by Matthew Jaffe, Sunset senior writer

Global warming and rising sea levels notwithstanding, they’re not making any new oceanfront property. So when a new stretch of coast opens to the public, such as the Point Buchon Trail in San Luis Obispo County,  that’s big news. (For this and other secret beaches, check out July’s Sunset.)

Growing up in Chicago, the California coast had an almost mythical quality for me and in my 20+ years out here, I’ve managed to hit just about every reasonably accessible stretch between the border and San Francisco—plus four of the Channel Islands and Santa Catalina. Thanks to my cub reporter days at the Lompoc Record, I was even able to get out on many sections of the 30-mile-long Vandenberg Air Force Base coast.

But there remained one sizable gap in my curriculum beachae. For years, I’d hike the Bluff Trail at Montana de Oro State Park, edging along its coves, before reaching what always seemed to be the world’s ugliest fence and beyond it, grazing cows who clearly had no appreciation of the coastal views somewhere past their snouts. This was Pacific Gas & Electric land, part of the Diablo Canyon Power Plant facility, and off limits for decades.

But now with the opening of the trail, a roughly 2-mile stretch of this coastline with spectacular sea stacks and formations, can be explored from Thursdays through Sundays.

Go to the end of the road at Montana de Oro, and there’s a kiosk where you sign in for access. After crossing golden grasslands (still sprinkled with poppies as recently as of a couple weeks ago), you reach the first beach and from there the views of the coastline just get better and better on the roughly 4-mile roundtrip.

Sure, you'll still find a few reminders that this isn’t parkland and you’re asked to be back to the kiosk by 4:30, thus limiting what I imagine would be amazing sunset shots.

But for now I was just thrilled to get out there. Because this stretch of coast ranks with the very best that California has to offer

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By Amy Wolf, Sunset travel editor

Can you name this beach? Hint: I mentioned it in a previous blog. Another hint: There’s a story about it (it and nine other beaches) in the July issue of Sunset.

Yes, that’s right: Bowling Ball Beach. I knew you knew it. I just couldn’t resist sharing a few more of my snapshots from the beach. It’s just about the most photogenic beach I’ve ever seen. If you’re still scrambling for ideas for 4th of July weekend (I know I am), this would be a good place to go.

Where is this hidden beach (which will no longer be hidden after all of you read this), you ask? Read the magazine! OK, I’ll give it up. It’s just outside the tiny hamlet of Anchor Bay, on the Mendocino Coast. It’s not the easiest place to find, but I know you have the July issue sitting by your bedside. You can get directions there. Be forewarned that the walk to the beach is a tad squirrely, requiring one short scramble down a rope ladder (pictured above). We were able to do it with wee ones in tow, but they had to be carried.

To continue the quiz theme, can you guess how these otherworldly bowling-ball-esque rocks were formed? I’m no geologist, but based on this scene that I saw at the beach, the rocks didn’t roll out of the sea (although that would be cool thing to witness). Instead, they apparently emerged from the earth as the softer sandstone eroded around them. Anyone who needs a living geology lesson, this would be a good place to start.

Up for another test? OK, what kind of birds are these? Post your answer as a comment below. Bonus points if you can guess where this photo was taken. Hint: not far from Bowling Ball Beach...

by MacKenzie Geidt, Sunset assistant travel editor

I love to play tourist in my own town—even though I was born and raised in San Francisco, there's still plenty of nooks in the city I still have to explore, and all kinds of local lore and legend that my inner trivia nerd still doesn't know.

I'm also all about being a frugal traveler, so I've got a must-do on a dime for anyone paying my city a visit: San Francisco City Guides FREE walking tours....all over the city!   These tours are incredible and there are so many to choose from: Coit Tower Murals, Landmark Victorians of Alamo Sqare, North Beach by Night, Art Deco Marina, Chinatown, Gold Rush City, and more than I have time to name.

I just did the Telegraph Hill Hike--here's what I loved about it:

The views: boats on the bay, the Embarcadero, the rooftops....

The architecture: you don't even have to be an architecture fiend to appreciate how awesome this deco beauty is: (I can't believe I've never seen this building before and I've lived here this long!)

The discoveries: I didn't know that Telegraph Hill has its own sub-tropical micro-climate...dripping with wisteria, trumpet lillies, rose gardens, jasmine....

The parrots: yes, there was even a sighting of the infamous Parrots of Telegraph Hill! (I know, this picture really can't serve as proof that I saw them, but I couldn't act fast enough to catch them!)

The price: it's hard to believe tours like these are free!  It's a non-profit (sponsored by the San Francisco Public Library) with over 200 trained volunteers who love the city so much, they just have to share.
The tours last from 1.5-2 hours, 52 weeks a year (over 30 per month), rain or shine.  You can make a donation when the tour is over if you feel so inclined (I was so impressed that I certainly did!)

Next tour for me: City Hall—shameful that I've lived here this long and never been inside....

How do YOU play tourist in your own town?  Don't be shy...we wanna know so drop us a line!

By Amy Wolf, Sunset travel editor

Bust out your tent because June 28 is officially Great American Backyard Camping Day.

Did you catch that? Backyard camping, as in, camping in your own backyard. How timely is that? These days that’s about all most of us can afford to do anyway, with gas prices being the way they are. Backyard camping is the ultimate form of staycation. Never heard of staycation? Then you haven’t been reading our blog!

But I digress. You have three days left to prepare to observe Great American Backyard Camping Day this Saturday along with me and everyone else I’m hoping to inspire by this blog and by my blabbering about this to anyone who will listen. Though the concept may sound hokey, trust me when I tell you this (I would never lie to you, really): it’s FUN!

Here’s why it’s fun: It breaks up the routine. My husband and two tots and I gave it a go last Friday and were amazed to discover that instead of being an exhausting ordeal, which is what most Friday-night activities end up being on Friday nights after a long week of working, commuting, and parenting, our campout was totally energizing.

On a whim at the very last minute we invited a few neighbors to join us, and having nothing better to do on a Friday night, they did. We hauled out the tents, cracked open some beers and wine (which we drank out of camp cups), fired up a simple but tasty dinner on the grill (which we ate standing up, using paper towels for plates), hosed down the kids using water bottles to simulate a dip in a river, got the neighbors to put the tents together (ha!), told ghost stories and read kids’ books by flashlight, and then slept NINE hours. That's how comfy we were out there.

Ready to try it yourself? Here’s a step by step guide.

Step 1: Find a friend, a spouse, an offspring, a neighbor—anyone to agree to join you for a campout in your backyard. It’s a goofy enough concept to be absurdly fun when you have a group to do it with. Alone, it’s absurd, minus the fun.

Step 2: Make sure that friend, spouse, offspring, or neighbor is the type who either knows how to pitch a tent or is willing to be taught how to pitch a tent, even when cold beers are calling. Because you don’t want to be the sucker doing all the work while your guests luxuriate on their camp chairs. Case in point: our neighbor Emily (above), who happens to be a botanist at the California Academy of Sciences, which you can read about in Sunset's October issue, when the spectacular new facility in Golden Gate Park will finally be open). Emily is an avid camper. She not only lent us an extra tent and a couple sleeping bags, but she willingly set up the tent for us, then volunteered to read the kids to sleep in the tent. We LOVE Emily. Everyone needs a neighbor like her.

Step 3: TURN OFF THE SPRINKLERS! There's nothing worse than being doused by freezing water at 5 a.m.

Step 4: Gather the essentials. Here’s where the rules get murky. You can technically camp out in your backyard without any gear. Simply haul out some blankets and pillows you don’t care about preserving in pristine condition, and call it a night. But I recommend using a tent, sleeping pads, and sleeping bags. I say this because the more props you use, the more it will feel like a real camping adventure. Also, you’d be surprised how dewy and wet your lawn gets at night. You never realize this stuff until you camp out. The tent comes in very handy. And the sleeping pad (I am a big fan of Therm-a-rest) is what allows people like me to sleep outside for nine hours. They’re like mattresses, but less cumbersome. Not to mention less toxic. Did you know how much bad stuff is in most commercial mattresses? Find out in our October issue. But I digress.

Step 5: Gather the non-essentials. Camp chairs, flashlights, headlamps (which, by the way, kids love). Like I said, the more props, the more fun.

Step 6: Have a drink. If you want to go the whole nine yards, go with boxed wine, hands down the best choice when portability matters. Food editor Sara Schneider swears boxed wine has come a long way, and I agree. Both of us are high on Target’s Pinot Grigio Wine Cube. Beer is also good. So is a flask of whiskey.

Step 7: Cook dinner on the grill. This seems a little cushy for a camping trip, I know. Yes, you could start a campfire in your yard, but you could also burn your house down—especially if you've already taken step 6, above. Sunset may do a story on how to build your own outdoor fireplace next summer. But in the meantime, stick with the grill. We grilled sausages,veggie skewers, and corn.

Had we felt a tad more ambitious, we might have made an updated version of Frito pie. The "updated version" part is essential, trust me, as you'll see if you check out the link to the Disgruntled Housewife site. Combine ground beef (or turkey_ with onions, tomatoes, and any other veggies you like, and wrap it all up in a foil pouch. Cook it on the grill. When cooked, crumble Fritos on top of it. (Or any kind of chips.) Food writer Elaine Johnson swears this is good. I haven’t tried it yet but I’ll take her word for it.

For dessert, smores or banana boats! Grill bananas with a slit down the middle and throw in chocolate pieces and/or marshmallows. My little guy DUG this. You could also do fruit skewers or the traditional s’mores.

Step 7: Bathe your kids (if you have kids) outside. We used a water bottle full of warm water. Our girl loved her outdoor squirt bath; our boy hated it.

Step 8: Pitch the tent. If you’re smart, unlike me, make this Step 5, before having a drink. On the other hand, pitching tents is always more fun after having a drink.

Step 9: Pile in the tent and tell ghost stories.

Step 10: Sleep tight.

Happy camping! Please tell us how it goes (post a comment below). We would love to hear from you.

By Matthew Jaffe, Sunset senior writer

In a recent poll, seahorses finished in the Top Ten of the world’s most popular animals.

But as any celebrity can tell you, such popularity has its downside. While most seahorse fans love them from a distance for their almost cartoonish cuteness and quirky biology (in an Oprah-worthy twist, males carry the young during pregnancy) seahorses are also coveted for reasons that threaten their survival.

Aquarium hobbyists crave them for their tanks and sea horses have long been used in traditional Chinese medicine to treat sexual dysfunction and heart disease among various ailments. And so an estimated 30 million wild seahorses are captured annually, and since 1980, populations have plunged by 70 percent. Throw in habitat degradation and global warming impacts, and the pressures on seahorses are enormous.

Riding to the rescue is a Big Island aquaculture operation called Ocean Rider. The idea is to offer aquarists farm-raised seahorses, which can cost $400 per pair depending on the species, and help reduce the impacts on wild populations. Because seahorses usually mate for life, when one is captured, its mate often dies. Romantic perhaps in that doomed Romeo and Juliet kind of way but hardly good for the long-term viability of the species.

These are among the facts I learned during a guided tour offered at the Ocean Rider facility. At $35.00 for an hour, it’s pricey. But then again this is the only facility of its kind in the world.

And sea horses are certainly lovable, as are their cousins, the leafy sea dragon, which Ocean Rider recently added to its stable.

Here you get to see seahorses all the way from newborns to breeding pairs. While many marine creatures go through larval stages during which they in no way resemble adults, at Ocean Rider you can look into tanks and see miniature newborns that look exactly like their parents. Swarms of Mini Me and Me and Me and Me and Me toos. They are, in a word, cute, very cute to be more exact, adorable Pixar creatures come to life. And then when they link tails…well it’s like seeing first graders on a field trip holding hands. Lock and awwwww…

While visitors learn about the operation and the plight of seahorses in the wild, a real highlight comes when everyone gets to feed them. There is a type of sea shrimp that both tastes good and is good for the seahorses too, especially for the breeding pairs, and they slurp up these tiny tapas with gusto. Toward the end of the tour, you also have a chance to see if a seahorse will wrap its tail around your finger. Some are tentative, some less shy. But when they finally tie up, it’s a direct connection with one of the world’s most distinctive animals. I know they’ve got my vote. 

by MacKenzie Geidt, Sunset assistant travel editor

Two confessions:  1) I like opera and 2) I'm a cheapskate.  So this Friday night, June 20th, my love of opera and frugality merge, and you'll find me wrapped in a blanket on 3rd base of AT&T Park (home of the beloved San Francisco Giants) with a glass of wine and a picnic spread, watching a live simulcast of Donizetti's Lucia di Lammermoor.  This beautiful combination is the phenomenon known as  Opera in the Ballpark!  (I'm making a more cultural appeal to get readers to the ballpark this time...)

The price: $0.  It's FREE!! (but you can register in advance online and be let in early at 6:30 pm) 

The time: 8 pm (doors open at 7 pm unless you pre-register)

The seats: in the stands and on the actual field.  Sit at 2nd base if you want.

Photo by Terrence McCarthy

The story (who cares?  it's free!): A woman goes insane when she's forced to marry the man she doesn't love. You gotta love operatic madness....if the photo below is any indication of what we're in for, this is gonna be good...

Photo by Robert Cahen

The eats: concession stands will be open (uh oh....do I smell garlic fries?) but you can also bring your own picnic (see their list of what's okay to bring into the park)

The sound: HI DEF live from War Memorial Opera House, projected onto a 3200-square-foot scoreboard

The Diva (in the title role of Lucia, featured above):  the French superstar Natalie Dessay  (not a case of fat ladies singing...she's a  bombshell)

The language: Italian with English supertitles

The crowd:  young and fun (don't let your preconceived notions about opera-goers deter you--opera is cool again)

Photo by Terrence McCarthy

The bottom line: be there on Friday night!  Worth the trip.  You get what you pay for, but in this case, you're getting much much more...

By Erika Ehmsen, Sunset copy chief

From the hot, hot heat of California’s Coachella all the way to the muddy mosh pits of England’s Reading Festival, I’ve planned quite a few vacations around music festivals (my husband and I even hit Reading on our honeymoon).
    I live for acoustic versions of obscure B-sides, blistering and bluesy covers, and voices and lighters raised in unison as the sun sets and the music soars. Especially when there’s a gorgeous vista involved. (Hey, Yosemite! Any chance of an intimate Dan Bern show at Glacier Point’s Lane Amphitheater, just as the alpenglow lights up Half Dome?)
    So I pogoed at the chance to research summer music festivals in the West for Sunset’s secrets-themed July issue. In it, two famous (and famously elusive) musicians weigh in with their best picks: quirky-cool singer/songwriter Aimee Mann and frequently barefoot roots-rocker Jack Johnson (who had so much to say—even tips for taking kids to concerts—that we gave him our back page, The Sunset View). Which festivals do they recommend? Find out this weekend, when the July issue of Sunset hits newsstands.

Aimee Mann is playing a few festivals this summer. Her top spot for a show? It's secret #12 in our July issue's 20 Secrets of Summer feature. Photo by Scott Wall   

In the meantime, here are the shows that I think you should hit this summer. First up, an ode to the Pemberton Festival—its setting, north of Whistler, B.C., is so beautiful, it looks worthy of planning your vacation around. The Pemberton tout is followed by a “short list” (ok, it’s long too) of fabulous fests around the West.
    Readers, do you have some favorites to recommend? Please share them in “Comments.”

Pemberton Festival
What: Can’t get Coldplay’s crazily catchy “Viva La Vida” out of your head? (Thanks, Apple.) Imagine it ringing through British Columbia’s breathtakingly jagged Coast Mountains at the first-ever Pemberton Festival.
When: July 25 to 27
What you should do: Go all three days, grabbing each day’s schedule and sampling all three stages. Nine Inch Nails’ Trent Reznor can still hypnotize a crowd—if you’re there Friday night, rest assured that resistance is futile. And watch out on Saturday: If you’re up front during the Flaming Lips’ set, be prepared to provide a stiff-arm assist for frontman Wayne Coyne on his crowd-surfing quest.
What you must do: Go to Sunday’s show, with Death Cab for Cutie emo-ting their way into your heart, Vampire Weekend’s bouncy guitar riffs sneakily thieving your soul, and Coldplay worming their way into your head. Plus DJ Shadow and Cut Chemist burning up eight (eight!) turntables. Someday, you’ll be telling your grandkids about this day in rock history.
Where to rest your head: Bring your kids and pitch a tent. Or be a rock star and splurge on a real room (a shower at the end of each day in the sun? yes, please).

More great festivals around the West

All summer
Stern Grove Festival
June 15 to August 17
Free performances—from New Orleans jazz and Afrofunk to the SF Symphony and Opera—in a stunning spot in San Francisco.

San Francisco's Stern Grove on a fog-free day. Photo by Scott Wall

Olympic Music Festival
June 28 to September 7
Classical in a cow pasture and dairy barn on Washington’s Olympic Peninsula.

June
Taos Solar Music Festival
June 27 to 29
That hot New Mexico sun scorching your shoulders is also powering this green festival, with legends like Steve Earle mixing it up with Collective Soul and the Bodeans.

July
High Sierra Music Festival
July 3 to 6
Folkies, hippies, and adventurous yuppies: Pack your camping gear, load up the kids, and head to the hills of Northern California’s Quincy to get a broad music education while getting your groove on.

Crested Butte Music Festival
July 4 to 31
This Colorado festival has it all: classical and chamber, opera and dance, even bluegrass.

MountainFest
July 10 to 13
Country in the north country: Merritt Mountain Music Festival is Canada’s biggest country festival, and it’s a lovely drive from Vancouver.

National Folk Festival
July 11 to 13
Get in touch with your roots under the Big Sky in Butte, Montana.

Reggae on the River
July 19
The original reggae fest returns to the river in Northern California’s Humboldt County.

Calgary Folk Music Festival
July 24 to 27
Loyal, dance-happy crowds flock to the lush, riverside setting in Alberta, Canada's rodeo capital. This year, they’ll groove to Calexico, Ani DiFranco, Aimee Mann, and Los Straitjackets with Big Sandy.

Calgary's four-day folk festival will have you on your feet. Photo by Sebastian Hanlon

July and August
Bear Valley Music Festival
July 26 to August 10
Sizzling Broadway and jazz tunes plus classical standards in the Sierra, 2 1/2 hours from Sacramento.

Cabrillo Festival of Contemporary Music
July 27 to August 10
Orchestral maneuvers in California’s Mission San Juan Bautista, Santa Cruz, and beyond.

August
Pickathon
August 1 to 3
Roots-rock at Portland’s Pendarvis Farm, with Jolie Holland, Langhorne Slim, and Loch Lomond.

Reggae Rising
August 1 to 3
Head back to the river in Humboldt, California, for the three-day reggae fest featuring big names like UB40, Sly & Robbie, and Don Carlos.

SummerFest
August 1 to 24
Symphonic splendor by the sea in San Diego’s La Jolla.

Real Quiet promise to take La Jolla's SummerFest by storm with their "hard-edge" chamber music. Photo by Paul Body

Salmon Arm Roots & Blues Festival
August 15 to 17
Lakeside listening, five hours north of Vancouver, B.C.

Outside Lands Music & Arts Festival
August 22 to 24
Radiohead will be the first band to rock after dark in San Francisco’s Golden Gate Park. The three-day lineup of this eco-friendly fest is pretty amazing, with Jack Johnson rounding out the last night of the festival. Besides Thom Yorke and the boys, I’ll definitely catch sets by Beck, Cold War Kids, Nellie McKay, Regina Spektor, Manu Chao, Rodrigo y Gabriela, and Wilco, who wrote a song about a certain magazine called Sunset.

Edmonton Folk Music Festival
August 7 to 10
Can you imagine Ani DiFranco, Barenaked Ladies, and Elvis Costello at the same festival? That’s the kind of weekend I had up in Alberta, Canada, in ’95. And I wish I could be there this year to catch Cat Power, Aimee Mann, Ron Sexsmith, and Jakob Dylan, there with his new project.

Bumbershoot
Labor Day weekend (August 30 to September 1)
The Seattle extravaganza is practically the granddaddy of music and arts festivals—it started way back in 1971 as the Seattle Arts Festival, and its acclaim grows each year. In '08, expect the usual mega-wattage of star power; Beck, Neko Case, Stone Temple Pilots, the Whigs, and former Soul Coughing frontman Mike Doughty are confirmed, and the official lineup will be posted in mid-July.

By Matthew Jaffe, Sunset senior writer

Tiger Woods  and Rocco Mediate have just teed off at the start of their 18-hole playoff to determine the 2008 U.S. Open golf championship. Fog hangs over Torrey Pines Golf Course and for an extra day,  fans around the world are being treated not only to Tiger on the prowl but views of the surf and sandstone cliffs of San Diego’s most dramatic stretch of coastline.

Soon the sponsor tents and grandstands will come down, and the satellite trucks will depart La Jolla. Tiger will still be Tiger and the 45-year-old, 158th-ranked Rocco, I fear, may end up dealing with a panoply of wouldas, couldas, and shouldas (he just fell behind by a stroke). The pros will leave as Torrey Pines, perhaps the finest public course in the country, reopens to the duffers and dreamers, and all of their slices into the pines and yips on the greens.

(Rocco is down by two.)

South of the course, a different sport will take off at Torrey Pines once the tournament finally departs. As celebrated as this stretch of coast is for its golf, it’s also home to a landmark within the aviation community: Torrey Pines Gliderport.

(Rocco is down by three.)

The gliderport had to shut down for the duration of the tournament but that’s just a blip in a history that dates back to 1928. Charles Lindbergh flew a sailplane here in 1930 and the gliderport is even on the National Register of Historic Places.

(Rocco’s back within two.)

At the gliderport, you can soar like an eagle or stay on terra firma and still have a terrific time. Tandem flights with experienced pilots and instructors are available in both hangliders and paragliders and will give you the kind of blimp’s-eye views that have been available to golf viewers. Me, I was plenty happy just being a law (of gravity) abiding citizen and hanging out at the gliderport’s Deli By The Sea.

(Rocco is only down by a stroke: can an underdog chase down a tiger?)

But it’s tempting to run off that cliff and into the truly wild blue yonder. Imagine flying without security lines and $15 baggage charges, with no battles for armrests with heavy elbowed dudes complete with sinus infections. The gliderport is all about rediscovering the miracle of flight. And miracles can happen. At least Rocco hopes so.

(IT’S ALL EVEN THROUGH 14!!)

Postscript:

Rocco gave it a go but after taking the lead and surviving into a sudden death playoff, he ultimately fell. Heroically. And now a poetic tribute.

Oh, somewhere on a fairway’s green, a drive is sailing right,
A foursome’s playing 18, and talk of Rocco’s fight,
And somewhere putts are falling, while someone’s in the sand,
But there is no way to Mediate that Tiger’s still the man.

by MacKenzie Geidt, Sunset assistant travel editor

Guess how many days you have until the opening ceremony of the 2008 Olympic Games in Beijing?  Only 56 days to go! The opening ceremony is on August 8, 2008!  (8/8/08 sounds pretty auspicious, right?)  But will you be ready?  Are you lean and mean enough?  Are you ready to jump hurdles, throw the discus, and and stick your landing?  Mary Lou Retton style??

I'm doubtful, people.  So it's my duty as your coach to kick things up a notch!  Get yourself to San Francisco for your workout.  One reason?  One word: STAIRS.

San Francisco has so many outdoor stairways (sources say 300!) that whole books have been written about them (one example: Stairway Walks in San Francisco by Adah Bakalinsky, Wilderness Press, available on Amazon)  Blame it on the steep hills!

My favorite butt-kicker in the city is definitely the infamous Lyon St. Stairs (between Broadway and Green St.) They look harmless enough, right?  Charming?  Beautiful?  Surrounded by Pacific Heights Mansions? 

HA!  Don't let the facade fool you, because the going gets tough right around here:
(I hope you ate your Wheaties for breakfast...)

There's 288 steps here, so I can pretty much guarantee that it's gonna BURN like FIRE by the time you're done (6 sets, people!  No slacking!)

If you make it to the top, take a deep breath (you'll need it ) and enjoy your reward:

And this picture doesn't NEARLY do the view justice--the Palace of Fine Arts, San Francisco rooftops, and stunning views across the bay.  Aaahhh....a workout with a genuine reward.  My recommendation is to go at the crack of dawn (I like to go at 6 a.m., when I can have the stairs to myself.  But if you prefer your misery with company, join the other fitness-fiends in the later morning).

So what about YOU?  Where do YOU get a workout with a scenic reward?  Let us in on your secrets. But for now, get out there and work up a sweat. See you on the stairs!

By Rachel Levin, Sunset senior editor

Maybe it’s the 90-degree heat here in Menlo Park, California but I’ve been craving a scoop of gelato from Seattle star chef Holly Smith’s new roving gelato cart since the press release popped-up on my screen this morning.

It’s called Poco Carretto (you know, “little cart” in Italian) and beginning this weekend (June 15) it will make it’s way around to Seattle’s farmers markets. Kinda like your old neighborhood ice cream truck, but instead of soggy Nutty Buttys you get creamy, handchurned flavors such as rhubarb-vanilla bean swirl; pinenut brittle with marsala currants; icy watermelon sobrettos made with fresh local fruit. Served in a homemade brioche, no less.

See, now you want some, too. Here’s the Seattle area schedule: Sundays: Fremont Market; Thursdays: Bellevue Market; Fridays at the Kirkland Juanita Beach Market. Can’t make any of those? The 2008 James Beard-award-winning chef (of the famed Cafe Juanita) says they do home or office delivery, too!

Maybe they’ll roll down here to Sunset?