LA Greater Area
Light your bike for a magical ride
Sundays at dusk, wheel your colorfully lit bike to Windward Plaza and ride the neighborhood in the Venice Electrical Parade. It’s fun, bike safety focused, and even has its own group song (see website).
All gibbons, all the time
Serious conservation work meets cuteness overload (those eyes!) at the Gibbon Conservation Center, home to the rarest group of apes in the Western Hemisphere. Just added: weekend group tours by reservation.
DineLA is on — and delicious
300 restaurants, over a week of prix-fixe menus, new patios, takeout and delivery options galore: this year’s edition of DineLA Summer Restaurant Week remains the best way to explore spots you’ve been wanting to try.
Coastal Cleanup Day just became a month
This year, the lure of time well spent outdoors is stronger than one day can handle. Welcome to Coastal Cleanup Month, now stretching from the summit to the sea. Register your effort with Heal the Bay.
San Francisco Bay Area
Take-out deluxe
Belinda Leong’s B Patisserie quickly became a hit among San Franciscans for its impeccable pastries, highlighted by the legendary buttery, sugar-filled kouign-amanns. So it’s safe to say her French-accented spinoff, Routier, has been one of the most anticipated restaurant openings of the year. It’s now open, with Covid restrictions: Here’s the scoop.
Grace on display
San Francisco’s Grace Cathedral will be the backdrop for an inspiring new art installation focused on themes of social justice. The iconic church’s Gothic exterior will be lit up for a few minutes at the end of each month with images and messages of resilience—something that’s especially important these days.
Picnic, Bay Area–style
Think beyond PB&J, chips, and beer. Eater has put together a great list of 17 spots around San Francisco that sell to-go ready provisions for all your picnic needs, including cured meats and stinky cheese from Little Vine, French toast from Le Beau, and a pulled pork sandwich from Fatter Calf. And don’t forget the NorCal wine and craft beer from Bi-Rite Market.
It’s not just people that have been forced to evacuate from their homes due to the wildfires raging across northern California. It’s their pets, too. True to form, Bay Area residents have stepped up to the plate for our animal amigos by setting up pop-up shelters for everything from dogs and cats to bunnies and llamas.