I drove the 15-hour and nearly 700-mile journey across the state, traversing mountain ranges and rock slides, dirt roads and agricultural checkpoints, from Marin to Modoc County.

A new night-time holiday display featuring music, colors and more than a million twinkling lights in San Francisco’s Golden Gate Park is delighting children and adults.

We spend a lot of time at our jobs, which makes most of it feel routine and familiar. But beyond our own daily tasks, there’s ...