Los Angeles Greater Area
Plan an apple picking day trip
SoCal’s best orchards offer more than delectable fruit. You’ll also find farm stands (apple pie!) hay rides, wine tastings, a chance to press your own apple cider and more. It’s memorable fun for kids of all ages.
The Shop at The Broad is now online
If you’ve missed exploring the delightfully unpredictable merchandise at The Broad store, good news. It’s now a keystroke away, just in time for holiday browsing. Every purchase benefits museum ops and programming, too.
Cruise Malibu Vineyards by motorized bike
True, the picturesque terrain is hilly, but that’s what your electric assist bike is for. Open air, gorgeous scenery, refreshment stops and a day’s-end tasting of Saddlerock wines: it all adds up to bliss on wheels.
Back: the highest open-air bar in the western hemisphere
You can imagine why they call it Spire 73. But if you’ve never been there, you can’t imagine what it’s like to be that far above the city. Now if you can just tear yourself away from the jetliner views long enough to order…
San Francisco Bay Area
Art unleashed in S.F.
Culture hounds, rejoice! Four of San Francisco’s most renowned institutions—SFMOMA, the DeYoung, the Asian Art Museum, and the Legion of Honor—announced plans to reopen this fall at 25 percent capacity. Among the exhibitions set to be on display: A show featuring the art and fashion of famed Mexican artist Frida Kahlo, a retrospective for Bay Area figurative painter David Park, and a 75-foot vinyl decal mural by Chanel Miller.
Vino on a budget
Independent East Bay vintners Brad and Svetlana Kitson have achieved the seemingly impossible: Produced a high-quality, artisanal bottle of California wine for just $10. By skipping a tasting room and handling all distribution themselves, the Kitsons manage to offer several affordable gems under their eponymous label. Among the killer bottles called out by the Chronicle’s wine critic are a Malvasia Bianca (“tastes like apricots sprinkled with lemon zest”) and a “crisp, minerally” 2019 Decko White. Both yours for 20 bucks total.
Mixology delivery, elevated
File this under “Bay Area Covid Concoctions.” Start-up drink delivery service San Francisco Cocktail Club boasts two big selling points: A more attractive custom label and container for those artisan cocktails and a more affordable price for both customers and restaurants compared to other third-party delivery apps. The vintage coupe glasses are up to you, though.
Drive-in movies rev back to the City
How cool is this? San Francisco’s Fort Mason Center for Arts & Culture goes back to the future (get it?) with a new month-long, outdoor drive-in movie series. The social distance–friendly program airs cult classics such as “Gremlins,” “The Big Lebowski,” and “Labyrinth” on a 40-foot-by-20-foot LED screen “ninety times brighter than a standard movie theater projector.” Pass the popcorn.