I'm pretty sure in CA, it's actually legal to carry an exposed pistol, provided the chamber is empty. There's some grass roots movement (San Diego?) around that's been doing that for a while. People still tend to crap their pants when they see it, but, well, California is a bit naive in some things.
http://ag.ca.gov/firearms/forms/pdf/Cfl2007.pdf (look at page 28, the last line).
http://www.californiaopencarry.org/CaliforniaOpenCarry.pdf

I also don't really advocate a stick. But... if you're going to have one... A) cattle prod (imagine the suprise of the dog when he bites onto a live current), or B) one of those sword-in-a-stick are options to consider. I don't know the legality of either of those, however.

You could also have a nice figurehead or something on the head of your walking stick and make it a bit more weighted/pointy. Or, heck, just carve the end to a point. I'm pretty sure most folks would barely glance at a walking stick, much less notice if one end was a bit pointy. And a LEO would have an interesting time explaining it as weapon when, if need be, you could flip it upside down and rub that point down pretty quick.