Getting the flavor of . . . Communing with sheep in California, and more

last updated 8 January 2015

Communing with sheep in California

Bleating sheep awoke us, said Jessica Garrison in the Los Angeles Times. Groggily, we made our way outside and were greeted by a vision

of “golden hills, graceful oak trees,” and scores of lambs in the morning sunshine. We were staying just northeast of San Luis Obispo, at the Rinconada Dairy, a 52-acre sheep ranch that makes award-winning cheeses. In this bucolic setting guests can learn about the art of cheesemaking. (“It’s all about the mold.” Don’t try it at home.) Our workshop made three kinds: a nutty Pozo Tomme, aged two months; La Panza Gold, “styled after a Corsican farmhouse cheese”; and Chaparral, made with both sheep and goat milks. Our Spanish-style suite contained a bedroom, a reading nook, and an elaborate shower seemingly borrowed from “a Vegas honeymoon suite.” Other bonuses included organic meals and short drives to dozens of wineries in Paso Robles and the Santa Ynez Valley.

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Salt Lake City has “two starkly different sides,” said Andrea Sachs in The Washington Post. There’s the bright and sunny daytime version, and another that emerges only at night. Nightlife opportunities include Sky Bar, a rooftop restaurant, and Port O’Call, which, housed in a 1912 building, offers billiards and dancing. Since Mormons comprise 45 percent of the area’s nearly 1 million residents, visitors who want a drink at a restaurant must also at least pretend to order food. Such restrictions have not prevented a recent surge in tourism, driven primarily by a combination of “urban attractions and the great outdoors.” The city’s most notable buildings are the multi-spired Salt Lake Temple—closed to all but the faithful—and the Tabernacle, “the performance hall of the famed choir.” Attractions in the surrounding countryside include the nearby Wasatch Mountains and the 75-mile-long Great Salt Lake itself. Walking along its spongy shore will turn a shoe “into the rim of a margarita glass.”