“This looks like a resort,” a friend said as we drove past the town square in Sierra Madre, California. It was lined with umbrellaed tables, coffee shops, restaurants, an ice cream shop, a pub, boutiques, and on a side street, a cozy microbrewery. At the base of the San Gabriel Mountains below Angeles National Forest, this small town 3 square miles in size and shaded with old-growth trees looks like it was plucked right out of New England. Hard to believe that it’s only 30 minutes from downtown Los Angeles.
But residents here don’t think of their tranquil foothill village as a vacation spot, even though the town features what travelers look for when seeking rest and relaxation: great weather, peaceful landscapes, friendly people, history, period architecture, shopping, and dining.
