Happy Sunday.
We’re missing you at the California Sun. See some of what you’ve been missing below.
Sun sampler
1.
Andy Wang, an electrical engineer at Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory, has an unusual way of decompressing on his evenings and weekends: he dons a yellow safety vest and picks up trash along the Bay Area’s roadsides. People sometimes seem baffled by his social media posts showing before-and-after pictures. “It isn’t my job. People keep telling me that. I understand,” he told KPIX. “But, what’s wrong with having a little civic pride.” Wang recently shared a gallery of his “most challenging cleanups,” triggering a wave of good vibes on Reddit.
A message from Phil Mosby Photography
Nights on Earth 2025 Calendar with Astronomical Times Calibrated to Your Location
Nights on Earth 2025 is a bespoke wall calendar made by space lovers for space lovers. It features a wealth of astronomical data calibrated to YOUR location, alongside 13 beautiful Nightscape Photos by Phil Mosby or Deep Space Images from the JWST.
2.
“It felt like there was magic in the room sometimes. We would communicate without words. It was spiritual.”
— Grateful Dead drummer Bill Kreutzmann
Three surviving members of the Grateful Dead are set to receive Kennedy Center Honors this month. The Washington Post surveyed the long, strange trip of the Bay Area rock band.
3.
In Cambria, an old-school oyster bar offers sunset views that are nothing short of spectacular.
In Santa Barbara, a 138-year-old hillside tavern could double as a museum.
And in Nipomo, a steak house makes one of the best burgers anywhere in the state.
The California food writer Mona Holmes named 15 restaurants along the Central Coast that are so good they’re worth taking a road trip to get there. Eater
4.
In the days after giving birth via in vitro fertilization in 2019, Daphna Cardinale and her husband were nagged by doubt. Their baby, May, looked nothing like their family. Finally, a DNA test confirmed what was fairly obvious to others: The baby was not theirs. Daphna recalled the moment her lawyer told her that the real parents had been located near their home in suburban Los Angeles. “So I just lost my baby,” Daphna replied, holding May in her arms. “I just lost my baby, right?” The New York Times Magazine told the story of “an I.V.F. mix-up, a shocking discovery, and an unbearable choice.”
5.
Architects have long sought ways to integrate homes into nature. In recent years, they’ve embraced a way of making them all but invisible with mirrored facades, an innovation featured in one of California’s newest glamping destinations. Paradise Ranch, founded by a Danish photographer, is a glamping retreat with four mirrored cabins just outside Sequoia National Park’s southern entrance. The vibe is geared toward wellness, with cedar hot tubs, a sauna, and redwood “yoga decks.” Reviewers seem to love it. dwell | Condé Nast Traveler
6.
For more than a decade, the photographer Bryan Schutmaat traveled across the American West photographing the hitchhikers, addicts, survivalists, and drifters he met along the way. The historian Frederick Jackson Turner theorized that the country’s democratic culture was forged from its pacification of the western frontier. Schutmaat’s project, called “Sons of the Living,” blows up that mythology with a vision of “wilderness steadily reasserting itself over a crumbling human presence.” The Atlantic
See more images from “Sons of the Living.” 👉 BryanSchutmaat.co
7.
In 2017, a seminary in Compton invited an urban farming nonprofit, Alma Backyard Farms, to put an empty lot on its property to use. Seven years later, it’s now a lush garden that doubles as a work program for former inmates. “The things we produce are beautiful things,” said James Morgan, who came to Alma after a 24-year stint in prison. “In my prior life, I was doing a lot of destructive things, and this is good for me being part of something so beautiful.” The New York Times published a fantastic photo essay on the project.
☀️ There’s a lot happening in California.
Plug back in to the daily newsletter for just $20/year.
👉 Sign up here.
Thanks for reading!
The California Sun is written by Mike McPhate, a former California correspondent for the New York Times.
Click here to unsubscribe from these emails.
The California Sun, PO Box 6868, Los Osos, CA 93412
Wake up to must-read news from around the Golden State delivered to your inbox each morning.