A Q&A with travel reporter Christopher Reynolds, who scoured the Golden State for the most delightful, fascinating and awe-inspiring things to do.
) So Reynolds, who has spent three decades writing about worthy destinations on the West Coast and beyond, took the challenge. Equipped with masks, stacks of reporter’s notebooks, camera gear and baggies of trail mix, he scoured the state in search of its most delightful, fascinating and awe-inspiring places to visit and created a list of theAs Reynolds’ editor, I wanted to know more about how it all came together.
Los Angeles Times reporter Christopher Reynolds, center, at the weekly Downtown SLO Farmers Market in San Luis Obispo.I had to leave off some perennial favorites — the Madonna Inn and the Norton Simon Museum, for instance, even though one of them has pink tennis courts and the other is crammed full of Impressionist masterworks. I wanted to make room for more surprises.The Orange Works in Strathmore, for instance.
Then you head over the Grapevine to the grave of César Chávez, who rallied the Latino farmworkers of the Central Valley in the 1960s. The Chávez grave and national monument is in Keene, which, I now know, is just three miles from the Tehachapi Loop. That’s a medley of railroad tunnels and bridges that attracts train geeks from all over. You start thinking about the thousands of exploited Chinese laborers who dug these tunnels and didn’t have a César Chávez.