Speaking of the Season of Lights, you wanna see a super cool, totally fab, incredibly bodacious light show this December? It’s not exactly a Christmas Light Show, but then again, there are so many dadgum lights at this thing that it will totally work as a brain-boggling holiday experience.
In the California town of Paso Robles (about 40 miles north of San Luis Obispo on Highway 101) there’s a most remarkable event taking place. It’s called “Field of Light,” created by artist Bruce Munro, and the title is a masterful achievement in understatement. Oh, it’s a “Field of Light” all right—no less than 58,000 solar lights laid out in a lovely little valley of grass and oak trees. The result is some serious eye candy.
As in a non-stop Wow. As in Wow times a hundred. Or a thousand. Or 58,000. You pay your $30 and then wander around in the “FOL” for as long as you like until 9 o’clock closing time. It’s all very casual and comfortable, and, yes, you’ve never experienced anything quite like it—and, yes, that includes Burning Man. The longer you wander in these dazzling acres, the more surreal and super dreamy it becomes, a vast landscape of pure, ever-changing color that’s just relentlessly pretty—off the charts Pretty, with a chaser of OMG.
To see photos, just Google “Bruce Munro Field of Light” and check it out, or go to SensorioPaso.com. All the pix, tix and info you need is there. The last time I looked, there were still tickets available for all December shows, which are Thursdays through Sundays from now until the final night of Jan. 5. (It’s been open since June, with reviews in the Los Angeles Times and New York Times, among others.)
And Paso is a dandy little town to visit, with loads of cool motels and yummy cafes. And the wineries. Holy Zinfandel, Batman. In the last 30 years, the place has become a Neo-Napa, with literally hundreds of quality wineries doing their thing in the surrounding countryside. The weather over there on the Central Coast in December is often just as nice as Vegas or San Diego, if you’re into sunny and 65. So a splash of good grape in the afternoon, the eye-bending experience of the “Field of Light” in early evening, followed by a scrumptious dinner in downtown Paso, leading to a top notch conkout. What’s not to like about that lovely and unique little December getaway? From Reno, it’s eight hours to Paso Robles.