Kim Weir
Host, Up The RoadKim Weir is the founder of Up the Road, a nonprofit public-interest journalism project. She researches, writes, and hosts Up the Road, a radio show and mini-podcast about California co-produced by North State Public Radio. Kim got her start as a travel journalist in 1990 with the publication of the first and original Moon Handbooks Northern California, a surprise best-seller. Six other Moon books on California soon followed. She is a member, by invitation, of the venerable Society of American Travel Writers (SATW). Kim earned a BA in environmental studies and analysis, with an emphasis on botany and ecology, and also holds an MFA in creative writing. She lives in Paradise.
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There’s so much to see and do in Sacramento, California’s capital city, we’ll never move on unless I speed-walk through the basics, what else is downtown and around—at least major museums and sites. But then you’re on your own for Big Tomato parks and recreation, water sports, and all the rest. Join us for more, just up the road. -
Sacramento feels something like other valley towns, but bigger. And it has big surprises. An exciting food scene, for one thing, at least before COVID. (The Big Tomato was always farm-to-fork.) Cool evening breezes in summer, outdoor a/c, thanks to the nearby Delta. And a spectacular State Capitol. Join us for more, just up the road. -
The original gold rush boomtown of Sacramento boomed first as a tent city along the river’s mudflats, an area more or less defined these days by Front and J Streets, west of I-5—Old Sacramento. Then came California’s Great Flood, which inundated the entire valley for 45 days straight. Join us for more, just up the road. -
The dream of the nation’s first transcontinental railroad—a cross-country rail line to connect the West with the rest of the nation—was first dreamed in… -
People love to poke fun at Sacramento. Mark Twain was among the first. In Sacramento, he observed, “It is a fiery summer always, and you can gather roses,… -
Sitting around the pool doing nothing is no sin in Palm Springs. Countless swimming pools here, reportedly one for every six residents—all kinds of water… -
Greater Palm Springs is another good place to travel with, and among, people again.In the beginning was the desert—the Colorado Desert, and its wide,… -
We’ve been getting ready for crowds of people again, now that the COVID tide is turning—maybe even traveling for the purpose of being with people. We… -
Montecito, just south of Santa Barbara, boasts surreal Lotusland, 37 acres of exotic gardens created by Madame Ganna Walska, thwarted opera singer and… -
We’re trying out the idea of urban travel again, after long social isolation. Almost a year, now. Just thinking about groups of people—at crowded…
