Where to go in California this Summer? Hidden Gems, cheaper & less crowded! Sandie Newton co-hosts!

I'm Pat Patterson and I love California. Hey Pat. Hey Sandy. How are you? Oh, I am so good. How are you? Well, it's great. How are things in Palm Springs? You know, they are fabulous. We are having beautiful weather. It's not too hot yet. I love it. And we loved hosting you here, as a matter of fact, not too long ago in Arkansas. Uh, I really want to thank you for helping us uh with this uh hidden gems award announcement. Yeah. You know what? I'm really excited about it because you are a native Californian, so you know the best about California and so tell me really the origin of these hidden gems. Uh, we started doing it a couple years ago and it gets national press now. I mean, we're picked up all over the country. Yeah. Wow, that is fantastic. Well, let's get to them. I feel like I need a little drum roll here. Bing bing bing bing bing bing bing. Um, number six, best hidden gem food experience. And this one is one of my favorites, too. You've been to it? Yeah. The boys and berry festival. Not Berry Farm. I had not been to it before. Liza and I covered it. And here again, big popular theme park, but a but a a different event that isn't isn't Christmas and isn't all the other things that crowd theme parks. It's food. And they have dozens of Boenberry themed uh items. Uh Liza loved the the one of the sandwiches that was on uh it was a uh god, what was it? It it had uh on poisonberry flavored kleslaw cornbread. So it was pulled pork sandwich on on kleslaw and cornbread. And I love the boenberry lemon tart guy. What what's been your favorite when you've gone there? You know what? The old school boenberry jam that is so yummy. And I remember going when my boys were little and all of us having purple teeth when we left. Yeah. Because it stains your mouth and your teeth, but it's so delicious. Yeah. They have boenberry beer. They have And they also have a lot of local merchants that make boenberry themed product, which I think is really cool that a theme park does that. You know, they help local artisans. And we even bought a Boenberry plant while we were there. So Oh, wow. Thank you. Buena Park and Knberry Farm. Nice. Nice. Well, the next one, number seven, is live events or festivals. So, this is the Coronado Film Festival, which I knew nothing about. You know, I know about Newport. I know about the big Palm Springs out there, but this is a hidden gem and down on Coron Coronado Island. And I guess officially it's called the Coronado Island Film Festival. And uh it just is a great venue to see all these films, independent films. They'll usually have a couple of stars come down that they're honoring. And it's just a very low-key um I want to I want to say not so crowded, but now that we've given it its award and they're publicizing it, those days are over. It'll be a mob. It'll be like uh it'll be like a Sundance. No, I I don't think so. Well, nice that you give them those shoutouts because uh you know the film festivals are so important to the industry to get some of those smaller independent films out there and and Coronado is so beautiful. What a great marriage between a film festival and a location. Great place to stay. You know, the hotel Dell there and all that is is awesome. I love that. And the next one, even though this doesn't really speak to you or me per se, Pat, the best hidden gem senior friendly travel hack. So, I always look for something with gray hair for, you know, let's say 50 and over. You know, travel gets harder. I don't know about you, but you know, just just the reason I love my gig is it's California. It's easy. Most of it's drivable. And this one is going to a national park. Now, I don't know about you, but I think about going to a national park, I immediately start to get a headache because it can be very crowded. Hard to park. Uh it's hard to get hotels inside the park. You know, you have to go online and at 8:30 when they, you know, you have to try to reserve the room. So, Vicelia has a a Seoia shuttle. And so if you stay in Vicelia, which we did, you just come out of your hotel. I think we were at the Marriott there, which was beautiful. You just come out, you get the shuttle, it takes you all the way up. It you can either stop, get off, you can do things, you can do whatever you want, but you don't have to park, you don't have to worry about your car. Uh it's just a beautiful way to do it. I want to say it was about a 40minute drive, you know, up, but just a nice beautiful uh comfortable uh van, shuttle, big, big shuttle and and we just fell in love with it. So nice. Well, the operative word there is comfortable because we do like our comfort at a certain age, don't we? Absolutely. Yeah. So, number nine, best made in California product. And that had to be one that was probably uh a little competitive because we have a lot of great items and hidden gems made in California. Yeah, it's hard. So, we did a segment about the Rolling Hills Casino up in Corning. Beautiful spot and beautiful facility. Another casino like the Yamaba. and uh they have their own uh brewery and distillery which is the Pisca Brewery and Distillery where they're not only doing beer but they're doing spirits and they and it's it's you I think unique just in the fact that the tribe that owns the casino uh owns this distillery and it's all be brewing stuff for the property itself but they're starting to actually ship it elsewhere. One of the things that I loved about this place, because it's just one tribe, one casino. Some tribes own multiple casinos and big companies run them and whatnot. Uh is is very local and helps the community. I mean, it's good product, good uh uh spirits and and beer and ale and whatnot, but it's also very uh very committed to helping the community. So, our hats off to Pisceta. Absolutely. Hats off for sure. That's fantastic. And the last one, again, I feel like a drum roll is needed here. Number 10 of your best hidden gems. The category is best food and drink rock, rock and bruise. Yeah. So, we never give this to a chain. This chain, we we went to a couple of them this year. And this was a chain uh founded by Jean Simmons and Paul Stanley of Kiss and and restaurant tour Michael Zizzlas. And and they're headquartered in Manhattan Beach close to me here in Seal Beach. And I love their food. Uh I love their their beverages. Uh they have, you know, for an old hippie like me, all the rock uh posters and memorabilia. mostly from my era, but obviously a lot of it from, you know, more recent times and and I happen to have met Jean Simmons before and I just think he's a neat guy and and a great businessman, but but I guess it's the this uh restaurant tour of Michael Zizzlas that deserves a lot of the credit for the food and what they've done there. So, I think they they're up to like 17 locations. Nice. kind of similar to Bob's and In and Out. You know, they were born here, but they're expanding. So, nice. Nice. Well done, Jean Simmons and and crew. Absolutely. Well, well done to you. Thank you, Liza, for just covering our beautiful state of California and finding all these hidden gems because really they are there are so many and how can we possibly find them all? It's so wonderful that you can now in your fourth year really highlight some of the best ones. I'm going to definitely check quite a few of these out myself. Yeah, it's helpful. It's helpful. And and we try to do it before Memorial Day so people can plan their summer, get a few of these in. They're all drivable. They're all easy. They're not just for summer, but some many of them are for summer. And always encourage people to go to our website bestacal.tv to give us their hidden gems. Well, you have really nailed it. I'm so proud of you. Bravo. as a native Californian, this means a lot to you to be able to show the very best of your home state. Thank you. Thank you. And I'm just going to remind everybody, you can see the show here in Los Angeles on ME TV Sundays at 7:30, but it airs all over the country, all over the state. I just tell anybody, I don't know about you, Sandy, but people say, "So, where can I see your show?" I say, "You know what? Just search my name, Pat Patterson, in your TV service, and it'll tell you where to find us. So, that's what I tell people to do. Great. Well, we love the show. We love you and Liza. We love all the tips you give us and uh here's to a new season of Hidden Gems. Thank you. Thank you. Appreciate it, Sandy. Look forward to coming to see you in Palm Springs soon. Please do. We'll see you soon. That's a That's a date. Mhm. I'm Pat Patterson and I love California.