A REAL CALIFORNIAA Review of Foghorn Outdoors� California Beaches by Kerry Cohen
But, to my pleasure and surprise, I found only honesty and seasoned wisdom in Foghorn Outdoors California Beaches: The Only Guide to the Best Places to Swim, Play, Eat, and Stay on Every Beach in the Golden State.� The authors, Parke Puterbaugh and Alan Bisbort, examine the coast with wit, keenness, and a compassion for California I really do need to adopt.� The book is divided into three sections: Northern California, Central California, and Southern California and stretches from the Mexican to Oregon borders.� Each of these sections is then divided into counties.� And inside each county, the authors rate every beach on a 1-5 scale based on the question, �How desirable a beach is this to visit?�� They also include detailed reasoning for their ratings, a description of the town, choice places to stay, eat, and go out for the night.� Best are the regular stories they include about beach life, scenes, and issues.� For example, one story in San Diego County examines illegal immigration (�Skeptics in Paradise�.) Another in San Mateo County looks at the 1994 death of surfer Mark Foo when he disappeared inside an 18-foot wave at Pillar Point.� Many of these stories tell it like it is, letting the scenery unfold to reveal an honest, realistic picture.� My favorite of these is �The 17-Mile Drive: A Must to Avoid,� wherein the authors irreverently decry a costly, corporate, overly developed tourist trap. And I love �Talking Trash at the Beach,� in which they reveal a sample of items found at California beaches by maintenance workers and volunteer beach cleanup crews, including birth-control pills, the bottom half of a set of false teeth, dead sheep, Grateful Dead concert tickets, a hypodermic needle, and an �I Love a Clean San Diego� Bumper Sticker.� In this way, the book treats its readers like intelligent, thoughtful participants in their vacations, without sacrificing obsessive details, history, and bits of decadent trivia (like the fact that Dennis Wilson of the Beach Boys drowned in Marina Del Rey while diving for discarded souvenirs.)� It is a refreshing look at California, one that allows its readers to see the many angles of an often-cliched state.� And it has made me re-examine my own stereotypes and assumptions, which is always the sign of a good read. California Beaches: The Only Guide to the Best Places to Swim, Play, Eat, and Stay on Every Beach in the Golden State, 2nd Edition.� Parke Puterbaugh and Alan Bisbort.� Published by Foghorn Press 1999.� For more information, call (800) FOGHORN or go to http://www.foghorn.com |
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I�ve never liked California.� I grew up too late to like it, well beyond the 60�s and its infamous days of fun and love and peace, mostly had in California.� By the time I experienced California, I knew it only as an overpopulated, segregated, smog-covered wasteland.� It was all riots and car honking, sold-out yuppies and angry Mexican borders.� It was, as far as I was concerned, the end of America.� Still, so many people love California.� Most I know who live there defend it fiercely and tenderly.� They have all sorts of proof (all that seems to fail me) that California is the best place to be.� That�s why I was wary of the guidebook I picked up when I found out, also warily, that I would be spending a weekend at the beach in San Diego.�