by Anna Nordberg, Sunset Special Projects Editor

It's been gray and rainy in the Bay Area, which makes me want to write about beaches—in particular, island beaches. And yes, I know the Four Seasons is to budget accommodation what a Krispy Kreme donut is to my pre-holiday diet, but for special occasions, I find there are few brands with more consistent service and quiet luxury.

For our own recent special occasion (an anniversary), my husband and I spent Labor Day at the Four Seasons Manele Bay, in Lanai, a tiny Hawaiian island within striking distance of Maui and Molokai. 

PHOTO:  Holupo'e beach at the Four Seasons Lanai, Manele Bay (Courtesy of the Four Seasons).

This was our first time to Hawaii, and many of our friends thought it odd that we skipped over Maui and Oahu to stay on a postage-stamp former pineapple plantation with no stoplights. But long sunny days with nothing to do is exactly why people go to Lanai.

The island, and the Four Seasons, didn't disappoint. We did exactly one activity the whole time we were there—surfing. The rest of the time we read on the beach or on the balcony of our room. And every time we went to the lunch cafe or ordered a glass of guava juice, we were greeted by name (I find it's hard to resist a hotel where everyone at least pretends to know who you are). 

PHOTO: The pool at the Four Seasons Lanai, Manele Bay (courtesy of the Four Seasons)

There are two Four Seasons on Lanai, the upland, plantation-style Lodge at Koele and the Manele Bay property, where we stayed. Hotel connoisseurs give the slight edge to Koele, which is indeed stunning, with its lush gardens and understated English grandeur. But if I'm flying six hours to an island, I want to stay at the place that's a three-minute walk from the beach. Period.

PHOTO: An oceanview room at The Four Seasons Lanai, Manele Bay (Courtesy of the Four Seasons)

PHOTO: The Lodge at Koele (Courtesy of the Four Seasons)

While the Four Seasons has resisted the rate slashing of other luxury brands, even it has bowed to economic reality—a little. For the shoulder season (until Dec 18), the hotel is offering a promotional starting rate of $295, and if you book three nights at the regular rate (from $445), your fourth night is free. Not exactly a bargain, but then again, your 40th birthday or silver anniversary only comes once.

Book it: from $295 through Dec 18; fourseasons.com/manelebay

Plan your trip: Want to learn more about Hawaii? Here are our top picks for what to do on Kauai, Maui, and Oahu, and the Big Island. 

Talk to us: Have a favorite hotel in Hawaii? What luxury hotels do you think are worth the splurge?

by Natalie Jabbar, Sunset editorial intern

If you're visiting Yosemite National Park's Tuolumne Meadows on these crisp fall days, don't cruise through without getting out of the car to explore a bit. Even if you're in a hurry, try to set aside a bit of time for Twin  Bridges. You'd think a spot this idyllic, and just a 10-minute walk from a major road, would be packed with people, but, oddly, it isn't.

When I ventured to Twin Bridges recently, I couldn't help snapping way too many photos (two pictured below), before simply lying down on a flattened rock, basking in the last rays of summer and in the quiet beauty of those mountains.

To get to Twin Bridges, just follow the easy trail from Tuolumne Meadows Lodge, where parking is also  available.

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For more tips on what to do and where to stay in Yosemite, check out Sunset's Yosemite National Park Guide.

by Emily Chow, Sunset editorial intern

The New Children's Museum in San Diego
Photo credit: Matthew Jaffe

Looking for something to do Labor Day weekend? If you are a Bank of America cardholder, check out their Museum on Us program, which offers free general admission into more than 100 participating museums nationwide on the first full weekend of every month.

• Portland:  Check out the Portland Art Musuem's "Virtual Worlds" exhibit highlighting M.C. Escher's spatial illusions.
• San Francisco: Stroll around Yerba Buena Gardens and stop by San Francisco's Contemporary Jewish Museum.
• San Diego: Visit The New Children's Museum in San Diego, where the entire family can engage and create art in three floors of interactive galleries.

Where will I be this weekend? If it's not too crowded, you'll find me at The Tech Museum of Innovation in San Jose, learning about innovative technology solutions in their permanent exhibit that is opening tomorrow, "Technology Benefiting Humanity."

Flash that piece of plastic at the ticket office for some free fun during the upcoming long weekend. It can't get any better than that.

Check out their Web site to locate participating museums near you.

by the Sunset editorial staff

Joey Altman, Traci Des Jardins,
and Michael Mina? They'll be there too.

I want to be with all the biggest chefs and most devout cooks in the West, who will be converging at Union Square Thursday through Sunday for SF Chefs. Food. Wine. The well-punctuated name pretty much says it all, but I might add this elaboration: Parties. Tastings. Classes.

The heirloom tomato cookoff between Joanne Weir and Gary Danko and hosted by Sunset’s food editor, Margo True, is sold out, alas. But you can still get into a head-spinning array of events, from a Friday morning shuck-and-sip pairing of wines and oysters to Saturday night’s urban barbecue on the square, where the band members are chefs you might recognize from around town. 

When: August 6–9, 2009
Where: Union Square and surrounding hotel and retail spaces as well as restaurants throughout the city.
Expected guests: 1,500 attendees per day
Tickets: One-day passes are $150, which includes the midday Grand Tasting, as well as a morning and afternoon class. Children free at Sunday family activities.

by MacKenzie Geidt, Sunset assistant travel editor

As a novice rider, I need a little incentive to get on the bike. Preferably incentive of the caloric nature. Which is why I'm psyched about this weekend's SF Bike Coalition's Ice Cream Sunday Ride that I just read about on SF Gate.  A guilt-free tour of the city's top creameries...Brilliant.  Be there.

Photo: John Clark

If you CAN'T be there, don't fret.  You should still get on the bike (AND eat ice cream). Here's a list of our other favorite biking towns:

Pacific Grove, CA

Boise, Idaho (pictured above)

Boulder, Colorado

Vegas

Moab, Utah

Fruita, Colorado

If you get on the bike, surely you've earned some ice cream.  Try it Sunset-style and make it yourself!  I'm intrigued by this recipe for Coconut Avocado ice cream recipe that I found on sunset.com...

Photo: Annabelle Breakey; Styling: Karen Shinto

by Scott Hocker

 

Photographs by Jen Siska

Sebastopol, among the orchards and vineyards of Western Sonoma County north of San Francisco, is a favorite stopover for people heading west toward the Russian River or beyond that to the coast. But if you’ve only seen this quaint town from State 116, a cruise up into the less-traveled hills around town gives you new reasons to love the place.

Our favorite scenic drive is a 14-mile route that starts at Florence Avenue, which acts as a neighborhood-wide outdoor gallery of the madcap sculptures fashioned by local artists Patrick Amiot and Brigitte Laurent out of bits of junk. Outside town, you’ll climb up, up, up, then plunge into a pastoral valley and pass over trickling Atascadero Creek.

Follow these directions from State 116 and click here for a Google map of the route:

Start at the corner of Healdsburg Ave. and Florence Ave.
Head down Florence Ave. to see the sculptures.
At street’s end, turn right on Bodega Hwy.
After .8 miles, turn left on Pleasant Hill Rd.
After 1.5 miles, turn right toward Watertrough Rd., then left on Sanders Rd. The road comes down the hill, veers right, and becomes Barnett Valley Rd.
After 4 miles on Barnett Valley Rd., turn right on Bodega Hwy.
After 1.7 miles, turn left on Grandview Rd.
After 1.3 miles, turn right on Cherry Ridge Rd., then right on Mill Station Rd.
Follow Mill Station Rd. until you return to State 116.

by Margaret Sloan, Sunset production coordinator

Where do I want to be this weekend? First let me tell you where I’ve been and what I’ve done.

The day my nieces were born, I whispered their names to the river otters who swam off  shore in Humboldt Lagoons State Park. The day after we got married, my husband and I wandered arm in arm along the bluffs at foggy San Gregorio State Beach (at left). The day our grandmother was buried, my brother and I waded in the streams of Portola Redwoods State Park, telling stories of her to the tall trees.

California state parks, beaches, and reserves have often been the backdrop for the important events in my life. If you’re from California, or have visited our state, I’ll bet that might be true for you too.

And maybe you were as disheartened as I was to hear that 220 of our parks are in danger of being shut down.

But we can help save our parks. How? By going to a state park near you this weekend!

The California State Parks Foundation is organizing a statewide S.O.S weekend of action—the Save our State Parks Campaign—to encourage people to get out and make a difference. They’re having rallies at some locations, but you can also go to any state park, have some fun, wear some green (the official color of this campaign), take some photos, and post them to the foundation’s Facebook page. Oh, and while you’re at it, let the California government know how important the state parks are to you. The foundation’s website makes it easy to speak up.

So where do I want to be this weekend? I want to be in all of California’s 279 state parks, all at once, doing things like celebrating the solstice in Anza-Borrego, camping on Angel Island, or swimming in the cold waters of Emerald Bay on Lake Tahoe. 

But I can’t be in all the parks at once. Instead, I’ll be beach-hopping along the San Mateo coast and in the Santa Cruz area with my dad, plein air painting at state beaches like Bean Hollow, Año Nuevo, Wilder Ranch, Natural Bridges, and New Brighton. Look for us. We’ll be wearing green.

The end of the pier at SeaCliff State Beach.

Photo by Linda Preston

by Lisa Trottier, Sunset senior editor

This weekend, June 20–21, is the first of three admission-free weekends planned for this summer at all the national parks. (Mark your calendars, the others are July 18–19 and August 15–16.) Some of the biggies aren't cheap, so clear your calendar and hop in the car.

Here's me enjoying Zion with the kids earlier this year. Price of admission that day: $25.

Back in Paia, Hawaii eating just-caught ono

By Rachel Levin, Sunset senior editor

I was on Maui a few weeks ago. We were supposed to be in Punta Mita, Mexico, but then the swine flu hit and with three six-month-old babies in our group we, uh, decided not to risk it. So an oceanfront condo in sprawling Kapalua Bay it was! At a rock-bottom rate to boot. Not too shabby for a last-minute Plan B. (Ah, the brightside of a bad economy!)

Anyway, my favorite thing we did all week (beside sip freshly-muddled grapefruit mojitos at the Ritz-Carlton’s J.T. Fleming Beach) was a daytrip to the little surfer-hippie town of Paia.

Here, the Top Five things I love about Paia:

1.    The locals beach. About a mile or so from town, where the scene is quirky, the coconuts fall, and the waves are fierce—and where I was absolutely mesmerized watching these skinny 10-year-old boys absolutely kill it on the boogie board. I mean, we’re talking headstands. (What did I grow up doing after school? Wandering the mall. Depressing.)

2.    The grocery store. Mana Foods. It’s right there on the main drag, with its creaky wooden floors, commitment to all-organic-local everything, and the smiley, supertanned, slooowly-moving locals who were wearing more faded, fringed, acid-washed jean shorts than I’ve seen since said mall.

3.    The pizza To be honest, we didn’t actually eat here (we had other dinner plans, see Reason #4 below), but I just love pizza— and I love that this town has an American Flatbread Pizza. Vermont; Los Alamos, California; Paia. Who knew?


4.    Mama’s Fish House. Yeah, yeah, I know. This is not the locals hangout and wildly popular among toursits—not to mention wildly expensive—, but I don’t care. I  loved my meal (ono “caught by Alan Cadiz trolling off the cliffs near Molokai); I loved the on-the-ball service (only with-it waiters we met all week—yes, even poolside at the Ritz); I loved the Hawaii kitsch (I mean traditional Hawaiian décor); and I loved, loved, loved the way the restaurant’s open-air windows framed the picturesque, pristine beach just steps away for an after-dinner stroll.

Skip dessert at Mama's and hit Ono Gelato Company back in town, for seasonal scoops of kula strawberry or pineapple, made with local fruit—of course.

5.    The new Paia Inn. No pool, no pampering. Just five rooms and access to a little private beach. Still, next trip, I want to stay here.

Hiking Half Dome in Yosemite—that's right, the cables are up

By Amy Anderson, Sunset editorial intern

Growing up, my family never took trips to the beach. I’ve yet to visit Hawaii or Mexico, and I’m pale year round. Instead, we were all about the National Parks: road trips to Yellowstone and the Tetons, camping, kayaking, hiking.

But surprisingly, I’d never been to Yosemite. Until last weekend, when my dad (fellow hiker and adventurer extraordinaire) and I left San Francisco on Friday night and woke up Saturday morning in our canvas cabin in Curry Village — surrounded by granite walls and massive trees.

Committed to conquering the hardest possible hike everywhere we go, naturally my dad and I chose to hike Half Dome, 8,800 feet above sea level. Here's the iconic image that Ansel Adams captured in his photographs:

Daunting? I agree.

For a little inspiration, here's our Half Dome experience:

We were on the trail by 6:30 am, along with all the other early bird hikers trying to beat the heat and crowds. Our backpacks were filled with water bottles, Gatorade, and power bars to last us the projected 10-12 hours of the hike.

We took Happy Isles trail to the Mist Trail, excited to see the rushing waterfalls that spring in Yosemite is known for.

Note: the name Mist Trail is quite misleading at this time of the year. It should definitely be renamed Downpour Trail. As we climbed slick stair after steep stair to get to the top of Vernal Fall, it was like we were in the middle of a storm— we came out completely drenched.

I was not pleased.

Nearing the top and practically in tears, I told my dad that I couldn’t do it. We'd only gone a mile-and-a- half, but, already, I was fed up. But Yosemite's climate is tricky—if I turned back, I would have to go right through the downpour again. If I kept going, I would dry off in the sun. So I swore at the waterfall under my breath, wiped off my wet camera, and continued.

By 11:00am, we were at Half Dome, staring up at the cables that would take us to the very top. The last 400 feet are traversed by walking nearly vertically up the rock face, gripping wire cables on either side. There’s nothing to strap you in—you just hold on for dear life and pull your way up.

The cables were just put up for the season the day before we arrived. (Depending on the weather, you can expect them to go up around the third weekend in May each year.)

Nine hours after we started on Happy Isles Trail, we were back down to the trailhead, hobbling and groaning, but proud. Already planning which mountain to climb next.

Yosemite National Park: $20 entrance fee; www.nps.gov/yose