Inspired Travels With Patti

Hidden Gems in California (Part 2): Wine, Coastlines & Adventure

• Patti Hunt • Season 2 • Episode 35

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In Part 2 of this California series,  Pat, Liza Pattison and I continue to uncover even more hidden gems across the Golden State. From underrated wine regions like Suisun Valley to unique experiences like olive oil tastings and ATV adventures through coastal dunes, this episode is packed with unforgettable travel ideas. The conversation explores lesser-known destinations in Northern California, scenic coastal drives, beach camping spots, and even haunted hotels with Gold Rush history. Whether you’re planning a summer getaway or looking for off-the-beaten-path experiences, this episode offers a fresh perspective on California travel—blending nature, adventure, and quirky local finds.


Resources, Links  & Mentions

  • Pat Pattison's Best of California YouTube
  • Website
  • Facebook
  • Instagram
  • Mentioned Locations:
    • Caymus-Suisun Valley wineries
    • Ill Fiorello Olive Oil Company
    • Riverbench & Sanford Winery
    • Ocean Dunes ATV riding
    • Ferndale, CA (Victorian town)
    • Kings Canyon National Park
    • Catalina Island activities
    • Crystal Cove & Montana de Oro campgrounds

Thank you for listening to Inspired Travels With Patti, I would love to hear from you, please leave me a comment or question here on the podcast page or on my social media channels: Inspired Travels With Patti  

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Welcome Back Part Two

SPEAKER_02

Even if you listen to part one of Knowing About California, you have not heard it all yet. So we decided to do a part two, and I want to welcome back Pat and Liza for part two, The Hidden Gems in California. I've been in California a lot, and there's so much I've never heard of. So welcome back for part two.

SPEAKER_00

Well, you know, it occurs to me we're doing we're doing all these quirky ones, but there are probably a lot of people that are, where's the wine, Pat? Where do we get money?

SPEAKER_02

Okay, let's talk about it. I know people. I have friends that are thinking right now, where's the wine? I love, I I gotta admit, I love vineyards. When I first came out to California, I went to see my brother who was in San Jose Jose, who took me San Jose. Yeah, he took me to a vineyard and they were doing wine tasting. And so I'm a lightweight, but I walked around and I tasted all the wine by the time we got done, and I tried to walk to the car. He was like, You just take a sip. That's sounds like a good time. So let's talk about vineyards. I've been to a couple of them, couldn't tell you which ones. I love that you were talking about it earlier, Liza, being out in nature. I love seeing, you know, how the wine is made and talking to people. And I I absolutely love that, even if I don't drink wine a whole lot. But let's talk about wine.

Suisun Valley Spotlight

SPEAKER_00

Yeah, it's definitely an art forum, and you and you're right, Pat. And and there are many famous places, uh, you know, the Napa Valley and Temecula. We found in Fairfield, Fairfield is uh in the Bay Area, it's in between San Francisco and um Sacramento. And it's famous for the fact that the Jelly Belly Jelly Bead Factory is there, is one of us, and and the California Welcome Center is actually in the in the factory. Wow. There's a uh uh winery out there called Caemas Sassoon. And so the Sassoon Valley, which is S U I S U N, but it's pronounced kind of like the Dell Sassoon, and and you'll you'll impress people if you go, yeah, Caemus Sassoon, because it was just named by USA Today, the the number one wine region of the country.

SPEAKER_02

So the country.

SPEAKER_00

The country. So we feel like we kind of helped discover this place.

SPEAKER_03

Okay.

SPEAKER_00

And they just have this particular brand, Caymus Sassoon, which is a famous uh wine brand in Napa. They started over the hill. Sassoon Valley is literally over the mountains from Napa. And uh this this winery is so beautiful. The visitor center, the uh the ambiance that where they serve, you can you can see the video on our YouTube. And and I can't I just can't recommend this one place enough.

SPEAKER_02

And I am going to put some of those. You're gonna send me some video or or we'll we'll link it to your YouTube. But for people who are watching right now on my YouTube channel, they can see some of that because that sounds amazing.

Olive Oil Tasting Surprise

SPEAKER_00

That just fair fields like this very uh affordable area in the Bay Area that you can kind of stay in and go to other places that maybe are more expensive. You know, it's a good hub to to stay in, to go to Sacramento, go to the Bay, these wineries. And the same area, there's a funny little uh spot called Mancas Corner, and out by Mancas Corner is uh the Il Fiorello Olive Oil Company. So you go to this olive oil company run by a couple, the retired couple was founded this a while back, and you actually do olive oil tasting similar to what you'd do wine tasting. And I had no idea, total novice on the fact that there are fine olive oils and there's certain lavender-flavored olive oils, and it's really eye-opening.

SPEAKER_02

So that was a and they serve it to you on a tiny little spoon, right? It's not like they dip some bread. I'd like some, you know, really nice Italian bread.

SPEAKER_00

So it's just a different thing. And then the the for you and i Pat, the big payoff was the olive oil on the ice cream, which sounds very strange.

SPEAKER_02

It does.

SPEAKER_00

It was so good, it was so good.

SPEAKER_02

Okay, I'll try it.

SPEAKER_00

I'll go to you free, they'll they'll do it right.

SPEAKER_01

I'll tell you this kind of olive oil, yeah.

SPEAKER_02

Right, to put on my ice cream. I don't know.

SPEAKER_01

I see you did the uh I liked um the the um bench. Yeah, I really liked um the river bench and then the um Stanford winery as well.

SPEAKER_00

Yeah, so those are both Santa Maria, Santa Maria for River Bench, and uh Stanford was in uh lawnpoke.

SPEAKER_01

And the um Sanford winery, you get to drive around in an ATV, which is really fun.

SPEAKER_02

Well, they let me drive it.

SPEAKER_01

I love I don't know that part actually. If you trust us to drive it, yeah.

SPEAKER_02

Maybe I'll convince them. I'd love driving ATVs, and that would be cool to drive around.

SPEAKER_00

Talk about ATVs, flies that out on the God, what where was that again?

SPEAKER_01

Wasn't that Los?

SPEAKER_00

Oceano Dunes. Oceano Dunes and the Central Coast.

SPEAKER_01

I had a spiritual, you and I, Pat, need to go ATVing sometime because I had never been on an ATV before. Um, one of those little four-wheeler motorcycle kind of looking ones, and I had a spiritual experience out there on those dunes. Like I loved it. So you and I gotta go sometime, girlfriend.

SPEAKER_02

Yes, yes. That sounds amazing. I'm gonna plan my trip out to California and we could just go.

SPEAKER_01

Perfect. Because I dad couldn't, we had to film more of this segment for the rest of that day. And I was like, our tune hours aren't up. He was just like, sweetie, we gotta go.

Northern California Hidden Towns

SPEAKER_02

I was in when I was staying in Las Vegas, and when COVID hit, we started talking about the idea of getting in an RV. And I was like, What? I had been in an RV for seven total nights to that point. And so my husband called me up to his office and he said, We were in this great big house, the pool, the hot tub, the walk-in closet. He calls me up to the office and he said, Let's sell everything and get an RV and just go full time on the road. And I laughed because I thought he was kidding. And I'm like, what are we gonna do in an RV? Like, how are we gonna make money? What are we doing? And so one of the things was to go out and show people what there was to do, especially during that time. So I started reaching out to things to do in the Las Vegas area. And one of the things was a it was a doom buggy, and they took us out on these. I was having the greatest time driving these things. I came back in one piece, luckily, and I was driving somebody else. He trusted me to drive, I'm not sure why, but that was so cool. So, yes, we'll definitely have to go in TV. That sounds amazing. Yes, that sounds great. Okay, we covered wine, we covered food. Where else should people go? What's what's another? So we're getting into the summer, and this episode will hit in the spring. So, yeah, are there some things that people should do now? Those people that are trying to make some plans, what should they do now?

SPEAKER_00

Well, what one uh place that pops into mind we really haven't cut covered Northern California because a lot of people that are less populated, there's not a not a Disneyland up there, and there's not really any major uh airport. So people tend to go LA, San Francisco. They don't really they think a lot of people think of San Francisco as Northern California. That's halfway in California, so there's a whole big part up there. So Ferndale, up in the uh Humboldt County, Eureka area, is an old dairy town, and it's the hometown of Guy uh uh Guy Fieri and the famous chef.

SPEAKER_03

Yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_00

It's it's incredible. It's it's like a uh Christmas village frozen in time. It's a Victorian, uh I think it's the only place, I don't know it, in the in the country, whose entire main streets on the uh registry of historic landmarks because you just walk down the street, you feel like you're in a Charles Dickens movie. You know, it's it's just unbelievable. And many, many, many places to eat. I think Guy Fieri's got a restaurant there, but I know he's also uh refurbished a number of the buildings as kind of a giving back to his hometown. And and not too far from there, up in the Arcada area, uh Eureka area, is a uh walkway where you can walk up in the top parts of all the Redwoods. So you're actually up above the Redwoods. So this whole area uh, and I might as well throw in Reading, which is nearby. And Redding is another uh outdoor, you know. If you really like the outdoors, Northern California, if you don't if if Bigfoot doesn't get you, I mean there is Sask up there and we've had a number of uh captures of of that. Right, doesn't get you. It's fun to uh also go to Reading, which has an amazing uh animal preserve. It has uh just outside of it, it has the Shasta Caverns.

SPEAKER_01

I was waiting for you to bring that one up. So cool.

SPEAKER_00

Incredible caverns you can go to, and there's a place called the uh Whiskeytown Dam area. Um, let me think what else up there. Uh it's famous for the Sundial Bridge, it's the biggest sundial in the world. Um what do you think, Liza? What else have you done?

Lavender and Coffee Farms

SPEAKER_01

Um, I mean, it kind of seems like we're sticking to nature at this point, which is always one of my favorite topics. And um the set uh the Santa Rita Um Hills Lavender Farm was really cool too. It's just a beautiful area. Um, and they have um lavender lemonade that you can try, they have lavender, um, so you know it's a little bit they have lambder popsicles, I think, or something like that. Yeah, they had something. They had lavender everything, and they have um a bunch of animals you can go see. Um, so anytime uh I guess I'm still thinking of the wineries. Sorry, everybody. Um, just in that same area.

SPEAKER_00

Um, that's in Lawn Boat, yeah.

SPEAKER_01

Exactly. Um, and uh, you know, what what was that other farm we had visited down?

SPEAKER_00

Yeah, the Duelson Family Farm was the Duelson Family Farm in Santa Maria. And here again, just like Il Fiorello, uh I I don't know if this is a thing out here, but it was a retired military couple, both from the Navy, that decided late in life they wanted to be farmers, and they started a coffee farm.

SPEAKER_01

I could have spent hours there.

SPEAKER_00

Yeah. Wait, did you say coffee? Coffee and tea.

SPEAKER_01

And they had coffee and tea, and they had um what my favorite part was is that they had um exotic fruits. Like if you know what a um Buddha's fist is, um, and they had some of those little um finger limes where you cut it in half and outs out squirts little beads of limes. Um, and so it was just a real education on um some exotic fruits that they were able to do kind of in their um microclimate that they created there.

Coastal Drives and Beach Camping

SPEAKER_02

That is right up my alley. That is very cool. First of all, coffee. You're talking my language. I want to go to a coffee farm and taste coffees, that would be great. I guess it's not called a coffee farm, but you know what I mean. Um that that definitely is it's up there with ice cream. Um yep, I love that. I drove up the coast, uh the 101, right? That's what it's called. Up the coast of California. I forget where we started. Well, we crossed over, we were in quartzite and crossed over and then went up. So I don't know where in California we started, but that in itself is just a beautiful, amazing ride. And stopping certain places, we stopped at a lighthouse. I think uh I've traveled so many places across the country, I get them confused. But yes, there was a lighthouse at one of the stops that we made. That in itself, if somebody could get in a car and just drive up the 101. Unfortunately, the driver doesn't get to experience as much because you really have to keep your eyes on the road.

SPEAKER_03

That's right.

SPEAKER_02

Passengers get to enjoy it.

SPEAKER_00

But that was beautiful. Yeah, the big Zur drive is great. I mean, you know, the the old highway one, even up from San Diego to La Jolla and and places, uh Orange County beaches where I live, or Laguna, Newport, Huntington, you know. So there's always now that's lower.

SPEAKER_02

That's that's we dropped down south.

SPEAKER_00

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02

Okay, we were in the north. Okay, so now we're south. I'm trying to keep track of the places in California. Okay. And of course the beaches. I'm an East Coast girl. I've gone to the New Jersey Shore, the Delaware shore, you know. When I went out to California and saw the beach for the first time, which was when I was RVing. So just five or six years ago. First time I was on the on the beach in California, those sunsets are amazing. It is it has a whole different feel to it. It is a totally different feel. I can't describe it, but if you've never done it, definitely get out on the beach in California. And I can't remember where we were. I gotta start thinking about where the where we were. So we were in a campground for those people who are listening that are RVers, tons of campgrounds throughout California. We were at a campground and we just were able to walk across the street and we were at the beach, and that was incredible, really incredible.

SPEAKER_00

Montana de Oro in the San Luis Obispo area jumps into my mind as one of those spots for your RV uh people. So that's that's a great one.

SPEAKER_02

And uh okay, is that a campground?

SPEAKER_00

Yeah, it's a campground on RVs and tents and whatnot.

SPEAKER_01

And Oro now too, right?

SPEAKER_00

Yes, yeah. So there's also a state uh uh Crystal Cove State Park is a very famous uh area near Laguna Beach. And then um Oh I'm not forgetting. No, that's because that then those were the two I wanted to mention, Montanero and Crystal Cove. Yeah, good ones.

SPEAKER_02

Right, but there are a ton of them throughout them.

SPEAKER_00

So I I tend to want to go to the ones I know I know your first visit to to the Pacific, I swim in the ocean almost every day. So the southern beaches are swimmable without a wetsuit. Once you kind of get up to San Josebo, water's getting pretty cold.

SPEAKER_02

So it always grandkids, and of course they don't feel the cold. They went in. I was bundled up sitting on the beach. Yeah, it was too cold for me.

SPEAKER_00

So East Coast people were surprised at how cold our water is.

SPEAKER_02

Yes, yes, because it was it was the middle of the summer, so I expected it to be warm, but it wasn't. It was not warm, not at all. Where else? So it's like you said, California. I mean, it's huge. I've been to and I always forget the national park that I was at. And I it'll come to me.

SPEAKER_00

Well, Yosemite is the most famous.

SPEAKER_02

That's the one. That's the one. I don't I don't figure it out. Yeah, I was gonna give more clues, but he didn't need them. We work well together.

SPEAKER_00

Yeah, but here's a tip here's a here's a tip. Here's a good uh local tip. Is so Yosemite is crowded, and you know, if you only have summertime, Sequoia National Park, extremely crowded in the summer. Right next to Sequoia with just as beautiful trees and just as famous uh uh Sequoyas is a national park called King's Canyon National Park. And it literally has half the number of people that are in Sequoia. And I'm pretty sure it has nothing more to do than marketing, you know, that people do, oh, Sequoia, and it's like, well, this is right there, and it has, I believe it's the deepest canyon, this you know, other than the Grand Canyon in the continental United States, the King's Canyon. And um, but the the uh very, very uh worthwhile. And you can actually get the Samadi Zachoria National Park, unless you're like on the website at 8 a.m. on the day they release the you know, the cabins and the hotels and whatnot, you could get something at King's Canyon. So I really recommend uh doing that.

SPEAKER_02

And that's great information. I want to go through the Sequoia's and the Redwoods, but yeah, if I could go off the beaten path and still see the Sequoyas, uh this is the kind of inform maybe we shouldn't put this out there. Maybe we should keep it to ourselves.

SPEAKER_00

Well, that's every time I cover a place people coming up to me, you're not gonna ruin this for us, are you? And I feel like I know, I know, I hope not.

SPEAKER_02

Um, but that's that's a great suggestion.

SPEAKER_00

Well, let me let me just add to that, there's a little town called Visalia, just outside of both of these national parks. For very little, you can stay in Viselia and they have shuttles. So for seniors that don't want to deal with parking and don't want to, you know, just stay at it. There's a beautiful Marriott in Viselia. You get on what's called the uh Sequoia Shuttle, takes you up for the day, shows you around, and you come back to your nice Marriott and then I love that. And it is great. Pet friendly, this Marriott. So you can bring the dog, park the RV in the parking lot if you want to, and have a good time.

SPEAKER_02

Right. Or since I don't have the RV, I'll fly out, stay at the Marriott.

SPEAKER_00

There you go.

SPEAKER_02

Yeah, that's that is great to have that shuttle, not have to drive.

SPEAKER_00

Right.

SPEAKER_02

That sounds like a great plan. I love that.

SPEAKER_03

Sure.

SPEAKER_02

Okay, again, so much. What are we missing? So we we know California has all these big places, and they are there, and they are incredible places to visit.

Haunted Hotels and Gold Rush Lore

SPEAKER_00

Where else? The category we're missing: haunted hotels. We have a lot of haunted hotels and haunted hotels.

SPEAKER_01

Haunted in general.

SPEAKER_00

So we have a few, not only hotels, but hotels in California during the gold rush tend to have two businesses, the other business being Brafits. So we have uh one that was called the Carey Hotel in Placerville, and this is the one that we went to John Book and I, and it's up in Gold Country, and I was put in the most haunted suite, supposedly. And so I spent time kind of like I do at three in the morning, kind of waiting. And um John was put in the Mark Twain suite, and John in the middle of the night, he was asleep, the uh doorknob started to rattle. And of course, we both thought, oh, okay, who what who uh what uh uh hotel employees rattling the doorknob because they know a TV show's here, you know, and he went to the peephole, nobody was there, and as he turned away from the peephole, just a nanosecond, the door went again, and he went back to the peephole and no one was there. So he really thinks something happened, and and this was the Mark Twain suite, so potentially this was part of it.

SPEAKER_01

And John, unlike dad, is not a pranky guy, so I believe John.

SPEAKER_02

Right. If it just came from your dad, then we'd have to just swap parts of it.

SPEAKER_00

Yeah, yeah. And then the other one, the two more, real quick. The other one is the Brackenfall Manor, which is up in the Lake uh Arrowhead area. Here's the San Gabriel Mountains in Southern California, uh Lake Arrowhead. And it is a former brothel. And you can take a tour of it, you can rent it out for events, you can rent it out for weddings. And here again, my ex my as one of my associate producers was the other one, Leanna Romero had a visitation there. She was Staying there with her boyfriend. This is before the show. And she saw a ball of light come into the room. And when they went to take a picture of it, it ran away.

Catalina Island Summer Fun

SPEAKER_02

Well, we will put that out there for people who believe it, don't believe it. I'm going to encourage people to reach out and give us your comments on it so they can reach out to you on social media or to me. I I want to hear people's thoughts. I I kind of believe in that. We won't take too big a deep dive into that, but I believe in it. I don't think it's all that doesn't have to be scary, but okay. So we covered that. What can people do? Like I said, this is the springtime. We're going into the summer. Give us some summertime things for people to do when they come to California.

SPEAKER_00

Why don't you tell them about Catalina, Liza?

SPEAKER_01

I we had an amazing time covering um Catalina Island. And my absolute favorite thing to do was the underwater sea expedition. So you um go on this um glass bottom. Dad can once again tell you the history of what everything is, but it's um to my brain, um, it was just a glass bottom kind of um semi-submersive submarine that um goes only five feet below the surface, and you go down below, or you can go up above and watch all the boats go by, but you go down below, and there you can see all the fish going on the side of the um it's incredible, especially during a certain day where all the light is um coming through the uh water, and so you ever all the fish just look like they're glowing. Um, it really is an incredible experience. And then, of course, um they had an eco-tour for zip lining. What is an eco-tour for zip lining? Um, so at every stop after you um zip line to certain places, they'll tell you about the um flora and fauna that you'll see along the way. So there are certain trees there um that I think there is only three left in the world of a certain tree, um, and they are all on Catalina Island. Um, so it was just uh a lot of fun, and then Dad, of course, um loved the uh casino there. So I'll let you take it away, Dad, for some of the history and other things.

SPEAKER_00

Well, for those that might not know, Catalina is an island uh 26 miles off the coast of uh Los Angeles, and it had an indigenous population way back uh when, and they would go back and forth, the indigenous people, and then uh William Wrigd William Wrigley of uh chewing gum fame, Wrigley Field in Chicago, uh bought it. So his family owned the whole island, and they kept it undeveloped on purpose, which is our benefit. And now they donated it to the state way back when the Wrigley family still owns some of it, but just the little town of Avalon is all that's really developed uh on the island itself. And this was special for Liza because she used to go to summer camp there at a place called the Catalan Island camps, uh, run by the Tom Sawyer people, owners, a family we know. And um it's just it's it's history, but it really is nature. We run a horseback riding. We uh, like she mentioned, we did the undersea deal. There's a museum there, there's a thriving local art scene, and it's about an hour bow ride back, so you can do it for the day, or there's plenty of hotels to stay there. But uh to your point, Pat, off season now, you know, is the time to go out there when it's not too crowding.

SPEAKER_02

So we're the springtime we're talking.

SPEAKER_00

Yeah.

Summer Picks Olympics and Museums

SPEAKER_02

Okay. Some quick summertime. Where should people go? We'll do some quick places on that for 2026. I'm sure California is full of things celebrating events celebrating the 250th birthday. I'm sure there's lots of that. People could look at it. That's something for people to plan if they want to be there for the 2028 Olympics.

SPEAKER_01

I know it's only 2026, but there's so many LA residents now. So Yeah.

SPEAKER_00

Okay. And one of the things that's true is Los Angeles is the only city to have hosted the Olympics three times.

unknown

Okay.

SPEAKER_00

So you actually can come to LA and visit Olympic venues like the Coliseum, the Aquatic Center, uh, a lot of the stadiums, even if you're not gonna be here in 2028. But there's a lot of Olympic history here uh from all those different times. But I kind of focus, you know, summer, it's gonna be hot. Uh certainly uh the beaches. I'm just gonna run up the coast real quick. Bojoya Cove, Crystal Cove in Laduna Beach, uh Morrow Bay in the Central Coast, Bodega Bay, just above San Francisco, where uh Alfred Hitchcock filmed The Birds, a fun little spot. And uh up, as I mentioned before, uh the Ferndale area in Humboldt. There's they just go up the coast, boom, boom, boom, boom, boom, and and stay cool and uh and swim or or surf or learn how to surf. So much to do here uh in California around that.

SPEAKER_02

That sounds amazing. Do you have anything to add?

SPEAKER_01

Um I sometimes think it's uh it's too hot out. So um I actually like to go indoors sometimes um in the summer, and that's when I go to um art museums um or um even some well-shaded botanical gardens like um the Huntington, Wisconsin Gardens, the Arboretum, um, or I'll go to Huntington for their art. Um all we have so many we have a very artistic family, um, illustrators, painters, sculptors, um, so we can really appreciate a good art museum to beat the heat as well because I don't know what it is about museums. I I think it's more for the art than it is for us, but their air conditioning is incredible. Yes.

SPEAKER_00

Liza's late mother was an artist at Disney and with Morganette. And Liza is a sculptor. Give a plug for your Etsy.

SPEAKER_01

I am yeah, it's um it's Liza's Upcycled Art, but um I have some more fun on the um my Instagram, which is Liza Lua Design. That's L-I-Z-A-L-U-A design. And I make um creepy cute um sculptures.

Wrap Up and Next Adventure

SPEAKER_02

Wow, okay, yes, check it out. That'll be that's that's super exciting. And for my audience, I'm gonna say again, it'll all be in the show notes. So much for people to check out. So I want to thank you both so much for being on and sharing all of this great information. Thank you.

SPEAKER_00

Our pleasure.

SPEAKER_02

And I want to just for my audience reach out to Pat and Liza. All of their information will be there for you. And anybody that wants to reach out to me, if this is content you want to hear more of, of course, hit the follow button or the share button and the subscribe button. It depends on the platform you're on. You know what to do. It really helps when you hit those buttons. And I want to leave you with one last thought. Living life fully is about adventure. What new experience or place will you explore next time?