.

Kings Canyon NP

Cedar Grove

Promontory Point

Zumwalt Meadow

Driving to Lake Tahoe took us through stunning regions of the Sierra Nevada Mountains. Murphys is a really cute town in the foothills of the Sierra Nevada. Main St has a Napa vibe with wineries, cafes and shops; President U.S. Grant stayed at the Murphys Hotel when he visited Calaveras Big Tree Park. We had a great breakfast at Grounds.

Calaveras Big Tree State Park provides a self-guided 1.5 mile walk through massive Sequoia Redwoods. The Centennial Stump is what remains of the enormous Redwood cut down for the 1876 Centennial Exposition in Philadelphia.

Centennial Stump

Calaveras S.P.

Calaveras S. P.

California Route 4 is an amazing drive through cedar and pine forests, climbing to 8000 feet, with incredible views across mountains and valleys while driving through Ebbett's Pass.

Ebbetts Pass

South Lake Tahoe

The town of South Lake Tahoe feels like Vegas by the lake, with huge casinos looming literally across the street in Nevada. We stayed at the Forest Suites hotel, dated rooms but spacious and very well located. Azul Kitchen was good Mexican, with outdoor dining.

We spent a day driving route CA-29 around Lake Tahoe, an official American Byway. The Lake Tahoe area is perhaps the most beautiful scenic area we have visited, with the clear water of the lake and a backdrop of the stunning Sierra Nevada Mountains. Cave Rock Trail climbs a massive monolith that juts into the lake, providing great views across the lake to the Sierra Nevadas. Sand Harbor was a beautiful beach overlooking the lake. We drove through Incline Village and marveled at the outrageously expensive houses. One just sold for $12m and it doesn't even have a lake view! Tahoe City has a nice main street that overlooks the lake and mountains.

Alpine Meadow

Cave Rock

Sand Harbor

We took a detour to Truckee, an old railroad junction where trainloads of silver from Virginia City would be transferred to San Francisco. The Truckee Diner serves adequate food but I wanted to see where the founders of Workday met to plan the start of their new business venture (Truckee Diner lives in Workday lore). The nearby Donner Memorial and Emigrant Museum provided an interesting history of the tragic Donner Party pioneers trapped over the winter of 1846 at this spot in the Sierra Nevadas.

Truckee Gas Station

Truckee Diner

Donner Memorial

Olympic Village

Rejoining the lake road, we took an amazing hike up Eagle Rock Trail to stand on a promontory with incredible 180-degree views of the lake. We visited Olympic Village, home of he 1960 Winter Olympics. Sugar Pine Point State Park is the former summer estate of wealthy San Francisco elites. The Hollman-Ehrman Mansion was built in 1902 with stunning views of the lake. Our final stop was famous Emerald Bay. There are several overlooks that we stopped at to see the bay from multiple angles. Depending on the view and the light, the water appeared shades of emerald and sapphire - maybe the most beautiful spot on Lake Tahoe.

Eagle Rock

Emerald Bay

Mountains above Emerald Bay

Sugar Pint Point

Sugar Pine Point

Gold Country

Hangman's Tree bar

Placerville was a center for the gold mining industry, and explosive growth during the Gold Rush. It has a cute downtown, just a single street with 19th century buildings. It was originally named Hangtown because of all the vigilante-justice hangings that took place there.

Coloma is a living museum. James Marshall discovered gold in a sluice trench on John Sutter's property along the American River in 1848, and Coloma grew around that site. The museum provides an interesting overview of the gold discovery and subsequent gold rush, and Coloma's role in that.

James Marshall cabin

Spot of gold discovery

American River

Auburn Courthouse

Auburn has a nice downtown and a quaint Old Town with lots of restaurants in 1850's buildings. We had lunch at the Auburn Alehouse, located in a former hotel built in 1853. The Post Office is the oldest operating PO west of the Mississippi, established in 1853. The Courthouse is beautiful and is visible everywhere around the town.

Broad Street is the main thoroughfare in Nevada City, a center of the gold rush. The National Exchange Hotel dates from 1854, is one of the oldest operating hotels in the West, and was originally the Bicknell Block, Stagecoach, Mail, Express and Telegraph Center (this company later became Pacific Gas & Electric). The hotel has a beautiful authentic bar - we were driving and could not partake. The Nevada Theater opened in 1865 and hosted many celebrities such as Jack London and Mark Twain.

Main St Nevada City

National Exchange Bar

National Exchange Hotel

Sacramento

Old Sacramento has great architecture from the 1850s, including the starting point of the Central Pacific (Transcontinental) Railroad. The Pony Express also began here, and there is a statue commemorating it. When parcels arrived in Sacramento, either via the Pony Express or rail, steamships would transport them down the Sacramento River to San Francisco. Unfortunately Old Town is really underutilized, and almost desolate at night. The California Museum focuses mostly on famous Californians, but has interesting displays on Japanese internment and the role of Chinese immigrants in building California infrastructure such as the railroads. Had lunch at the Hook and Ladder Manufacturing Company, and dinner at the Firehouse, one of the most famous restaurants in Sacramento where governors from Reagan to Schwarzenegger to Newsom have eaten.

Cath of Blessed Sacrament

Sacramento Old Town

Pony Express Monument

Leland Stanford Mansion

Calif State Capitol

Tower Bridge

Mendocino Coast

We stayed at the North Cliff Hotel in Fort Bragg, spacious and well-appointed rooms with views of the bay and ocean. The Princess Boathouse Restaurant catches their own fish; the ahi tuna and rockfish tacos were both great, with nice views overlooking Noyo River. Noyo Headlands Park cliff walk had some amazing views of the rocky Mendocino coast, and the trail starts right next to our hotel. The town of Mendocino is a former logging town, when the industry faded artists moved in, and today it's filled with galleries and shops. The Masonic Hall, built in 1866 and the most noteworthy building, is whitewashed and has an impressive statue of "Time and the Maiden" carved from a single redwood tree on its roof. The Mendocino Headlands State Park has trails along the rocky coast, right in town. Pygmy Forest State Park has a nice 1/4 mile boardwalk through the forest. The various tree species are all dwarfed because of lack of nutrients in the soil, a two foot tree can be 80 years old due to the poor soil! Point Arena Lighthouse juts out into the ocean, providing a beautiful vista. Gualala (wah la la) Trinks Cafe was a great stop for lunch along the beautiful Mendocino coast, the Bluff trail walk just behind the cafe had great views of the beach. South of Mendocino Coast is Sonoma Coast, which does not have the steep cliffs of Mendocino but is still beautiful.

Ft Bragg

Mendocino Coast

Mendocino
Masonic Temple

Manchester

Pt Arena Lighthouse

Pt Arena

Sonoma Coast

San Francisco

We explored twelve different neighborhoods of the city, but North Beach was our favorite. It's home to Little Italy, centered around Washington Square and the Cathedral of Saints Peter and Paul. The most famous book store in San Francisco, City Lights Bookstore was the home for many Beatnick authors such as Jack Karouac. Next door, Cafe Vesuvio hasn't changed since Jack Kerouac and Beatnicks frequented the bar, it's a great place to have a drink. Mo's Grill is a small diner with exceptional food; the Italian omelet with roasted pepper and eggplant was delicious. The Stinking Rose says they flavor their garlic with food! The meal was great, and we enjoyed sitting at the sidewalk table. Tony's Pizza Napolitana, has excellent pizza with a convenient slice shop next door. Great cappuccino at Cafe Trieste. Excellent breakfast and coffee at Pat's Cafe on Taylor, where we ate with the kids more than 15 years ago. Golden Boy pizza serves a great Sicilian that is very light, closer to Detroit style. Excellent!

Washington Sq

Cafe Vesuvio

North Beach

Other neighborhoods we explored:

Russian Hill, named for the hilltop graves of sailors working for the Russian American Company, a fur trading enterprise run by the Russian Empire and headquartered in Sitka Alaska during the 1840s. Lombard St and the Vallejo Steps are noteworthy sites in Russian Hill.

Lombard St

Cable Car

Vallejo Steps

Cable Car Museum

Grace Church

Nob Hill's Cable Car Museum is great and free (see video of the cable mechanism here). There are numerous gilded age mansions in Nob Hill, and the Grace Church looks like Notre Dame.

Pacific Heights: walked some of the residential streets (the Haas-Lilienthal House is incredible) and visited Browser Books. Across from Lafayette Park, Danielle Steel's Spreckels Mansion is massive, and well hidden behind hedges.

Spreckels Mansion

Lafayette Park

Painted Ladies

Western Addition has Alamo Park and the Painted Ladies. In Polk Gulch we enjoyed brunch at Mayaflor. Castro is the historically gay neighborhood with lots of character.

Palace Hotel lobby

In SoMa, the Palace Hotel lobby is stunning, and the Pied Piper is a great cocktail lounge. Haight Street is a nice urban mix of shops and restaurants near Golden Gate Park, especially around the famous Haight-Ashbury intersection made famous by hippie protests in the 1960s.

Financial District: Where the current site of the TransAmerica Tower, an historical marker identifies the site of the western headquarters of the Pony Express, operated by the firm Russell, Majors and Waddell. The Pony Express operated for just eighteen months in 1860-1861.

Sausalito bay view

Sausalito is a cute town across the Bay, with great views of San Francisco and the Bay. We had lunch at The Trident at a table right on the water. The Barrel House is a nice bar with a few Bay-view seats. The ferry back to Embarcadero provided a great view of the Bay, Alcatraz and the SF skyline.

On the drive from SF to Monterey we stopped at Capitola, the oldest resort town in California with a quaint village near the ocean.

Monterey

The Spanish arrived in Monterey Bay by 1791 and established a settlement; it would become the capitol of Mexican California. The Americans would capture the town in 1846 in the early phase of the Mexican-American War. After the War and annexation of California (and after gold was discovered in the Sierra) a delegation met at Colton Hall in Monterey to draft a state constitution, which was ratified by Congress in 1850. Colton Hall is well preserved, appearing as it did in 1849. The Custom House is the oldest public building in California. San Carlos Cathedral is one of the oldest buildings in Monterey. Rosine's Restaurant served a great lunch, right in the heart of town. Next door, Alvarado Street Alehouse had great fish and chips, made with locally caught rockfish.

Monterey Bay

Cannery Row

Steinbeck Memorial

Colton Hall

Custom House

San Carlos Cathedral

Paso Robles

Paso Robles is still a quiet farming town, despite hundreds of world class wineries. It has a lot of cafes and shops surrounding City Square Park. Breakfast at Sienna and Hope downtown was pretty good.

Los Olivas and Santa Ynez are both small towns with lots of winery tasting rooms.

Santa Barbara

The Mission Santa Barbara is one of the oldest in Calif. State Street is pedestrian only with tons of shops and restaurants. It leads down to the beach and Stearn's Wharf. The Santa Barbara County Courthouse is one of the most beautiful public buildings we've seen, with an amazing mural that depicts the history of California. The bell tower provides great views of the town and surrounding area, and you can see the clock and bell mechanisms during the climb to the top. El Presidio is a well preserved fort that dates back to the founding of Santa Barbara. Santa Barbara Public Market has a variety of eateries and a sports bar, plus Rori's Ice Cream which had great flavor and texture.