Claremont's Folk Music Center
There are many things I love about the lovely town of Claremont, CA
so you'll probably see a couple of posts on this town. For our wedding,
my husband and I stayed our wedding night in the Claremont Doubletree
Hotel. I wasn't particularly impressed with them, but there are several great hotels in town which offer other alternatives.
The ownership of the hotel we stayed in had recently changed, so it also might
be worth trying out again as they had had a great reputation in the past.
My biggest beef with them was that they felt the need to empty the trash cans
on SUNDAY MORNING at 7am right out side our window. When we showed up to
church that morning (yes, the morning after our wedding night) having
already had a lovely breakfast at BC Cafe and
getting dressed people were surprised.
Cactus from the Rancho Santa Anna Botanical Gardens
No one understood that we couldn't
get back to sleep after half an hour of dump trucks outside. FOR GOODNESS
SAKE, it was a Sunday!!!
The strange habits of the Doubletree's waste disposal aside,
Claremont is truly a perfect place for a romantic
getaway. It's located near LA but far enough inland that it can be a true
'getaway' from your daily routine. If you're visiting the area it is also
a great place to use as a home base and do day trips from. Most of the
day trips I have in my blog work perfectly based out of
Claremont.
Saturday is a great day to peruse the quaint town shopping center which has all
the adorable little shops. There is also an enormous selection of
delicious restaurants for a romantic brunch before shopping. If you do
want to go shopping, especially if you want to visit their famous
Folk Music Store
(owned by Ben Harper's family), make sure to do so on Saturday and most of the
shops are closed on Sunday in this heavily churched town.
CK cafe, Claremont
While nightlife
is a bit lacking,
Pasadena
is only 30 minutes away with it's much more active night scene.
Sundays should, in my opinion, always start at BC Cafe. They have these
amazing pancakes that are literally a foot across. The nice thing is that
their pancakes aren’t so doughy that you feel like you've eaten an entire loaf
of bread afterwards. Because of
Claremont's
eclectic scene, they also have a very good whole-wheat pancake and lots of
fruit options as well. After breakfast at BC, stop by the
4th street farmer's
market and shop the locally grown produce.
Hero's Restaurant
is a great place for lunch, make sure to take advantage of throwing your peanut
shells onto their floor. Sometimes at Lunch the peanut shells haven't
built up and people are shy about this- JUST DO IT, it is half of the experience
to be messy at a public restaurant.
The
Rancho
Santa Anna Botanic Gardens are a great way to work off all that food and
see the natural beauty of the plateau and hill country around
California. The full walk takes about
2-3 hours, so make sure to leave enough time and don't forget to bring along some
water as the water fountains are usually not working great.
To cool off or relax in the early evening, CK cafe is a lovely place to catch
some great (and some not-so-great) local artists and a very nice cup of
Joe. Fine dining options abound, but for a lovely atmosphere and guaranteed
good music check out
The
Press, where local college professors and their graduate students talk deep
things over lingering alcoholic beverages.
