Ellen Scripps, of the Scripps newspaper family, moved to Southern California in 1896. A single woman, she settled in La Jolla, then an unknown enclave on the edge of San Diego, where she built a home near the surf that would one day draw thousands to its shore. Scripps was wealthy and remarkably generous. She was also profoundly private. She didn’t even like being described as a philanthropist. There’s no record of how much she gave to La Jolla during her life, but it was in the millions.

“What’s so remarkable,” says Carol Olten of the La Jolla Historical Society, “is that she was both so generous and so modest — she didn’t even ask that her name be placed on anything she helped create.”Ellen Scripps, some say, gave La Jolla its soul.

And her legacy spurred many others to do likewise. Thus, La Jolla blossomed. Given its year-round temperate climate (roughly 22 to 88 between May and October) plus gleaming hotels and excellent cafés, it’s always a Top 10 destination for Americans. It’s also popular with Canadians, noticeably Edmontonians and Calgarians who have convenient flights to San Diego from Calgary on Westjet. (Vancouverites go directly on Air Canada.) La Jolla’s personality is so distinct that an early local history I read at La Jolla Library notes: “It is part of the city of San Diego, although it is believed by many to be a separate village, so strong is the community identity.”

After an absence of almost two decades, Barbara and I returned recently to La Jolla (pronounced La Hoya, deriving from Spanish for “the jewel”), settling in a condominium apartment, Bella Capri, a few minutes walk from the shops and the shore, where surfers ride the waves by day, and at night the sound of the sea crashing on the rocks, and running on the sand, lulled us to sleep.

Naturally, the years have brought change, more traffic and street people, but La Jolla retains a certain calmness. Morning is scented by the sea, noonday is quite warm, but toward evening, the air cools, refreshed by lingering scents of daffodils and hibiscus on the back streets. We went about the city by public transit and every time we boarded a bus to downtown San Diego, the driver greeted us: “Good morning folks and how are you today?” Car drivers were courteous, so that while it took awhile to get the green light, no one jumped it. There?s vitality in La Jolla — 12,000 students populate its University of Southern California campus — but a firm echo of old-fashioned civility recalls writer Raymond Chandler?s long ago comment: “La Jolla is a nice place for old people — and their parents.” (Witty, yes. Definitive, no.)

In fact, our visit proved it. By now it’s a yearly custom that for March break our son, his wife and young son visit us, so this time it was in La Jolla. That week was a banquet of activities that are there year-round. Consider: There was Scripps Institution of Oceanography with its Birch Aquarium just above the sea, a massive 60 tanks with just about every imaginable kind of marine life, from octopus to coral reefs; there was Scripps Park and La Jolla Cove at the foot of town, a curving beach of stone and sand where children build castles as they watch some of the best surfers in the world; in 20 minutes by bus or car you can be in San Diego proper and the magnificent Balboa Park and its 15 museums, including a wonderful Museum of Man.

We also found time to board a huge aircraft carrier, The USS Midway, now moored in San Diego harbour, a museum of memory and memorabilia. We even met a tourist who sailed aboard her during the Vietnam era and whispered: “It sure felt more cramped years ago.” And then there are the smaller attractions, the sort you find on a stroll. I made one such discovery in La Jolla proper in the form of D.G. Wills Books on Girard Street. It?s a proper shrine to literature and regularly hosts high-profile authors.

As customers came and went, we talked. I asked the owner, Dennis Wills, why he came to La Jolla. “Well,” he replied with a wan smile, “the weather’s better than New York.” Is that all people come for?  “Of course not. The fact is this: This is a wonderfully mixed community, many cultures, many people, many activities. And the University of Southern California being here has enormous influence on stimulating the spirit of the place. And it’s the site of conventions, so people from all over the world come to La Jolla.” He paused. “They also like bookstores. Like mine.?

It’s been said of some cities — Dijon, Venice, Paris — that it’s impossible to eat badly in them. I can’t say that about San Diego, — I didn’t eat widely enough – but as for its suburb, La Jolla, I have a feeling it may well be true. It?s partly due to the international culinary renaissance that began in the 1980s. (I’m told some La Jolla chefs have come here after stints working in culinary capitals — New York, Los Angeles, Chicago.) So expect no oversized, grease-soaked servings here. But do take an evening or two for a visit to Tapenade, Sante and Crab Catcher. You?ll be glad you went, as you will be about first of all going to memorable La Jolla.