Golden Hour

An hour from the city and it does a fair Scottish Highlands impression, right down to the weather. Don't go May through August unless you want fog; there's a herd of tule elk out on the point that you'll see either way.

Water blue enough that you want to get in, cold enough that you immediately want back out. We made it down to the shore the season before they closed the trail for repairs.

Small enough that we ran out of things to do by Saturday afternoon, which turned out to be the point. Rode the Skunk Train because you're supposed to — wouldn't bother a second time.