Around the World in 80 Miles

Travel is good for you: It deepens your knowledge, it teaches you history and, most of all, it helps you understand your own self and culture. But when budgets are tight and the world seems unstable, we all tend to cling to home, which does little for our collective self-esteem, much less world peace. And even if we’re all too nervous to stray far physically, we can still get out, philosophically speaking — especially in Los Angeles, where a world of cultures, wilderness and adventure can all be had within a couple hours’ drive. In this issue, GREG GOLDIN sends you out to Southern California’s wild and threatened San Onofre beach; STEVEN MIKULAN revisits the land of Basques, sheep and honky-tonk, Bakersfield; DAVID L. ULIN sees the Middle East on the Carrizo Plain; RON ATHEY goes Brazilian at Black’s Beach; DAVE SHULMAN finds a waterfall you can walk to; and ERIN AUBRY KAPLAN gives a word of advice to the politically sensitive cruise-ship crowd. PLUS: Mariachi Divas, planting trees in the San Bernardinos, harmonizing world peace, dining at a Thai temple, Little Tokyo’s contradictions, and a comic by ALISON ELIZABETH TAYLOR.

—Judith Lewis, editor

 ILLUSTRATIONS BY MIKE LEE