The crisp breeze, festivals and autumnal family traditions.
Fall has arrived in California.
The extreme heat of late summer has thankfully passed, and the days are quickly becoming shorter and chillier. The trees near you may not be turning that classic autumnal orange, but we’ve entered a new season in the Golden State nevertheless.
For the past few weeks, you’ve been writing to me about what you love about fall in California, like the crisp breeze, local festivals and your family’s special traditions. Here’s some of what you shared, lightly edited:
“Without fail, the softening of the late afternoon light in coastal California reminds me how extraordinary it is to live here. The hills turn golden, and then peach, and then pink, and then quickly into shadow. Even as a native Californian, I never tire of the shifting of the sunlight and am grateful to notice it each fall.” — Kate Kehl, San Francisco
“New Englanders have vibrant autumn leaves but in California, fall is festival season. And, as the most religiously diverse state in the U.S. mainland, lots of those are religious festivals. Here in Silicon Valley, we are feted by Buddhists, Jains and Hindus during Diwali celebrations in mid-October and by the Latinx community in late October and early November for Día de los Muertos. We’re also in the thick of the grape harvest and it’s pumpkin season, too. So also we’re treated to wine, pumpkin and harvest festivals up and down the coast.” — Elizabeth Drescher, San Jose
“Every year in late September and early October, my white Chinese anemone bloom. The four-inch-tall stalks are a sign that fall has arrived in my garden.” — Nita Scott, Long Beach
“People in other states say we don’t have fall color in California, but we do. It comes predominantly in the form of the poison oak shrubs that grow along the hiking trails and throughout the hills and woods, twining themselves around the tree branches and climbing up to the canopies. I truly love it. The fall colors of the poison oak aren’t just one warm shade. They are peaches, corals, rose-petal pinks, Cabernet tones and lipstick reds. The leaves are so delicate that when the sun shines through them, they glow like stained-glass windows or bright lollipops. Poison oak has a bad reputation because of the itchy rash its oils cause, but if you look at it and don’t touch it, it’s magical.” — Laura Austin Wiley, Castro Valley
“Every year, usually the third week in October, my family and I head up to Julian, a little gold-mining town about a 50-minute drive from San Diego. In October, the town hosts ‘Apple Days,’ where you can pick apples and find your favorite pumpkins.
When I was pregnant with our first son in 1988, we decided to go to Julian for our ‘last weekend as a couple.’ We took photos of my big pregnant self, standing in a pumpkin patch. The next year, in 1989, I was pregnant again, this time with my daughter. We took photos of my big pregnant self and my almost 1-year-old son.
For the next 34 years, we’ve returned to Julian on the third weekend in October. Our son-in-law proposed to our daughter there because he knew it was her favorite place to visit.
We had to get a bigger place last year to accommodate our growing family. And this year, my daughter-in-law will be carrying our next grandson when we visit in a few weeks. And yes, we will take a photo of her and her pregnant self in the pumpkin patch.” — Anne Riley, San Diego
For more:
Seven art shows to see in California this fall.
The Los Angeles Times recommends a fall trip to this spot near Mammoth Mountain.
The seven best pumpkin patches and ghoulish grown-up adventures to explore in and around San Francisco, from The San Francisco Standard.
If you read one story, make it this
Inside the effort to keep perfectly good food out of the dump.
The rest of the news
E.V. inequality: As California undergoes a transition to electric vehicles, low-income residents who need them most are in danger of being left behind, The Guardian reports.
A grandfather’s final gift: Death is a reality many tend to avoid, but the writer Sara Harrison found that there was another way to address the inevitable.
Digital license plates: California is now one of three states to allow drivers to replace their metal license plates with mounted digital ones, The Los Angeles Times reports.
Stanford: Stanford University apologized for its efforts to suppress Jewish student admissions in the 1950s and for denying that it had done so in the years that followed. The university also issued a report that found that some administrators had “regularly misled” people who raised concerns about anti-Jewish bias.
SOUTHERN CALIFORNIA
Los Angeles City Council: The City Council will not hold its regularly scheduled meeting on Friday amid calls for the resignation of two members, The Los Angeles Times reports.
ID theft: The founder and chief executive of a software company targeted by election deniers was arrested on suspicion of stealing data on hundreds of Los Angeles County poll workers, The Associated Press reports.
Informants: The U.S. Justice Department said that the Sheriff’s Department and prosecutors in Orange County ran an extensive jailhouse informant program for years that violated the rights of criminal defendants, The Associated Press reports.
Football: The performance of both the U.S.C. and U.C.L.A. football teams has led to a college football resurgence in Los Angeles, The Associated Press reports.
Sexual misconduct allegations: A coach at El Cajon Valley High School is under investigation for allegations of sexual misconduct involving a student, The San Diego Union-Tribune reports.
CENTRAL CALIFORNIA
Kidnapping: The California man accused of kidnapping and killing an 8-month-old baby, her parents and uncle in Merced this month pleaded not guilty, The Associated Press reports.
Potential lawsuits: Fresno Unified’s school board denied claims for damages filed by lawyers from two different Wolters Elementary students, The Fresno Bee reports.
NORTHERN CALIFORNIA
Ghost boat: A 36-foot boat carried U.S. troops during the invasion of Sicily and the Battle of Tarawa in the Pacific. How it ended up in Lake Shasta is a mystery.
Water for elk: The Point Reyes National Seashore has become so dry that water is being trucked to the area to satiate its elk population, The San Francisco Chronicle reports.
Nursing home: The deadline to close a nursing home administered by San Francisco has been extended again after city and federal regulators reached an agreement that allows the home to remain open, The Associated Press reports.
Where we’re traveling
Today’s tip comes from Marty Conoley, who lives in Santa Barbara:
“A few miles south of Carmel on Highway 1, Point Lobos State Natural Reserve awaits a limited number of visitors each day. Where the 17-Mile Drive beckons bikers and cars, Point Lobos is a walker’s paradise. The Monterey cypress trees have gnarled trunks and branches contorted by the sea breeze and the salt spray of the Pacific Ocean. Pelicans soar near rocky cliff faces. California sea lions bark from offshore islands. Southern sea otters lounge on their kelp beds. Bring your binoculars, make a picnic lunch and come early. Enjoy this natural scenic wonder.”
Tell us about your favorite places to visit in California. Email your suggestions to CAtoday@nytimes.com. We’ll be sharing more in upcoming editions of the newsletter.
What we’re recommending
Last fall, Rachel McKibbens’s father and brother died of Covid just two weeks apart. Here’s the story of their family — and what the pandemic revealed and what it destroyed.
From The New York Times and Serial comes “We Were Three.” Listen to all three episodes here.
Tell us
What are your favorite places to visit in California?
Email your suggestions to CAtoday@nytimes.com. Please include your name and the city in which you live. We’ll be sharing more travel tips in upcoming editions of the newsletter.
And before you go, some good news
Over the past three decades, the director Kevin Smith and the actor Jason Mewes have parlayed their friendship into one of Hollywood’s most unlikely acting partnerships, both onscreen and off. The two played Jay and Silent Bob in the 1994 indie cult debut feature “Clerks,” which was Smith’s directorial debut.
“I feel like I’m only comfortable with certain people,” Mewes told The Times. “People annoy me. But I enjoy his company. I feel comfortable around him.”
“I’m standing next to somebody who knows me better than almost anybody else in this world,” Smith said. “He’s my best friend, and he likes me for me, long before I was like, ‘Hey, we should make a movie or something.’”
“Yeah,” Mewes added. “What he said.”
Thanks for reading. I’ll be back on Monday. — Soumya
P.S. Here’s today’s Mini Crossword.
Briana Scalia and Miles McKinley contributed to California Today. You can reach the team at CAtoday@nytimes.com.
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Correction: Oct. 14, 2022
An earlier version of this article misplaced a news item about El Cajon in the Northern California section. El Cajon is in Southern California.
https://www.nytimes.com/2022/10/14/us/california-fall.html
2022-10-14 16:06:25Z
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