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Anyone who has booked a last-minute flight knows you pay more when you wait. But you also pay more if you book too early. What's too early? What's too late? Pity the poor fare geek trying to hit that elusive sweet spot. Discount travel site Cheapair.com has crunched a year's worth of booking data and found some answers to these and other eternal travel questions, including: - Best time to book a domestic flight? Seven weeks in advance. - Best time to book an international flight?

Walking into the Aviator Nation store on Abbot Kinney in Venice is like stumbling into a frat house with a feminine touch. Steely Dan, Doors and Grateful Dead album covers and vintage skate decks nailed to the walls, a record player spinning Aerosmith's "Sweet Emotion," a "720 Degrees" arcade game in the corner, stacks and stacks of foam trucker hats, T-shirts and hoodies spreading good vibes like "Pray for Surf" and "California Is For Lovers".......

Plantar fasciitis. If you haven't had to deal with it personally, just ask around. Chances are you know lots of people who can describe it in great detail: stabbing heel pain and agonizing steps followed by a frustratingly slow recovery. Plantar fasciitis - an inflammation of the plantar facsia, a thick band of tissue that runs along the arch from the heel to the toes - has become so ubiquitous that podiatrists can practically make the diagnosis before a patient even sets foot in their office.

Tracy Anderson Given all the buzz last month around the opening of fitness guru Tracy Anderson's flagship super-studio in Brentwood - a partnership with Gwyneth Paltrow, who is Exhibit A for Anderson's handiwork - it comes as no surprise that the celebrity trainer is extending her lifestyle brand into fashion. Just weeks ago, the Tracy Anderson line debuted with compression-fit capri leggings ($60) in three eye-catching fabrics: red tartan plaid, oversize multi-color polka dot and glittery metallic.

It's all crossovers these days. From the polo grounds of Malibu to the campgrounds of Maine, nearly a fifth of all vehicles sold in the U.S. last year resided somewhere in this netherworld between a car and an SUV. So the stakes were high for Toyota's overdue redesign of the RAV4, a pioneer of the segment in the mid-1990s that had grown stale in comparison with competitors. Often resembling small sport utility vehicles, crossovers are truck-like vehicles built on front-drive car platforms.

Mark and Cindy Evans make the rounds of Southern California flea markets early, before most shoppers have gotten out of bed. Their favorite stops: The Groves Antique Market Held the first Sunday of the month from 7 a.m. to 2 p.m. Irvine Valley College, 5500 Irvine Center Drive, Irvine. Admission and parking are free. Dogs allowed. (949) 786-5277. Pasadena City College Flea Market Also held on the first Sunday of every month, from 8 a.m. to 3 p.m. (Due to a scheduling change, the market happens to be open this Sunday.

If you want to give zip-lining a try, your Southern California options are plentiful. Most have physical requirements participants must meet, so be sure to call or check the website before you book. Catalina Zip Line Eco Tour: This two-hour aerial tour of Catalina Island is comprised of five zip lines, and guides provide information about local wildlife and history along the way. Tours leave 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. Mondays to Fridays, and 7 a.m. to 6 p.m. Saturdays and Sundays. From Jan. 1 through May 24 and fromSept.

Until recently, very few people had ever heard of raspberry ketones, the aromatic compounds that give the berries their distinctive smell. Today, health food stores have trouble keeping the capsules or drops of the stuff on their shelves. Almost overnight, an obscure plant compound became the next big thing in weight loss - and all it took was a few words from Dr. Oz. In a February episode of "The Dr. Oz Show," Mehmet Oz told viewers that raspberry ketones were "the No. 1 miracle in a bottle to burn your fat. " Once Oz calls something a "miracle," it doesn't remain obscure for long.

Your choices in San Francisco hotels are overwhelming. The prices can be too. So during our staff visit to the City by the Bay, we looked for reasonably priced hotels that had charm, location or both. We came back with 14 ideas on places to bed down. It's not a complete list, but it is eclectic, like the city itself. Mystic Hotel. This property, which opened in April, stands on a tunnel-adjacent block of Stockton Street that you'll never see on a picture postcard, yet it has style, as do the Burritt Tavern bar and restaurant downstairs.

Whether perusing the beauty and personal care products at Target or Whole Foods or shopping online at Sephora, consumers are increasingly encountering the phrase "paraben-free. " What exactly does paraben-free mean, and why might it matter? We take a closer look — including sussing out pretty makeup products that are paraben-free. What are parabens? Parabens are the most widely used preservatives in cosmetics and personal care products such as soap, moisturizers, shaving cream and underarm deodorant, according to the Food and Drug Administration.

Action sports and high fashion may not seem like the most likely of companions, but in the past decade designers have done more than dip a toe into surf culture; they have embraced the easygoing, sun-drenched lifestyle common to Southern California and found plenty of inspiration. The fashion industry's love affair with surfing became most apparent about 11 years ago, when Karl Lagerfeld sent models clutching Chanel-logoed surfboards down the runway as they modeled clothes for spring 2003.

"Arrested Development" costume designer Katie Sparks, whose efforts on the first two seasons of the Fox sitcom earned her a 2006 nomination from the Costume Designers Guild of America, was tapped by series creator Mitchell Hurwitz to work on the new streaming-to-Netflix season that will be released May 26. She recently spoke about her work on the original series and the challenges posed by revisiting - and re-dressing - the quirky Bluth family after...

They say something in our salty blood draws us to the sea. As such, Ventura will always be one of our easiest, breeziest, saltiest options. You know you've left L.A. proper when the boot shops start popping up along the 101. You know you've arrived in Ventura when the wind begins to whip and the gulls begin to circle. The tab: $289 for two nights right on the beach, $120 for meals and $98 for three tickets to the whale-watching experience of a lifetime. The bed We set up at the Inn on the Beach (1175 S. Seaward Ave.; [805]

There's an adventuress in every woman just waiting to come out. Name: GlobalAdventuress.com What it does: Inspires women to travel with firsthand cultural experiences from other women. What's hot: The website speaks to many destinations and cultures, such as a five-day trip in Bhutan visiting the Dzong fortresses or drinking fruity rakia in Bosnia-Herzegovina. The approach is simple and therefore approachable for a wide variety of women looking for travel inspiration and empowerment.

In last week's On the Spot column, letter writer Nancy Jones said she was going to London and expressed concern about whether her credit cards would work because they are not Chip and PIN (personal identification number). She said she didn't want to carry a load of cash. What should she do? It turned out to be a more complicated answer than I expected, but I did find a card that I think will work. The issue with many U.S. credit cards is that they use a magnetic stripe. In many parts of Europe, Asia and Latin America, the standard is a smart card or EMV, short for Europay, MasterCard and Visa.

Sometimes a cocktail is as good as a meal. That's certainly the case with a big, bold summer drink called the Horchata Colada. Created by Paul Sofsky for the new Mexican restaurant El Corazon de Costa Mesa at the Triangle in Costa Mesa, the concoction serves up gooey pineapple chunks in a creamy base of smooth coconut rum, tangy lime and spiced horchata rice milk. The rim of the glass is an experiment in layering with crushed pretzels clinging to a sticky layer of sweet caramel sauce.

With more than 4 million people visiting Yosemite National Park last year ? and that number expected to increase this year ? it's no wonder lodging inside the park is snatched up quickly. "We typically sell out during the summer season," Delaware North Cos. spokeswoman Lisa Cesaro said of its Yosemite accommodations (Ahwahnee Hotel, Yosemite Lodge at the Falls, Curry Village and the housekeeping camp on the Merced River; the Wawona Hotel, and in the back country, Tuolumne Meadows Lodge, White Wolf Lodge and the High Sierra camps)

Sometimes it's the simplest things that are the most confounding. Last year, right before Easter, I blogged about how to make a perfect hard-boiled egg. Basic? Yes. Popular? Very. This seemingly simple task received tens of thousands of page views. And, it seemed, almost as many complaints: "But how do you peel them?" Mea culpa. while my method ensures that hard-boiled eggs are never overdone (at last: the cure for the dreaded copper-green ring!), it also can make them harder to shell, because perfectly cooked eggs turn out to be stickier than ones that have been overcooked.

  The term "Rosso Toscano" usually indicates an inexpensive wine made for everyday drinking. But in this case, the wine is essentially a Super Tuscan, made from a blend of Cabernet Franc, Cabernet Sauvignon, Merlot and Petit Verdot. Not a drop of Sangiovese, but it's unmistakably Tuscan - intense and concentrated, with a seductive tonal palate and enough body and tannic grip to age and evolve. And hard to resist now. This is a great red for barbecue season, with the stuff to stand up to smoke and char.

Périgord, France, many years ago: I sit at the oilcloth-covered table, watching the bee climb in and out of the jam jar as I listen to its buzz. The sun is a shock of gold outside the window. The cicadas keep time, rubbing their wiry legs together, spinning out the afternoon. It is hot at the table, claustrophic inside the cottage. I look longingly at the shade spread out beneath the cherry tree. The bee isn't in any hurry. He somehow knows he has all the time in the world, that the 78-year-old woman who lives in the cottage can't see him. She is blind.