Baja

If you’re from the Northwest like me, you learn to live with the gray, dark winters. It’s part of the rhythm of the year—you jam all your sunshine into the summer months, practically living outside, and then use the winter to catch up on stew-making, reading, and snuggling with your dog on the couch. It’s the Seattle way.

That said, it doesn’t hurt to make room for a little winter sunshine. A good dose of balmy weather can help you find equilibrium as the dreariness drags on and on.

Recently, Baja California—that long, skinny peninsula on the western edge of Mexico—has become my winter recharge of choice. I love the landscape of desert scrub dotted with tall cacti raising their many arms to the sky. Bunnies dash by, and the prickly pears bloom hot pink against the tawny sand. Bougainvillea hang down from garden walls in shades of fuchsia, coral, and white. At night the uncountable stars arch across the velvety sky.