La Canada Flintridge, CA

La Canada Flintridge, a small hillside city, sits in Los Angeles County between Pasadena and Glendale at the point where the 210 and the 2 freeways meet. It is the last town before the Angeles Crest Highway climbs into the San Gabriels, and the mountains fill the view at the top of nearly every street. On the Flintridge side, streets curve through oak-covered hills and houses sit well back on sloping lots. The La Canada side is gentler, a grid of ranch homes and older houses that climbs slowly north toward the national forest. Across both, this is overwhelmingly a town of detached houses, and the hills keep it from spreading. Descanso Gardens is where people go to walk, with oak woodland, camellias and a rose garden that change with the seasons. For longer outings, the highway reaches forest trailheads within a short drive. Eating out means Foothill Boulevard, the one commercial street. Honeybird fries chicken after a 28-hour brine and opens early on weekdays. Constellation Coffee is the cafe people bring up first, pouring beans from a rotating set of specialty roasters. Korean barbecue, sushi counters and pizza places fill in the rest of the strip. Groceries are simple, since four supermarkets sit along that same boulevard and most errands never leave town. The shopping comes in a long line of low centers and parking lots, so nearly every trip starts in a car. Pasadena and Glendale are each a short freeway hop away for anything bigger. What the town offers instead is space and quiet, with oak canopies over the side streets and the San Gabriels close enough to watch the light change on them after dinner.