Seven explorers gathered, many months back, in Orange Coast’s conference room. Having already identified the most alluring segments of the Coast for this month’s “Best of the West Coast” cover story, we drew numbers out of a hat to see who’d go where. The mission: Find the very best places—lodgings, restaurants, attractions—for our readers. Yes, we actually get paid to do this. But this was not some editorial staff bacchanal. We insisted that each traveler ... Read more

This month’s “Reasons We Love Orange County” cover package was going to be a no-brainer. It’d practically write itself—or so we thought. Quickly, though, we understood that our main challenge was not where to start penning our valentine, but where to stop. There are so many reasons to celebrate this place that most of them are painfully obvious. Tropical temperatures all year long? Easy access to beaches and mountains? Proximity to (and comfy distance from) ... Read more

The very idea that Laguna Woods seniors have been shaking their groove thangs to a Stevie Nicks tribute band gave us pause. Combined with the recent arrival of a pot collective, Zumba classes, and Woodstock parties in that once-staid bastion of Orange County retirement living, the thought triggered a serious spit-take. But after reading Shawn Hubler’s “Sexagenarians, Drugs & Rock ’n’ Roll,” we’re slapping our foreheads and wondering why none of us saw this ... Read more

For those of us who live to eat, the last-meal fantasy is a familiar exercise—and not just because a condemned Texas prisoner recently made news when he placed his order: two chicken-fried steaks with gravy and sliced onions; a triple-patty bacon cheeseburger; a cheese omelet with ground beef, tomatoes, onions, bell peppers, and jalapeños; fried okra with ketchup; one pound of barbecued meat with half a loaf of white bread; fajitas; a meat-lover’s pizza; a ... Read more

I process preflight announcements like random words read from a dictionary, what with all those tedious advisories about seatbelts and nearest exits and flotation devices. But during a recent cross-country trip, one unfamiliar phrase jumped out: The flight attendants, we were told, were aboard “primarily for your safety,” which I took to mean, “Anyone who whines about needing more apple juice will be fed into the maw of our left engine.” The in-flight entertainment began ... Read more