![]() But I had come to Newport Beach to commune with the stars of Old Hollywood, who began staking their claim to this idyllic spot just one hour south of Los Angeles during the silent film era. Visitors to Newport Beach today might know the coastal Southern California city from “The Real Housewives,” “The O.C.” and “Arrested Development,” all of which were set amid its rolling green hills and picture-perfect beaches. ![]() The show’s image of Lake of the Ozarks - a man-made body of water created in 1931 with the construction of the Bagnell Dam on the Osage River that boasts 1,150 miles of waterfront and ranks among Middle America’s foremost summertime recreation destinations - is hardly flattering. Since the show began streaming in 2017, a Blue Cat Tavern and Grill has opened in the town of Roach, Mo., while Marty Byrde’s Bar & Grill opened in 2018 on the lake’s touristy Bagnell Dam Boulevard strip. Dubuque’s show, Alhonna is called The Blue Cat, a scruffy lodge that the show’s lead character, Marty Byrde, played by Jason Bateman, purchases with money he’s laundering for a Mexican drug cartel, having moved his family from the affluent suburbs of Chicago to Lake of the Ozarks under extreme duress. The screenwriter Bill Dubuque worked as a dock hand at Alhonna in his teens and would go on to create the hit Netflix series, “Ozark,” which will soon return for a third season. This just so happened to be the weekend they - and I - were there. And it wasn’t the only one: For a long weekend each June, Great Dane enthusiasts from around the Midwest gather at Alhonna - its guest rooms frozen in popcorn-ceilinged time - for a convention of sorts, with the gentle, giant canines basically taking over the kiddie pool. Stepping into the office of the Alhonna Resort on the shores of Missouri’s Lake of the Ozarks, I was greeted by what at first glance appeared to be a small, gray horse. In July, the dirt track threw up potholes so impressive that it shook the old rainwater right out of the canvas roof of the Jeep Wrangler I was driving and dumped it onto my head. ![]() The State of Hawaii warns that the road “may flood and become impassable,” and that “rental car companies may prohibit use of their vehicles on the park access road.” Cell service is spotty. You might see a rental sedan crawling along or spinning its wheels in a bottomless pothole. You drive to the end of the island’s paved road, past the entrance to the cordoned-off, high-security Pacific Missile Range Facility Barking Sands, always a bit of a strange juxtaposition - the remote island paradise and the military installation, like a sci-fi movie, or an episode of “Lost.” And then you drive some more, on a rutted old cane hauling road that spits up red dust in sun and red mud in rain. In this age of easy-to-get-anywhere travel, it’s not that easy to get to Polihale, on the isolated western coast of Kauai, far and away the longest stretch of beach in the state of Hawaii. You feel like you are on vacation even if you only have a few hours to spare. People are friendly and relaxed, and it’s contagious. Chain stores and name-brand eateries are a bit harder to find, but fresh seafood, caught by local fishermen, is in abundance, as are pristine nature preserves for biking, hiking and bird watching, and salt ponds for recreational shell fishing. In the towns, instead of busy thoroughfares, tree-lined streets meander through quiet neighborhoods leading to the shore. These are less crowded and underdeveloped beaches, ones that families have returned to for generations. ![]() I come for the clean, clear water, the soft sand and to play in the waves. I’ve been a day tripper here most of my adult life. Between the coastal communities of Watch Hill and Charlestown lies 14 public beaches. This gem of the Ocean State, with 100 miles of coastline, is 2.5 hours from Manhattan, 1.5 hours from Boston and requires no planes or ferries. The next time you’re sitting in holiday traffic, slowly inching toward the Hamptons, Cape Cod or another congested beach hot spot, consider the virtues of South County, R.I.
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