My husband, Joe, and I went to Chicago at Christmas to visit my family.. Often, you can fly round-trip from LAX to O’Hare International Airport for about $250 to $300, but the price goes up by at least a couple of hundred dollars closer to Christmas. We found a $499 fare on United in October and bought tickets.

We could choose our seats on the Chicago-bound flightand were told that we could select our seats for the return flight up to 24 hours before departure. Both ways were regular economy fares, no zero-frills basic economy on which you can’t have a carry-on and don’t get assigned a seat until you get to the airport.

The flight to Chicago went fine. We paid the standard $30 extra to check one bag, like chumps. But we hit a problem on the return.

We got the text saying it was 24 hours until departure at 5:50 p.m. Saturday. We were at a computer to check in and select our seats at 5:58. When Joe looked at the seat selection screen, only one seat remained in economy. Every other seat was marked “Occupied/Unavailable” or was in Economy Plus or United First, which required hefty upcharges.

Here’s what it looked like (the “1″ is where my husband selected the last United Economy seat):

My options at this point: Pay even more to guarantee myself a seat on my flight home or show up at the airport with my fingers crossed and hope I didn’t get bumped. Considering it was the Sunday after Christmas, peak holiday travel time, and I didn’t know how many more flights to LAX were scheduled for that night, I paid the extra for Economy Plus. After taxes, it cost $92.

I did not feel good about this experience. Was there something else I should have done? How could I have gotten out of paying extra but still guaranteed a seat on a flight I had booked more than two months earlier? Why did United sell me a ticket for a seat that didn’t appear to exist?

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Charlie Hobart, a spokesman for United Airlines, had some answers for me.

“If a customer does have questions about their seating assignment or lack of seating assignment, they can reach out to us,” Hobart said. Customer service representatives are available 24/7 by phone at (800) 864-8331 or on Twitter (@United)..

If you find yourself in the same scenario and don’t feel like spending the last day of your vacation on the phone or getting into it on Twitter with an airline customer service person, you can proceed with check-in without selecting a seat. You will be assigned one when you get to the airport.

“Just because you do not have an assigned seat when you look to check in does not necessarily mean that you’re not going to fly on that aircraft or that you’re going to miss the flight,” Hobart said. “What we don’t want a customer to think is, ‘Oh, there are no available seats, so the only way I’m going to get on this flight is for me to purchase an upgrade; it seems like that is my only option.’ That is not what we want customers to think.”

Still, that’s what it felt likeZach Honig, editor-at-large at travel blog the Points Guy, doesn’t blame me.

“It makes perfect sense that you would want to pay to select that seat,” he said. “Anyone I know would have made the same decision.”

Honig and United’s Hobart said if I had proceeded with check-in without selecting a seat, there would have been a message reassuring me I would be assigned one at the airport. That message did not appear on the seat selection screen.

As an extremely frequent flier, Honig is familiar with the ins and outs of the process. But for mere mortals like me, who fly a few times a year but aren’t air travel experts, he said showing up at the airport with no seat assignment can be stressful. Most likely, he guessed I would have been put in one of the unselected Economy Plus seats without having to pay, or someone in regular economy would have been moved up and I would have gotten that seat. I even could have gotten upgraded to first class. But I also would have been running the chance of getting bumped from an oversold flight.

The seat selection screen is “an upsell opportunity, clearly,” Honig said. But it’s not necessarily the airline hiding “free” seats from me in a bid to take more of my money. Upgrades are handed out as boarding time approaches; by having passengers show up without assigned seats, the airline can shuffle the last few stragglers into whatever seats are left.

“It’s unfortunate,” Honig said of my experience. “I think that people who don’t travel often definitely feel pressure when they see that check-in page and that very limited seat map. I’ve been there myself.”

If you find yourself in my shoes and you’re not willing to pay extra, you can go to the airport and hope for the best. Good luck.

Here’s a travel writer’s nightmare: You go to a place to chronicle how it’s changed, and nothing has.

But Robert Earle Howells didn’t panic when he arrived in Tecopa, on Death Valley’s doorstep, and saw what he’d seen before. Same buildings, same quirkiness. Still, something was … different.

“Is it on the cusp of change? It’s already changed,” Howells said in an email. “But you wouldn’t know it. You have to seek it out. I think that’s pretty cool.”

My name is Catharine Hamm, and I’m the travel editor for the Los Angeles Times. Tecopa is but one of the discoveries we’ll share in this week’s newsletter. Among the others: seeing the almost supernatural glow that lights up El Capitan in Yosemite, savoring the richness of Iranian culture, finding places that kids will love in Santa Barbara and fathoming why a museum reacted as it did after after the mini-quake that has shaken Buckingham Palace.

All of this plus the End paper, which falls, in a no-duh move, at the end of this newsletter. Carry on.

Little town, big surprise

You wouldn’t expect to find big-time chefs in a little desert town like Tecopa, but Robert Earle Howells did. “It would still be very easy to bypass Tecopa or to drive right through it and not realize that something special is happening there,” he said. “It feels like a discovery. That’s the beauty of it.” And you’ll find beauty in his article — and its photographs by the Times’ Brian van der Brug.

Is Australia viable as a destination?

In some places, yes. In others, no.

The U.S. State Department raised its assessment of Australia’s danger level from a 1 (“exercise normal precautions”) to a 2 (“exercise increased caution”) because of scores of fires there. They’ve scorched more than 15 million acres, the BBC reports, and killed as many as a billion animals. Weather has cooled and rain has fallen, but one of the lingering issues is smoke, Mary Forgione writes.

New air service to Taos, N.M.

Now you can access the wonders of skiing in Taos without the hassle of driving, Mary Forgione writes. Taos Air has started flights between L.A. and the New Mexico town that take just two hours.

What’s at stake with Iran’s treasures

In a thoughtful piece, Christopher Reynolds recounts his memories of a 1998 visit to Iran and reflects on what could be lost if tensions erupt. We tend to forget because we don’t often see photos of these beautiful mosques and monuments, but his article is a reminder of the genius of those who long ago created these jaw-dropping beauties by hand.

Everybody into the pool

But you’ll have to wait a few weeks. In Las Vegas, Wet Republic, a ginormous pool party, is doing an equally ginormous remodel, Michael Hiller writes. Better sight lines, better sound systems, better food and drink. And you didn’t think it could get any better that it was.

Let it glow

We tend to be too free with superlatives sometimes. (“That’s awesome!” we exclaim when something that’s supposed to happen actually does happen, like your ride-hail car actually showing up in the promised five minutes.) But if you take a look at the photos of Yosemite’s firefall, this might be one of nature’s grandest wink-of-the-eye sights.

Mary Forgione explains how the late afternoon winter light hits a waterfall and creates the illusion of a lava flow. The window of opportunity to see it lasts about two weeks in February.

But be careful what you eat

The feds are trying to figure out what has caused some visitors to Yosemite National Park to experience stomach issues, the Associated Press reports.

The solution at park facilities: cleaning and disinfecting food service areas. Your best defense: If you’ve touched common areas such as railings, wash your hands and sing (in your head, please) “Happy Birthday” while you scrub to be sure you’ve washed long enough.

We know where they stand, in this museum’s eyes

Are you just wild about Harry and Meghan? Apparently Madame Tussauds isn’t. The London museum removed Prince Harry and the Duchess of Sussex from the happy royal family gathering of wax depictions, leaving a bare spot where they used to stand with Queen Elizabeth II and Prince Philip and Prince William and Kate, Duchess of Cambridge, Mary Forgione writes. This after the two announced they were “stepping back” from their royal responsibilities.

Taking the kidlets

Whether you’re keeping the grandkids for the weekend or just need a break in your parenting routine, Sharon Boorstin has an idea for a great kid-focused getaway to Santa Barbara that involves an interactive museum for children and adults and pedaling a surrey.

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The more mistakes the merrier

It’s always nice to know you’re not alone. After my column about my stupid travel mistakes (as opposed to the smart ones?), readers generously shared theirs and continue to do so. We included them in our Letters columns, and we thank all of you for showing your vulnerable sides.

What we’re reading

Age does have its privileges. One is discounts for seniors, longtime consumer columnist Ed Perkins writes for SmarterTravel. He touts senior discounts on British Airways (noting Southwest discontinued them last year) and at Avis and Budget for rental cars. All are available through AARP.

The town of Hallstatt, Austria, wants you to know it isn’t Arendelle. The village has about 800 residents but hosts about a million visitors, thanks to the “Frozen” franchise. The movies and stage musical have prompted fans to want to visit the fictional village of Arendelle, said to be based on Hallstatt, Jayme Deerwester writes for USA Today and NPR reports. “Frozen 2” has prompted another run on the town.

Don’t call the Netherlands “Holland.” The common shorthand for the country has become such an irritant that the Dutch government will no longer use the word in its promotional material, unless referring to the two provinces named South Holland and North Holland, Brigit Katz writes for Smithsonian. It’s also part of an effort to reduce tourism to those provinces, which are home to some of the country’s biggest attractions, including Amsterdam and bulb fields, but are suffering some of the effects of overtourism.

What we hope you’re reading

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Your note to us in this newsletter. We sometimes feature our readers’ notes in this newsletter or in our Letters column in print and online. We like to hear from you. Write to [email protected].

Thank you.

End paper

These are dark days. I’m referring not to the political problems in Washington or the fires in Australia or the volcano in the Philippines, or the uncertainty or unhappiness (or both) in Britain’s royal family. I mean the amount of daylight.

On this day in Los Angeles, you will have 10 hours, 9 minutes and 17 seconds of daylight (which you may not see because rain is forecast). That’s about 14 minutes better than it was on New Year’s Day, and yes, we are now on the lengthening-of-daylight upswing. Hooray.

Even in Southern California, the winter can seem long, despite our beautiful sunsets. (See Mary Forgione’s story that acknowledges what you already know: Sunsets are prettier in winter.)

If you’re still in search of your invincible summer, let me share with you a triumph over self-inflicted adversity from Rob Newman, who wrote after reading the Letters column on dumb and dumber mistakes mentioned above. Here’s what he said:

“I was traveling on an overnight train to Italy, and I overslept as the train passed through my intended arrival city of Florence. I finally woke up from my cozy train bed as our train pulled into the Roma train station — almost two hours beyond Florence.

“Although I hadn’t initially realized it, that day, Aug. 26, 1978, was to be the ‘inauguration day’ of Pope John Paul I. Discovering this, I went to St. Peter’s Square and witnessed Pope John Paul I’s Papal Inauguration.

“Mind you, 33 days later he died, but I was thrilled that I had attended a Papal Inauguration, the only one I’ve ever been to.

“So yes, that was one of the worst travel mistakes I ever made that turned out to (accidentally) be one of the best.”

May you find your summer whenever you need it, travel safely and well and know that we will always be here to welcome you home.

The Dow Jones industrial average closed above 29,000 points for the first time Wednesday, and the Standard & Poor’s 500 index hit its second record high in three days.

The milestones came on a day when the market traded in a narrow range as investors weighed the latest corporate earnings reports and the widely anticipated signing of an initial trade deal between the United States and China.

The signing of the “Phase 1″ U.S.-China trade deal “was telegraphed well enough that the market is kind of looking through it and toward the next phase and what that means,” said Keith Buchanan, portfolio manager at Globalt Investments.

Healthcare stocks accounted for much of the market’s gains. Utilities and makers of household goods also rose. Those gains outweighed losses by financial firms, energy firms and companies that rely on consumer spending.

The S&P 500 index rose 6.14 points, or 0.2%, to 3,289.29, topping the high it reached Monday. The Dow rose 90.55 points, or 0.3%, to 29,030.22. The Nasdaq composite edged up 7.37 points, or 0.1%, to 9,258.70.

Smaller-company stocks fared better than the rest of the market. The Russell 2000 climbed 6.66 points, or 0.4%, to 1,682.40.

Bond prices rose. The yield on the 10-year Treasury note fell to 1.78% from 1.81%.

Although limited in its scope, investors have welcomed the U.S.-China deal in hopes that it will prevent further escalation in the 18-month-long trade conflict that has slowed global growth, hurt American manufacturers and weighed on the Chinese economy. The world’s two largest economies will now have to deal with more contentious trade issues as they move ahead with negotiations. And punitive tariffs will remain on about $360 billion in Chinese goods as talks continue.

With the “Phase 1″ agreement now a done deal, investors have more reason to focus on the rollout of corporate earnings reports over the next few weeks. Earnings have been flat to down for the last three quarters, and if the fourth quarter meets expectations, it should be around the same.

However, analysts are projecting 2020 corporate earnings growth to jump about 9.5%, which is why traders will be listening this earnings reporting season for any clues about firms’ business prospects in coming months.

“We’re expecting a reacceleration in the back end of the year, so any [company] guidance that brings any type of skepticism to that could threaten the recent rally we’ve had and the gains that we’ve accrued in the past few months,” Buchanan said.

Healthcare stocks powered much of the market’s gains Wednesday. Several health insurers climbed as investors cheered a solid fourth-quarter earnings report from UnitedHealth Group.

UnitedHealth shares rose 2.8% after the nation’s largest health insurer, which covers more than 49 million people, said its revenue climbed 4% on a mix of insurance premiums and growth from urgent care and surgery centers. Anthem shares gained 1.6%, Cigna shares added 1.5%. Humana shares climbed 1.9%.

Technology companies also rose. The sector relies on China for sales and supply chains, and it benefits from better trade relations. Microsoft gained 0.7%. Advanced Micro Devices advanced 0.8%.

Utilities and consumer-staples-sector stocks also notched gains. Edison International climbed 2.5%. PepsiCo rose 1.7%.

Financial stocks fell the most. Bank of America slid 1.8% after reporting weaker profits due to the rapid decline of interest rates in late 2019.

Energy stocks fell along with the price of crude oil. Valero Energy dropped 3.3%.

Homebuilders marched broadly higher on news that U.S. home loan applications surged 30.2% last week from a week earlier. The pickup in mortgage applications reflects heightened demand for homes and suggests many people are eager to buy a home now rather than waiting for the traditional late-February start of the spring homebuying season. Hovnanian Enterprises jumped 6.4%.

Target slumped 6.6% after a disappointing holiday shopping season prompted the retailer to cut its forecast for a key sales measure in the fourth quarter. The company said weak sales of electronics, toys and home goods crimped its sales growth to just 1.4% in November and December.

Benchmark crude oil fell 42 cents to settle at $57.81 a barrel. Brent crude oil, the international standard, fell 49 cents to close at $64 a barrel.

Wholesale gasoline fell 1 cent to $1.64 a gallon. Heating oil declined 3 cents to $1.88 a gallon. Natural gas fell 7 cents to $2.12 per 1,000 cubic feet.

Gold rose $9.70 to $1,552.10 an ounce. Silver rose 25 cents to $17.92 an ounce. Copper fell 1 cent to $2.87 a pound.

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The phase one trade deal celebrated by President Trump and Chinese officials Wednesday received a mixed greeting from U.S. industries and markets. Here is how some in the key sectors expect to be affected.

Agriculture

Agriculture markets fell as traders grew skeptical over the deal’s payoff. Some traders expressed concern that the potential benefits of the trade truce are already priced in to commodities such as soybeans, cotton and hogs that are expected to benefit the most from increased Chinese purchases.

There was also concern over how China would reach its pledge to buy an additional $32 billion above pre-trade war levels over the next two years. The White House offered no details on specific commodity commitments, and China hasn’t agreed to tariff reductions under the agreement.

China committed to importing at least $12.5 billion more agricultural goods this year than in 2017, rising to $19.5 billion next year. China will also “strive” to purchase an additional $5 billion a year in farm products. That could get total purchases next year toward the $50-billion mark.

But doubts have surfaced on whether China will meet that target, particularly because the two governments have said they will keep secret the purchase benchmarks for individual commodities. The market is already looking for real evidence that China will follow through on its pledges of more purchases, and in big amounts.

In soybeans, Brazil already has a freight advantage in shipping goods to China more cheaply than out of the U.S. Gulf. A weakening Brazilian real has also made South American supplies a comparative bargain. Meanwhile, Chinese demand for soybeans could fall as the country deals with its swine fever epidemic, which is shrinking the hog herd and reducing the need for commodities used in livestock feed.

Finance

China brought forward the planned opening of its $21-trillion capital market by eight months, swinging the door open for global investment banks. Goldman Sachs Group Inc., JPMorgan Chase & Co., Morgan Stanley and other firms will now be allowed to apply to form fully owned units to do a broad array of investment banking and securities dealing in the Communist Party-ruled nation in April, compared with an earlier deadline of December.

“China shall eliminate foreign equity limits and allow wholly U.S.-owned services suppliers to participate in the securities, fund management, and futures sectors,” according the text of the trade agreement.

The deadline change was announced in conjunction with the signing of the trade deal, partially resolving a protracted dispute that has weighed on the world’s second-largest economy. It’s part of a broader opening of China’s financial markets, which also includes giving access to its asset-management and insurance markets.

By dismantling the wall to its financial market, China is counting on foreign financial firms to plow $1 trillion in fresh capital into the nation over the next few years, cushioning a slowdown in the economy and helping a transition to a more consumer-led growth model.

Meanwhile, U.S. credit rating firms emerged as one of the winners. The trade agreement means debt graders such as Moody’s Corp. can join S&P Global Inc. in rating debt in China’s $14-trillion bond market. S&P last year became the first wholly owned international firm to rate domestic bonds, while Moody’s efforts to expand its presence in China were held up.

Pharmaceuticals

China agreed to set up a system to resolve conflicts over drug patents, a move that may help U.S. pharmaceutical companies seeking greater protections for their branded medicine in developing nations.

The changes, which take key provisions from a U.S. law on the books for more than three decades, were included in the text of the broader trade pact. Under terms of the deal, patent disputes over potential generic drugs could be resolved before a copycat medicine enters the market in China, and brand companies would be able to seek an order to block any sales until the conflicts are resolved. That’s similar to American law, though the U.S. provides for an automatic 30-month block of regulatory approval once a lawsuit is filed.

Drugmakers would be able to seek extensions of their patents to compensate for “unreasonable” delays in the patent office or while waiting for Chinese health regulators to approve a drug for sale. Patent terms in both countries are for 20 years from the date of application, though clinical tests and regulatory filings often eat up a large portion of that time.

“Robust protection of intellectual property is critical to incentivizing the development of new and innovative treatments and cures,” the Trump administration said in a statement.

The trade deal doesn’t include an agreement on what’s known as “data exclusivity,” which temporarily stops rival firms from using data from the original maker of a product to develop their own versions. Drugmakers have been seeking greater protection for their branded medicines in emerging markets for years. It was a key part of the Trans-Pacific Partnership, the 12-nation deal that excluded China and was canceled when Trump took office.

China also pledged to step up enforcement efforts against counterfeit medicines, including bulk chemicals or active pharmaceutical ingredients, and publicize data on seizures, revocations of licenses and any fines imposed. And it agreed to share information on inspection of sites that make the raw materials for drugs. A Bloomberg investigation last year found that factories in China and India destroyed or hid testing data that showed quality failures.

Energy

China agreed to buy $52.4 billion of additional U.S. energy products. The purchases over two years will include liquefied natural gas (LNG), crude oil, refined products and coal, the U.S. said. It didn’t provide additional details on the energy purchases, which make up about a quarter of the $200-billion total of extra imports that China has committed to.

The accord is a promising sign for the U.S. LNG industry, which is facing a global market awash with excess supply. China, the world’s fastest-growing buyer of the heating and power-plant fuel, hasn’t imported any American cargoes since February 2019.

Though shipments of shale gas from American export terminals completed in the last three years have made the U.S. one of the world’s top suppliers, some newer projects have stalled without Chinese purchasers. The struggle to sign long-term sales contracts has undermined efforts to secure financing for the multibillion-dollar facilities.

U.S. oil exports to China have also slumped because of the trade war. China skipped crude purchases from the U.S. for six months through November, according to data from the U.S. Census Bureau.

Although China has tapered off its imports of American crude oil, the Asian nation hasn’t moved away from its dependence on foreign oil. China imported 10.16 million barrels a day last year, according to customs figures released Tuesday, topping the 10.12 million the U.S. bought at its importing peak in 2005.

Coal will probably be a small component of the trade accord. China is the world’s largest producer of the commodity. The U.S. shipped about $128 million of coal to China last year through November, according to U.S. Census Bureau data.

Tesla Inc., meanwhile, may be the single largest beneficiary of a provision that says China will import more energy storage systems and parts from the U.S. Tesla’s Gigafactory in Nevada is by far the largest battery plant in the U.S., representing 42% of nationwide production, according to data from BloombergNEF.

Although most of Tesla’s batteries go into electric cars, the company has been expanding its business of building massive battery packs that can store electricity for large-scale power grids. In fact, the Palo Alto company is negotiating a contract to supply cobalt — a key component in lithium-ion batteries — to its newly opened Shanghai Gigafactory, according to people familiar with the matter.

China is, by far, the world’s biggest battery producer, with factories capable of cranking out 275,560 megawatt-hours worth of cells. The U.S. is a distant second at 33,116 megawatt-hours, according to BloombergNEF data.

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Merv Griffin owned an impressive collection of properties over the course of his career. The late TV host and media mogul once had a La Quinta horse ranch and a Beverly Hills villa, as well as an infamous 157-acre property touted as the city’s finest undeveloped parcel that listed for $1 billion in 2018 (and sold for $100,000 at a foreclosure auction last year).

Another home he once owned — a stately Century City townhouse — just listed for sale at $3.25 million.

Though it’s a townhouse, the property is still much larger than the average L.A. home at roughly 3,300 square feet. Found in a gated community with high-end concierge services such as grocery valet, the house holds three bedrooms and four bathrooms in two stories.

Custom finishes draw the eye throughout the interior, such as a floor-to-ceiling fireplace in the living room and glass built-ins in the family room. There’s also a chandelier-topped dining area and small chef’s kitchen.

The impressive master suite is a space all its own complete with a spa bathroom, private balcony and lounge under beamed ceilings. Up top, an office with herringbone floors adjoins a gym with mirrored walls and a ballet bar. Other amenities include an elevator, small screening room, two-car garage and three covered parking spots.

Griffin, who died in 2007 at 82, was a singer, talk show host and television producer famous for “The Merv Griffin Show.” In addition, he helped create the game shows “Jeopardy!” and “Wheel of Fortune.”

Marcie Hartley of Hilton & Hyland holds the listing.

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Here’s a look at what roughly $750,000 buys right now in Santa Paula, Newbury Park and Port Hueneme in Ventura County.

SANTA PAULA: The charm is brimming from this 120-year-old Queen Anne Victorian with updated living spaces in downtown Santa Paula.

Address: 525 E. Main St., Santa Paula, 93060

Listed for: $749,500 for six bedrooms, 4.5 bathrooms in 2,801 square feet (16,988-square-foot lot)

Features: Covered front porch; 15-foot ceilings; redwood floors; attic loft

About the area: In the 93060 ZIP Code, based on 15 sales, the median price for single-family homes in November was $409,000, down 14.3% year over year, according to CoreLogic.

NEWBURY PARK: A voluminous great room with a custom stone fireplace anchors this five-bedroom home with citrus trees out back.

Address: 641 Cayo Grande Court, Newbury Park, 91320

Listed for: $726,500 for five bedrooms, 2.5 bathrooms in 1,996 square feet (4,696-square-foot lot)

Features: Tile floors; lofted office; herb garden; neighborhood pool and tennis courts

About the area: In the 91320 ZIP Code, based on 28 sales, the median price for single-family homes in November was $700,000, down 8.2% year over year, according to CoreLogic.

PORT HUENEME: A short walk from the beach, this remodeled two-story enjoys ocean views from a spacious second-story deck.

Address: 148 Seaspray Way, Port Hueneme, 93041

Listed for: $749,000 for three bedrooms, three bathrooms in 1,706 square feet (2,400-square-foot lot)

Features: Living room with fireplace; galley-style kitchen; private patio; attached garage

About the area: In the 93041 ZIP Code, based on six sales, the median price for single-family homes in November was $464,000, down 0.2% year over year, according to CoreLogic.

SANTA PAULA: This two-story property comes as a duplex, with both units covering 1,000 square feet with a pair of bedrooms and bathrooms.

Address: 1142 Ojai Road, Santa Paula, 93060

Listed for: $735,000 for four bedrooms, four bathrooms in 2,046 square feet (6,031-square-foot lot)

Features: Arched entryway; two garages; drought-tolerant landscaping; private garden for each unit

About the area: In the 93060 ZIP Code, based on 15 sales, the median price for single-family homes in November was $409,000, down 14.3% year over year, according to CoreLogic.

NEWBURY PARK: On the market for the first time in three decades, this spacious home near a park boasts an entertainer’s yard with an updated pool and pergola.

Address: 94 N. Dewey Avenue, Newbury Park, 91320

Listed for: $780,000 for five bedrooms, three bathrooms in 2,340 square feet (8,943-square-foot lot)

Features: Stone-and-tile exterior; trellis-topped entry; floating staircase; private courtyard

About the area: In the 91320 ZIP Code, based on 28 sales, the median price for single-family homes in November was $700,000, down 8.2% year over year, according to CoreLogic.

PORT HUENEME: This gated-community home sits at the end of a cul-de-sac with sweeping ocean views and multiple decks to take advantage of the setting.

Address: 164 Mainsail Court, Port Hueneme, 93041

Listed for: $829,900 for two bedrooms, two bathrooms in 1,197 square feet (2,089-square-foot lot)

Features: Dual-toned exterior; glass garage door; open floor plan; remodeled kitchen

About the area: In the 93041 ZIP Code, based on six sales, the median price for single-family homes in November was $464,000, down 0.2% year over year, according to CoreLogic.

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Active Ride Shop, a Rancho Cucamonga-based action sports retailer that weathered the economic ups and downs of the last three decades and introduced countless SoCal kids to surf, skate and streetwear brands like Volcom, RVCA and the Hundreds along the way, is headed to the auction block next week.

According to a legal notice published Friday in The Times, Malibu-based GemCap Lending I is putting the intellectual property (including the name, trademark, website domain name and customer list), store fixtures, inventory and accounts receivable on the auction block on Jan. 22. Active Ride Shop’s corporate entity is Active Holdings LLC, whose parent company is Chatsworth-based apparel manufacturer APS Global.

Although the status of Active’s network of approximately two dozen bricks-and-mortar stores is unclear, a Tuesday visit to the El Segundo location during business hours found it closed. The interior was empty save a few fixtures and a bedraggled Christmas tree. Calls to several other stores also during business hours — including the Irvine, Menifee, Orange and Rancho Cucamonga locations — went unanswered, and the retailer’s website currently displays a banner reading “Under construction. Be back soon!” On Wednesday, a company representative, reached via email, said additional information couldn’t be provided at this time.

John Wallace and his son, Shane, opened the first Active Ride Shop in Chino in 1989 to cater to the burgeoning Southern California skate market, following it up with store No. 2 in Rancho Cucamonga in 1991. By the time it notched its 20th anniversary, Active had grown its footprint to 29 stores. That was the same year it filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy. Acquired out of bankruptcy auction by a new owner, it changed hands a few times before being acquired by APS Global in 2018.

Opening Ceremony

Active Ride Shop isn’t the only retail brand with SoCal connections making store-closure news this week. On Tuesday, Opening Ceremony founders Carol Lim and Humberto Leon (who also served as co-creative directors of LVMH’s label Kenzo from 2011 to 2019) announced that their four multibrand boutiques — one each in Tokyo and Los Angeles and two in New York — would be closing “sometime in 2020.”

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“We’ve made a decision to focus on growing [the] Opening Ceremony collection and brand with our new partners, New Guards Group, and expand the designs of Opening Ceremony,” the duo said in an email announcing the news.

Both Lim and Leon hail from Southern California and met at University of California, Berkeley, in the early 1990s. In 2002, they opened their first Opening Ceremony store in New York, taking inspiration from the joyful, international vibe of the opening ceremonies of the Olympics.

The merchandise mix followed suit, showcasing and championing little-known designers from far-flung places like Brazil and Hong Kong along with stateside upstarts at the time; among them were Alexander Wang, Proenza Schouler, Rodarte and Band of Outsiders.

I try hard to surround myself with bad influences. Keeps suburban life interesting, if you know what I mean.

As the kids grow older, my friends grow in number. I could fill my life with them, which is one of the reasons I’m stuck in L.A. after 30 years. What the apostles did for Jesus, my pals do for me.

The other day, a bunch of us took a polar bear plunge in the Pacific. We gathered at Verge’s little beach shack in Santa Monica, sent the kids out to chip holes in the thick ice, then we all darted into the surf.

After the holidays, it was nice to be around any water that did not have a jigger or two of hooch in it.

“Vodka is my spirit animal,” I’d warned my sister on New Year’s Eve.

“Vodka’s not an animal,” she said.

“But it’s a spirit,” I reminded her, and things went quickly downhill from there. We couldn’t get an Uber late New Year’s Eve, so we walked home from the bar at midnight, chased by our various spirit animals (mine bit me).

That was December, when it was mostly gloomy. Now it is January, and the sun won’t stop.

So it was the perfect day for a polar bear plunge, not too bitter. Boston and Chicago might scoff at a polar plunge in 58-degree water, but it’s all relative. Besides, we needed something to do.

As the sun set, the horizon got all bleary-eyed and tempting. I wanted to swim to it — like in that old version of “A Star Is Born,” just swim straight out to sea, though I’d probably get run over by a freighter between here and Catalina. Or swallowed by an orca. Or both.

“Your son looks like a zipper,” Ulf says when we finally get out of the water. “You ever feed him?”

That’s right, my old pal Ulf is back. He’s got his own zipper, a long scar on the jaw from his drinking days at USC, and that trademark Ulf twinkle he got from his dad, Frank. Swedes, huh? Put them in the cold sea, and they light up like eels.

“I really like your crazy friends,” my sister tells me.

“Give ’em time,” I say.

Still, a pleasure to take this polar/solar plunge. Splashing in the sweet sea seemed to energize everyone after long weeks of holiday wine and cheddar balls. Even my buddy Bittner looked a little pregnant.

Typically, January is kind of rotten. Everything tastes like cigarettes. There is, suddenly, no music.

The other day at Starbucks, I watched strangers swipe at sniffy noses with their fists, the punch-drunk fighters of midwinter. They were probably wondering if they were catching something or whether it was just the cumulative effects of that awful furnace air, which smells like feet.

Here in flu season, you might think it risky that we plunge into a cold ocean. But I suspect the average Starbucks contains more germs. Coffee can’t compete with cold saltwater when it comes to putting a little bounce back in your step. This year, 26 idiots took the plunge, compared to four a year ago.

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It’s simple: We run into the water, we run out again. I collect the towels people forgot along the shore and scamper back to the house, where a hot tub awaits like a giant cauldron of soup.

If you know L.A., you know this magnificent stretch of sand just north of the California Incline that sweeps down to PCH from Santa Monica.

During the Kennedy era, it was the site of the Western White House. Peter Lawford had a place and, by turn, so did JFK. The Rat Pack goofed around here, studio moguls kept second homes, even F. Scott Fitzgerald had a house where he hammered out screenplays between gin rickeys.

Some residents back then purportedly hosted orgies, but that seems written in the wind. Who can really say? You don’t know the context or the pureness of their hearts. Maybe they were just checking each other for ticks.

I try to think the best of people, which is why I’m still friends with Bittner and Ulf. We need pals when we’re 10; we need them even more now.

And one day on this same beach — on a moody winter afternoon when the sea looked like silt — Marilyn Monroe wrapped herself in a fluffy beige towel and took the last photo she would ever take, right here, at the exact location of our second annual polar bear plunge.

So we’re toasting a lot of important treasures today. The sun, the sea, the linen of a movie legend’s hair …

Most of all, California.

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The shoulder of the highway from the Venezuelan border to the Colombian city of Bucaramanga is littered with empty tuna cans, broken shoes and plastic bottles.

Hundreds of Venezuelans flee into Colombia each day to start this 125-mile journey on foot. They’re known as the caminantes, or walkers, and they are the latest wave in an exodus that is only growing as their country’s economic crisis deepens.

Because I have family in Venezuela, the crisis is personal. In 2018, two of my cousins spent four days on buses, carrying little more than some clothes and bread to start over in Peru. In WhatsApp messages, they described looking out the bus window and seeing others trudging along the side of the road.

I wanted to know more about that journey, what the travelers were thinking and feeling in real time. The only way would be to walk with them — not for an hour or a day, but for the first segment of what for many would be a much longer trip. So photographer Marcus Yam and I flew to Colombia.

When most travelers reach the fork at Bucaramanga, they head west toward Medellín and Cali, or south toward the capital, Bogotá.

Marcus and I walked with the migrants for the majority of the trip, but unlike most of them, we slept in hostels and ate at least one full meal a day.

We had hired a driver to stay near us — but just out of sight — in case we ran into trouble or had to double back or leapfrog ahead to interview certain people. That felt wrong when so many around us were struggling to cover the distance on foot and could have used a ride.

But we were there to cover the story, not to be part of it. Still, there were constant temptations to break out of our roles as mere observers, and we did so on a few occasions.

One of those came on the third day of walking, when we came across dozens of migrants waiting in the rain for the Red Cross to distribute food and clothes. It was there I met 16-year-old Josue Moreno.

Josue shivered in a polo shirt and jeans. He and a friend shared a thin gray hoodie, trading off wearing it every few hours.

Red Cross workers required that everyone hand over an ID as a placeholder in line, saying that it prevented people from doubling up on donations. But Josue’s wallet had been stolen back at the border, so he’d been turned away.

I approached one of the Red Cross officials and asked why exceptions weren’t made for people like Josue. Many travelers had similar stories of being robbed.

The worker considered it, then added Josue to the cue. He received his first meal in more than a day and a fleece blanket.

Another time was on our last day of walking when we met a truck driver who charged migrants 1,000 pesos, about 30 cents, for an hour-and-a-half ride across the feared Páramo de Berlín — a plateau 10,500 feet above sea level where freezing temperatures are common.

Most people pooled their money and climbed into the back. Yosmary Aular and her 13-year-old son and niece were the last ones left. She pleaded with the driver, wiping away tears as she explained that she had no money and was afraid to be stuck again overnight in the cold.

The driver refused. As he got ready to close the truck bed, he told Marcus and me to hop in. We hesitated and then looked at each other in silent agreement. I told the driver we would give up our spots for Yosmary and the children.

“All right,” he relented. “Everyone get in.”

In the months since that trip, I’ve kept in touch with many of the people I met.

Leidy Paredes stayed near Bucaramanga and found work at a restaurant.

As of a few weeks ago, Ana María Fonseca Pérez was at a Colombian town near the border with Ecuador. She’s still hoping to reunite with her son in Peru.

And Yosmary made it to Quevedo, a town in central Ecuador. She has struggled to find work and is desperately homesick.

“Here in Ecuador, the situation is also tough,” she told me. “Life isn’t easy.”

We don’t know what happened to so many of the other people we met on the long walk.

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NEWARK, N.J. — 

A United Airlines jetliner headed for Los Angeles returned to New Jersey’s Newark Liberty International Airport early Thursday after flames were seen near a wing.

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Video showed flames soon after Flight 1871 had taken off.

A passenger told New York’s WABC-TV it appeared fire was coming from an engine.

“I didn’t know what was happening,” passenger Gabrielle Guzy said. “My sister said she thought it was lights but I knew it was fire from the engine. I kept reassuring myself we’d be OK because we had only been in the air for a minute.”

In a statement, United said the flight returned because of a “mechanical issue.” The airline said the flight landed safely and passengers deplaned normally.

The airline was working to get the passengers to Los Angeles.