Is the trip from your living room to your kitchen no longer exciting? But you aren't quite ready for Rome? Ruth Carlson returns to The Commonwealth Club with her travel insights for nearby but unusual California attractions, from Angels Camp to ZZYZX, and from a town with its own secret language to a perfume museum with a whale poop exhibit.

Karen Misuraca joins Carlson to focus on Sonoma's curiosities, icons and hidden treasures, including a beer lovers festival in wine country, flesh-eating plants that create their own little shop of horrors, Charlie Brown's cartoon world, Gold Rush era bars, hidden beaches along a world-famous coastline, and the tallest trees on the planet. Or would you prefer to fly through the treetops, stargaze through powerful telescopes, or loll about in geothermal hot springs?

Whether your intent is to travel by imagination, or to plan your next nearby vacation, join us first to enhance your trip.