The Orange County Register, May 14th, 2006
Dad was the one who drove -- my first road warrior. He would pilot the 1967 family land yacht on our epic trips in the days of 30-cent-a-gallon gas.
But the destinations were more often than not inspired by the woman riding shotgun. Vacations went pretty much Mom's way.
Each spring, she'd call in my brother, Dennis, and me to sit at the knotty pine kitchen table at our house in Long Beach.
Mom would spread out maps and show us where we might go. Grand Canyon. Or Lake Tahoe. Crater Lake, often San Francisco.
Later there would be a trip to the Auto Club for guidebooks and TripTiks, a pre-computer version of Mapquest.
Those were the first trips that fed what bloomed into my lifelong yearning for the road. So on this Mother's Day, I say thanks to Barbara Warner, my first tour guide, and recall some of her beloved spots.
Big Bear Lake
Mom wouldn't like me giving out her age. Let's just say she was born the year Franklin Roosevelt won the presidency. I won't say which of the four times it was that FDR was sent to the White House, so Mom has 12 years of wiggle room. As a young woman, she took a summer job counting cars for the highway department, which was trying to figure out which roads to widen. She'd watch the cars whiz by, wondering where the people were going. After graduating from Occidental College, she got in a car and drove cross-country to visit relatives on the East Coast.
Mom would eventually see large swaths of the United States, Canada and Europe.
But her first and most lasting travel love is Big Bear Lake. Her father once owned a hotel on the north shore, and her uncle was the longtime sheriff. My earliest travel memories are of the lake, some 7,000 feet up in the San Bernardino Mountains. We visited often, especially after my dad went to work for the Boy Scouts and pulled summer duty as director of Camp Tahquitz in nearby Barton Flats.
My mom is a psychologist, and when she gets stressed out, her personal cure is a quick trip up to Big Bear. These days her favorite spot is the Marina Resort on the Lake. A place where she can sit and contemplate the beauty of the waters she's watched since she was a girl.
Carmel-by-the-Sea
We'd often drive up Highway 101, stopping at Hearst Castle and Big Sur. Our ultimate goal was San Francisco. But that was more of a place for Dad and the boys - a chance to go to ``Ripley's Believe It or Not'' on Fisherman's Wharf and Candlestick Park to see Willie Mays and the Giants. Mom's favorite stop on the coast was Carmel-by-the-Sea. For the guys, it was a little too frilly - even the official name of the town was a bit much. But Mom loved it, still does.
Her favorite hotel is the hyper-feminine Tickle Pink Inn, where Dad takes her for romantic trips.
No visit to Carmel would be complete without a road trip among the rocks, sea and cypress on the on the 17-Mile Drive and a stop for Earl Grey tea and sweet snacks at the Tuck Box.
The Redwoods
My mom recently had neck surgery (it went well). When I stopped by the hospital to visit, the first thing she wanted to hear about was my redwoods trip.``Did you get to Benbow?'' she asked about her favorite inn amid the giant trees of Humboldt County.
No, Benbow doesn't open until March 31 and I had missed it by a week.
The half-timbered lodge opened in 1926 near Garberville. It became a family favorite after the decline and eventual closing of our beloved Hartsook Inn.
Richardson Grove State Park, a favorite family haunt, is still there, as is the 32-mile-long Avenue of the Giants trip that parallels Highway 101.
Santa Fe, N.M.
My mom's favorite aunt lived in Santa Fe, drawn west from upstate New York to study archaeology and eventually work for Fred Harvey, the pioneering western tourism company.
In the decades since we first visited, Santa Fe has grown into a hip artist colony, with New York and Los Angeles transplants opening sculpture studios running right up to her aunt's door.
For mom, it is the remnants of the old Santa Fe that draw her back: the plaza with its Indian jewelry vendors, lunch amid the cool tiles of the La Fonda Hotel, and the high desert road to the 18th-century San Francisco de Asis in Taos.
Lake Louise, Canada
On our longest-ever car trip, my parents made the mistake of trusting their budding preteen travel editor to pick the lodgings on the drive to western Canada.
I put us into a Space Age-style motel in Banff instead of the stately Banff Springs Hotel. In Jasper, we had a hotel by the railway tracks instead of the plush Jasper Park Lodge (Mom's never forgiven me for that choice).
But between, we stayed at the Chateau Lake Louise, the old Canadian Pacific Railway hotel nestled against a glacial lake. Mom returns whenever she can. I got that one right.
Ahwahnee, Yosemite
People often ask me if I have been every place I've ever wanted to go. The answer is no, because I am always adding to my original list.
Maybe I get that from Mom. It was no surprise that when my parents celebrated their 50th wedding anniversary, she chose someplace she'd never stayed: the Ahwahnee Hotel in Yosemite National Park. The din of renovations took away some of the magic, but she loved sitting by the huge rock-rimmed fireplace with my son, Thomas, and taking the tram tour of the valley.
Salzburg, Austria
A happy child's fondest hope is to be able in some way to repay a parent. I have a wonderful life filled with travel, inspired by Mom and Dad. I've returned to many of my Mom's favorite places over and over again. Some, like Benbow Inn, are favorites of my wife and kids, too (I'm now old enough to sample the courtesy decanter of sherry in the room).
Like many women of her generation, my mother is nuts about ``The Sound of Music.'' She wanted to see the Austria where Maria and Captain von Trapp fell in love as the Nazi curtain descended across Europe. My brother and I drew up the plans and put the folks on a bus tour of the film's sites. A little corny to me. But for my original guide, it was sheer pleasure - what she taught me travel is all about.
Checklist
BIG BEAR LAKE: (800) 4-BIGBEAR (24-4232) or www.bigbearinfo.com. Marina Resort, (800) 600-6000 or www.marinaresort.com . $99 (during the week), $139 (weekends). Summer rate as of June 1 is $119 during the week and $179 during weekends.
CARMEL-BY-THE-SEA: (800) 550-4333 or www.carmelcalifornia.org . Tickle Pink Inn, (800) 635-4774 or www.ticklepinkinn.com . $309 to $499. Tuck Box, (831) 624-3396 or www.tuckbox.com .THE REDWOODS: Redwood Coast visitors center: (800) 346-3482 or www.redwoodvisitor.org . Benbow Inn, (800) 355-3301 or www.benbowinn.com . Rates start at $130 in summer. Richardson Grove State Park, (707) 247-3318 or www.parks.ca.gov.
SANTA FE: (800) 777-2489 or www.santafe.org . La Fonda, (505) 982-5511 or www.lafondasantafe.com.
LAKE LOUISE: (403) 762-8421 or www.banfflakelouise.com . Fairmont Chateau Lake Louise, (800) 257-7544 or www.fairmont.com/lakelouise . $289A
HWAHNEE HOTEL: (559) 253-5635 or www.webportal.com/ahwahnee . Summer rates from $393. Lower rates off-season.
SALZBURG: Call the Austrian National Tourist Office at (212) 944-6880 or see the Salzburg area visitors Web site, www.salzburgerland.com/eng/.
Share your photos of your favorite vacation with Mom at travel.ocregister.com.
Warner can be reached at (714) 796-7771 or by e-mail at gettingaway@ocregister.com
