By Ross Furukawa D A I LY PRESS STAFF WRITERS ometimes the Westside can be hard. When I say hard, I mean it can be hard to pick up your dry cleaning when you’re trying to make a left-hand turn across rush hour traffic. Sometimes hard is just trying to find your car when you’re lost in a massive parking structure. It can be hard to get to the beach when everyone east of the I- 405 has driven down the I-10 Freeway with the same idea.
Sometimes it’s refreshing to go where things are easy. Really easy. Easy and mellow.
Dana Point is a sleepy, mellow beach town in south OC.
Dana Point, just an hour (with no traffic) south of the I-10 Freeway, lives and breathes easy and mellow. And quaint. And all of those things that you enjoy so much when you’re going away for the weekend. So much so it has been dubbed “California’s Riviera.”
While the rest of the world views Orange County as simply images from “The OC,” Angelenos often refer to Orange County as one big suburb. Landscaped medians, eight-lane residential byways and Chili’s. Dana Point has somehow avoided that tag, and is a funky, interesting little beach town.
The first thing I noticed was that once off the I-5 Freeway, life just slowed down. I had made arrangements to stay at the Laguna Cliffs Marriott Resort, which sits on the harbor side of town. Despite every street bearing the name “Lantern” (Golden Lantern, Violet Lantern, Green Lantern), getting around town was easy and intuitive.
The Dana Point Marina is divided into four parts: the Embarcadero; Wharf; Mariners Village; and Mariners Alley. The Embarcadero services the loading ramps for small watercraft, and the Wharf is where the fishing and whale watching boats are slipped.
The Maria is host to dozens of restaurants that scream “we’re on vacation.” Places like the Jolly Roger, Harpoon Henry’s and Proud Mary’s dot the dockside. All are pret-
Originally published in the Santa Monica Daily Press print edition on September 22, 2007. Read the original PDF.