It's hard to feel the holiday vibe in San Diego when the temps hover at 80 degrees and the only trees you see are of the palm variety. But when traditional events like the Balboa Park's 32nd annual December Nights roll around, it starts to feel a lot like Christmas.

San Diego's kick-off to the season will take place December 4 from 5 to 10 p.m. and December 5 from noon to 10 p.m. in Balboa Park. More than 300,000 revelers are expected to attend December Nights, the largest free community festival in the city. Start off the festivities at the International Christmas Festival at the House of Pacific Relations Cottages. There you can get eats from all around the globe like Polish kielbasa, Panamanian fried plantains and Filipino lumpia, a yummy kind of egg roll. But wait, there's so much more...]]> Jennifer Kester 2009-11-19T16:09:30-05:00 http://www.jaunted.com/story/2009/11/17/14738/521

Gift giving, twinkling lights, and plenty of booze often make for a festive holiday season, but going overboard with the latter wouldn't garner a stamp of approval from Kris Kringle. Leave it to Napa's wine producers and humble Bed and Breakfast proprietors to class up those awkward, alcohol-tinged family gatherings and raise some money for charity in the process.

Plenty of Napa Valley wineries are having holiday Open House events on weekends, but to experience a smorgasbord of varietals, vintner offerings, and enjoy the quaint charm of Downtown Napa, buy a ticket to the annual B&B Tour & Taste Event. The four-hour affair will take place on December 5th from 2:00-6:00 PM, when ticket-holders will go from one B&B to the next to "ooh" and "aah" over wreaths, ornaments, and tinsel decor. ]]> Heidi Atwal 2009-11-17T14:24:29-05:00 http://www.jaunted.com/story/2009/11/16/132641/14

Lake views and no cooking; that's what we call Thanksgiving

Thanksgiving can either make you feel elated or totally stressed out—usually some combination thereof. After that Pumpkin Pie high, your mind might turn to thoughts of dishes that need to be washed, relatives that need to be entertained, and horrific Black Friday shopping. The benefit of hightailing it out of town during this time is being able to push some of these worries away, while still enjoying the Thanksgiving spirit.

Lake Tahoe is always a favorite holiday destination, for its views of the water, skiing, and the fact that it's pretty much the opposite of a harried urban setting, however overrun with tourists it can get. We found some last minute event deals at the Hyatt Regency Resort that offer easy and relatively cheap remedies to some of the problems we mentioned above. ]]> Heidi Atwal 2009-11-16T15:24:28-05:00 http://www.jaunted.com/story/2009/11/13/152225/31

A scene from Metropia, not for the kids

If you happen to be visiting the San Francisco Bay Area this weekend and are looking for a last-minute culture fix, our suggestion is the Fourth Annual S.F. International Animation Festival. The festival's kick-off took place earlier this week, with an Opening Night screening of the new Wes Anderson movie The Fantastic Mr. Fox.

While Fox is a larger studio release, most of the festival's programming gives due time and attention to films that don't have the same hype or budget attached to them as a Pixar release—obscure international offerings, shorts, and other movies that don't usually find a place at your local cineplex. Don't get us wrong, we're still Pixar devotees, but this weekend's lineup is refreshingly challenging and less mainstream than, say, the umpeeth movie in the Shrek series. ]]> Heidi Atwal 2009-11-13T16:44:27-05:00 http://www.jaunted.com/story/2009/11/11/222057/50

Foodies will want to pack their tank tops and head west to the sixth annual San Diego Bay Wine and Food Festival from November 18 to 22. Southern California's largest wine and food fest will feature culinary stars like James Beard Foundation Award winner for Best American Chef, Southwest, Alex Stratta of the two-star Michelin-rated ALEX at the Wynn Las Vegas; Cooking Light Magazine’s Executive Chef Billy Strynkowski; Peter Mondavi Jr. of Charles Krug winery; James Beard Foundation Award winner for Best Chef, Paul Bartolotta of Bartolotta at the Wynn Las Vegas, celebrity TV star Sam Zien of Sam the Cooking Guy.

The five-day festival will host more than 170 wineries, 70 fine-dining restaurants, gourmet food companies, wine-tasting seminars, celebrity artists, cooking classes by award-winning chefs and more. It's expected to draw 8,000 wine and food enthusiasts. ]]> Jennifer Kester 2009-11-12T09:04:25-05:00 http://www.jaunted.com/story/2009/11/10/142957/80

Beeeeer. While it's the drinking hour already here on the east coast, over in Los Angeles and Long Beach, they've still got a few more hours before it's socially acceptable to pop the top on a cold bottle of Hangar 24 Craft Beer. We were originally turned on to the unique Hangar 24 Brewery in Redlands, CA by the Lomography website, after someone used their fancy, artsy camera to capture the place's brewing magic and its hangar location.

Hanger 24 is relatively new to the microbrewery scene, having only opened in 2008, but the dream began in the skies:

Hangar 24 Craft Brewery began with a true passion for good beer, the absolute love of flying and the pure enjoyment of being around great friends. Founder and Master Brewer Ben Cook and his buddies used to meet at hangar 24 after an afternoon of flying to trade stories, talk aviation, play music and share a few cold ones that Ben just finished brewing at home.

]]> JetSetCD 2009-11-10T14:51:24-05:00 http://www.jaunted.com/story/2009/11/9/13513/7666

A sunny scene at the Desert Hills Outlets—before Black Friday

Black Friday is not for the faint of heart. Should you bear traces of tryptophan in your blood stream, or experience the after-effects of one too many glasses of wine from Thanksgiving, then sleeping in may suit you more than braving a crowd of rabid shoppers—and we do mean rabid. We've heard horror stories about Black Friday deaths and witnessed parent-on-parent showdowns at Toys 'R' Us, which are precisely the reasons that news outlets line up in the wee hours of the morning to document the mania.

If you're a brave enough consumer, then by all means drag yourself out of bed before sunrise and take advantage of the deals. Hey, it's your "patriotic duty," right? The West Coast, with shopping safe havens like Beverly Hills, West Hollywood, and San Francisco's Union Square, is ripe for spending sprees, but some of the best deals are where discounts are knocked off of already marked-down prices.

Say it with us, readers: outlet shopping... ]]> Heidi Atwal 2009-11-09T15:39:43-05:00 Search Jaunted string http://www.jaunted.com/search/