Lifestyle
Hike from Santa Monica to San Diego without a tent. Here’s how to go inn-to-inn.
Approaching Laguna Beach on the hike from Newport Beach to San Clemente.
(Tom Courtney)
This charming stroll will transport you back to the 1930s, through popular Laguna Beach, with its throngs of tourists and stylish art galleries, to Dana Point, where fishing tourism is big business, and finally San Clemente, equally known for its regal Spanish architecture and surf spots.
As you amble past the rocky shores, you’ll glimpse seabirds, crabs, lobsters and seals. Here you can swim some of the finest beaches Orange County has to offer, so pack your bikini and swim trunks.
One of the best parts about this hike is getting off the sand and venturing up into the Dana Point Headlands Conservation Area, a 60-acre area with a preserve and a trail system. The trails are flanked by protected fields of unique native plants and animals (the Courtneys and I saw an adorable illustrated sign warning us to stay quiet, because the Pacific pocket mouse might be sleeping nearby), and you’ll be treated to shimmering views of the ocean as you loop through the preserve.
“There are so many beautiful gardens along the Southern California coast, but few protect the native habitat,” Heidi Courtney says. “It is thrilling to hike through the preserve with over 150 native plants and animals. Birds and other pollinators flock to salvia, buckwheat and yarrow. The dramatic silver-leafed Dudleya were blooming gloriously.”
Day 1: Newport Beach to Crystal Cove: 7.2 miles
The route: Start your day by perambulating lazily around the historic Dory Fleet Market, checking out the crab and seafood offerings. For early risers, the market opens at 5:30 a.m. Snag a cronut at the 24-hour Seaside Donuts Bakery or an açai bowl and a Nutella croissant at the Newport Coffee Co., which opens at 6:30 a.m. Powered by caffeine, begin your hike along the beach or the paved walking path to Palm Street, where you’ll turn left. Head toward the harbor, then take the $1 ferry to Balboa Island. Turn right on South Bay Front after departing the ferry, then turn left onto Marine Avenue and cross the bridge to the mainland. Turn right on Bayside Drive, then walk along that street past the yacht clubs and Coast Guard station, turning right on Fernleaf Avenue, which will take you up to Ocean Boulevard. There, you’ll turn left and head down the stairs across from Heliotrope Avenue to Corona Del Mar State Beach. From here, you can make it all the way to Crystal Cove if the tide is low; otherwise, walk on Ocean Boulevard, take a left on Poppy Avenue, take the PCH and head down the paved trail just past Pelican Point Drive, all the way to the Crystal Cove State Park Historic District.
Crystal Cove Beach Cottages on the hike from Newport Beach to San Clemente.
(Tom Courtney)
Where to stay: The Crystal Cove Beach Cottages are a charming collection of 1920s and 1930s cottages and the site of such Hollywood films as 1920’s “Treasure Island.” (If you can’t get reservations here, start early and combine the hikes for days 1 and 2 into an 11.8-mile hike). The cottages are first come, first serve, so book well in advance. You can get a dormitory-style room for $50 to $146 per night or splurge on a cottage to yourself for $228 to $320 per night.
Where to eat: Order ahi tacos, fried calamari and clam chowder at the Beachcomber, itself a quaint cottage with outdoor seating and spectacular sunset views.
Day 2: Crystal Cove to Laguna Beach. 4.6 miles
The route: Go as far as you can on the beach until cliffs block it, about 1.7 miles, then scramble up the hillside to the PCH, continuing along the sidewalk until you hit Crescent Bay Drive. Make a right and head to the end of the drive, where you’ll take two staircases down to Crescent Bay. If low tide is your friend, hike past picturesque rocky points, looking for tide pools full of sea creatures along the way; if not, climb the stairs just before Crescent Bay to the road and take the first right, cut through Heisler Park, where, depending on the time of year, you’ll find flower gardens exploding with roses, birds of paradise and deep blue Pride of Madeira, then take the stairs at the end to Laguna Beach. Consider an extra day’s stay in Laguna Beach to partake of all the pleasures it has to offer, including live music, dozens of indie art galleries and, if the timing is right, the Pageant of the Masters, where costumed actors re-create classic and contemporary paintings to the tune of a live orchestra.
Where to stay: Book a room or bungalow with a private patio at the Pacific Edge Hotel ($201 to $250, weekdays, $209 to $274 weekends), a modern stay right on the busy main street of Laguna Beach with views of the ocean from many rooms.
Where to eat: The all-day Deck on Laguna Beach (try the juicy mahi mahi sandwich) and the upscale seafood spot Driftwood Kitchen are both just steps from the hotel.
Day 3: Laguna Beach to Dana Point. 9.5 miles
The route: Sip your morning coffee as you watch some of the best surfing along the 200-mile SoCal Coast walkabout, with experts farther out catching waves up to 10 to 15 feet. Tread the sand of Laguna Beach past Halfway Rock to Cactus Point, the latter a rocky promontory with a tunnel near the surf line. Say goodbye to the beach for now just before Cactus Point, ascending the stairs with a black railing to Pearl Street and then turning right on Ocean Way. Turn left on Moss Street and right on the PCH, right on Victoria Drive and then take the stairs to wide, sandy Victoria Beach. Curve around Golf Island, a narrow peninsula with a hefty rock. Hike to Aliso Beach, heading up the stairs to the cliffs if the tide is high; there you’ll find the Lost Pier Cafe, a snack bar with burgers and other casual food. Round Aliso Point to a second set of stairs, which will take you up to West Street. Turn right on the PCH and stroll to Ritz Carlton Drive. Turn right and walk past the Ritz-Carlton (or you can stay the night, adding three miles to Day 4’s hike instead — and $2,000 to your budget). Take the stairs at the end of the parking lot to Bluff Park and Salt Creek Beach Park, then hike along the shore past a paved roadway that juts onto the beach. You can’t continue on the shore because of the cliffs at Dana Point, so take the stairs .3 mile before Dana Point. At the top, head straight up Ocean Front Lane and turn right on Dana Strand Road. Walk it until it ends, passing through a metal gate that will take you directly into Dana Point Preserve and its visitor center. After a brief stop there to learn about the preserve’s flora and fauna, turn right onto Cove Road and make your way to Dana Point Harbor.
Where to stay: The Dana Point Marina Inn ($125 to $175 weekdays, $144 to $279 on weekends), a modest motel with a small pool and free continental breakfast.
Where to eat: Chomp into crispy Alaskan cod and chips under the heat lamps at Jon’s Fish Market, a cafe that’s a seven-minute stroll from the inn.
Day 4: Dana Point to San Clemente. 6 miles.
San Clemente State Beach.
(Tom Courtney)
The route: Today’s hike takes you along a strip of wide sandy beaches. You’ll go from Doheny State Beach to Capistrano State Park to Poche Beach to San Clemente City Beach.
Start your day by heading from your hotel back to the shoreline at Doheny State Beach. If the tide is low, you’ll be able to wade across San Juan Creek and follow the shoreline all the way to San Clemente Pier. If it’s high tide, and you’re blocked by the seawall protecting the beach development near Poche Beach, head away from the beach toward the Amtrak rails, carefully stepping over them, and onto Park Lantern, walking along that street until it becomes Coast Highway Protected Trail. Alternatively, you can follow a paved bike path from Doheny State Beach to the pier.
Where to stay: The Casa Tropicana Inn ($289 weekdays, $339 weekends) at the San Clemente Pier.
Where to eat: Make your way down the picturesque pier at sunset and request a patio table at the Fisherman’s Restaurant and Bar, where burgers, poke bowls and local Left Coast amber lagers satisfy big appetites.
Students walk on the Stanford University campus on March 14, 2019, in Stanford, Calif.
Ben Margot/AP
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Ben Margot/AP
When Theo Baker arrived at Stanford University a few years ago, he joined the student newspaper, following the path of his journalist parents, Peter Baker, a White House correspondent for The New York Times, and Susan Glasser, a writer for The New Yorker.
Through his reporting as a student journalist, he eventually broke a story about manipulated data in Stanford President Marc Tessier-Lavigne’s neuroscience research that helped lead to the university president’s resignation.
Theo Baker’s book, How to Rule the World: An Education in Power at Stanford University was released May 19. In it, Baker describes Stanford as a place where proximity to Silicon Valley gives rise to a parallel system of influence, recruitment and money, with investors looking to identify promising students almost as soon as they arrive on campus.
He told Morning Edition host Steve Inskeep there was “a sort of Stanford inside Stanford,” where elite students are drawn into an “alternate reality” of excess and access to cut corners.
In the interview, he discusses how Stanford is not just a university but also a pipeline where status and power can matter as much as ideas.
We reached out to Stanford University for comment and have not heard back.
Listen to the interview by clicking play on the blue box above.
The scoreboard shows the results of the women’s singles final match between Iga Swiatek of Poland and Amanda Anisimova of the U.S. at the Wimbledon Tennis Championships in London, Saturday, July 12, 2025.
Kirsty Wigglesworth/AP
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Kirsty Wigglesworth/AP
Fifteen points in tennis? Nice. Thirty, 40 — even better. Advantage — that sounds good. “Love” — that also must be great, right? Well, not quite.
As the French Open rolls on and Serena Williams has announced her return to the sport, maybe you’ve been paying a little more attention to tennis. The sport’s scoring system is notably distinct, and can sometimes be hard to grasp for newcomers. But even tennis aficionados might not know why, or how, “love” became the unmistakable callout for zero points. For this installment of NPR’s Word of the Week, we’re exploring how a word that signifies trailing behind got such a sweet name.
“Love” comes from the heart — or an egg?
It’s hard to pinpoint when the first tennis ball went over the net. Tennis is a derivative of lots of other sports, such as “jeu de paume,” a handball game played in France, said JT Buzanga, the collections manager at the International Tennis Hall of Fame museum.
But tennis became a patented, official sport in 1874, said Steve Flink, a journalist whose tennis coverage got him inducted into the International Tennis Hall of Fame. It has retained its unique, mysterious scoring system ever since.
“By and large, the original system has held up almost entirely,” Flink said.
The use of “love” goes back to the late 18th century, said Jesse Sheidlower, a lexicographer. But it was used earlier than that in card games such as whist and bridge. Before the term made its way to tennis, the sport favored plain old “nothing,” or “nil,” he said.
Why love in the first place, though? Historians don’t really know for sure, but there are a few theories.
The French could have something to do with it. Some historians believe “love” derives from “l’oeuf,” which means “the egg” in French. Because eggs are shaped like zeros, terms such as “goose egg” and “duck’s egg” have been used in other contexts to mean zero, Sheidlower said.
It’s also possible English speakers mispronounced l’oeuf as “love.” But Sheidlower isn’t convinced that’s the answer.
“It’s the French equivalent of an English expression. But since that expression doesn’t appear in French, the French word wouldn’t have been used,” he said.
To be sure, France has had a lot of influence on tennis culture, Buzanga said. For example, “deuce” or a game tied at 40 points, comes from the French word for “two”: “deux.” But he prefers another prominent theory: that “love” comes from the idiom “for the love of the game.” Even if a player hasn’t scored, it doesn’t matter, because their heart is in it. It’s the theory Sheidlower said is the most plausible, because the idiom was used by the English before tennis was popularized.
Another variation of the “love of the game” theory is that the word could have come from the Dutch “lof,” or “honor” — or the Latin “amare,” meaning “to love,” Flink said.
But if tennis’ “love” doesn’t come from a French word, the theory at least has a French sensibility.
“I think the ‘for the love of the game’ is kind of romantic,” Buzanga said.
“Love” probably isn’t going anywhere
Tennis used to be a sport of leisure. The style of play has changed a lot over the years; players are more athletic and competitive, for instance, Flink said. But the rules of the sport are more steadfast, he said.
“There’s this incredible, enduring respect for tradition in tennis,” he said. “Changes are not made easily.”
There has been one major change in modern history: the tie-break. Matches can go on and on because players have to score two consecutive points to break a deuce, or by two games to break a tied set. But the onset of television meant matches would have to get shorter if the sport wanted to capture a larger audience, Flink said.
Change even came for “love.” An alternative sprouted up in the 1970s, and is still used today: “bagel,” named for its zero shape, Sheidlower said. Novices may say “zero,” and insiders will understand what they mean, but they “will needle them about it,” Flink said.
But “love” still prevails.
“People kind of like it,” Flink said. “It’s different. Why say zero when you can say love?”
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