11 /22 Thomas J. Story The Mai Tai
Rum, lime juice, orange liqueur, a little orgeat syrup. Stir them up, take a sip, and suddenly you’re relaxing on some tranquil beach on Maui. Such is the power of the mai tai, the potent tropical cocktail devised in the late 1940s by Vic Bergeron for his Trader Vic’s restaurant in Oakland. The mai tai remains the star of the tiki bar, wowing na kane and na wahine from Wakiki’s House Without a Key to SF’s Smuggler’s Cove.
12 /22 Getty Images / rodolfo_salgado The Movies
There’s a reason the film industry was called La La Land—not NY Land. American movie-making got its start in the northeast, but by the early 1900s aspiring directors like Cecil B. DeMille realized that Southern California had more film-friendly reliable sunshine than did Manhattan. DeMille’s 1914 Western, The Squaw Man, was the first feature-length film shot entirely in L.A.; countless more—the good, the bad, the Oscar-worthy—would follow.
18 /22 Thomas J. Story The Environmental Movement
Legendary naturalist John Muir helped found the nation’s flagship conservation organization, the Sierra Club, in San Francisco in 1892. It would be joined by groups like Friends of the River, the Surfrider Foundation, and Trust for Public Land, doing battle over dams, beaches, wolves and bears, and climate change. Because the Western wilderness is worth a fight.
22 /22 Andrea Gómez Romero Fruitopia
The stats don’t lie. No West, no fruit. California grows half the nation’s peaches and nearly 90% of the strawberries, while Washington grows 60% of America’s apples. Even better, home gardeners can easily get in on the bounty by growing specialized varieties like Meyer lemons, blood oranges, and Chehalis apples. It’s all possible here.