Help Radagast spend his birthday present!

I'm back from my conference (which was great fun), but the semester's trend of featuring bad news shows no sign of abating (my proposed online course was rejected by the curriculum committee, my spring schedule looks awful, etc. etc.). But I'm tired of thinking about that stuff, so I've decided it's time to think about something fun.

One of my birthday presents this year (from my SO!) is a perfect fit for this semester: it's an all-expense-paid weekend vacation to a destination of my choice. All I have to do is pick the location and the date, and we're gone. The only restriction is that I must take the trip before the end of the semester. I can't wait.

I only have one problem: I don't know where we should go. We're not the weekend vacationing type, so we don't even really know what our options are.

So, I thought I'd open this question up to my readers. If you were in southern California and were able to take a weekend trip somewhere this fall, where would you go?

Here are a few guidelines to help with suggestions:

• The destination should be no more than a 4-5 hour drive away from the LA area.
• I'm not interested destinations that requires flying (a special thank you to the TSA for making my choice easier).
• We'd probably be leaving LA midday Friday and need to be back by late Sunday night or early Monday, though if the destination was cool enough we could potentially leave on Thursday or return on Monday night or Tuesday morning.
• I'm more interested in locations that focus on peaceful relaxation, natural settings, and tasty food than urban sprawl and nightlife (shocking, I know). In fact, sitting next to my SO in a cozy room all weekend while reading Science News and the Count of Monte Cristo would count as an amazingly fun weekend in my book.

Any suggestions would be appreciated!

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• personal
• teaching