until suburbia!

A sign at the driveway to Morningsun Herb Farm with their opening hours

Purchase Herbs, Morningsun Herb Farm, Vacaville

September 19, 2025Silvia

Fall is a great time to plant. And if you are in the Vacaville area, Morningsun Herb Farm is a great place to pick up all that you’ll need to beautify your garden, not only herbs.

The nursery can be quite overwhelming, with rows and rows of perennials and herbs, augmented with fruit trees on the side. I think I counted 4 double rows just for all the lavender varieties. My tip is to check out their website: https://morningsunherbfarm.com/ and come up with a plan. I ended up with two varieties of thyme and some lime mint.

As an extra bonus, the Herb Farm is having its plant sale – 35% off all plants until Sunday, October 12th, 2025. If you act quickly, they also have a sale on soil and amendments (10%) and garden art (15%) until September 21st, 2025.

Now, I do love a nice nursery, but I love this one even more. You can stroll through relaxing gardens, and you can feed chickens and donkeys!

On Saturday, September 20th, 2025, Morningsun Herb Farm will participate in the PVAA 9th annual open farm day. They present an all-day program featuring interesting talks and a demonstration on the distillation of lemon verbena.

Morningsun Herb Farm is located at 6137 Pleasants Valley Road in Vacaville. Their fall hours are Wednesday – Sunday, 9 am – 5 pm. The overflow and large vehicle parking lot is located at the second driveway at 6147 Pleasants Valley Rd.

I did not receive any compensation for this post.

Imagine Creatures, Alebrijes in San José

September 12, 2025Silvia

Alebrijes are brightly colored artworks from Mexico. Usually, they depict multiple animals painted with intense, intricate patterns. They originated in 1936 from a fever dream by the artist Pedro Linares. These days, they are a symbol of Mexican folk art. Although Alebrijes are attributed to Oaxacan culture, you can buy little wooden creatures in gift shops all across Mexico.

My first encounter with Alebrijes was in the Museo de Arte Popular in Mexico City. Of course, while the little representatives were in every gift shop, the large sculptures entrance you at a higher level.

To experience a group of 22-foot-tall mythical creatures, you can marvel at them at Plaza de César Chávez in San José until September 28th, 2025. This exhibition is in partnership with San Jose Jazz; they offer a lot of free events around the plaza to celebrate Mexican culture. While we saw the Alebrijes at the golden hour, San Jose Jazz recommends you see them at night, as they come to life glowing with vibrant, multicolored LED lights.

The fantastical creatures are on a tour. The next stop will be from October 10th to December 7th, 2025, at the Arte Américas in Fresno. At this stop, you will also be able to see the original, smaller hand-made sculptures.

Do you have a favorite Alebrije?

Experience Arts of Fire in Benicia, NY2CA Gallery

September 5, 2025Silvia

Every city in the Bay Area has a vibe. For Benicia, the art galleries on First Street communicate a welcoming vibe for art lovers to browse and discover new artists.

The most recent addition to the First Street art scene is the NY2CA Gallery.

With changing exhibits every seven weeks, this place will truly entice you to come visit often!

Currently, they show Arts of Fire – Clay. Glass. Transformation. This juried show featuring 36 artists is all about working with clay and glass in a contemporary and fantastic way. I found the Drops of Lights by Jenn Shiflett inspiring. A glass plate that looks like it captures raindrops, but also reflects everything. I have two photos, both somehow showed up as distorted selfies.

Arts and Fire will be open until September 21st, 2025. The NY2CA Gallery is on 617 First St in downtown Benicia. Opening hours are Thursday to Sunday from noon to 5 pm.

A door painted in brown with Kollar Chocolate written on it

Indulge in Chocolate, Kollar Chocolates, Yountville

August 29, 2025Silvia

The smell of rich chocolate greets you at Kollar Chocolates, a small artisan chocolatier in the heart of Yountville. Located at the V Marketplace, a historic winery, now an upscale place for fine dining and wine. The award-winning pralines are works of art crafted with ethically sourced ingredients. Kollar dove into the chocolatier artistry in Europe, and his research paid off. He was named one of the Top Ten Chocolatiers in North America by Dessert Professional Magazine.

On our visit, we were given a red wine truffle to sample and enjoyed an affogato. Both were excellent!

Given the current temperatures, chocolate seems a hard sell. But the descriptions from Chocolate By the Bay made my mouth water and I definitely regret not trying more of these artful bonbons – especially the chopped truffle, a concoction created after winning the 2020 Food Network’s Chopped: “It’s a white chocolate ganache flavored with miso paste and cayenne in a dark chocolate shell.” Sounds salty, lightly spicy, surrounded by chocolate. What could go wrong?

Kollar Chocolates is located in Yountville’s V Marketplace on 6525 Washington Street in Yountville. It is open every day from 10:00 am to 5:30 pm.

Where do you indulge in chocolates?

Produce offered at the FarmStand in Yountville

Shop at the FarmStand, Yountville

August 22, 2025August 22, 2025Silvia

Last week, I was talking about the Yountville Art Walk. While we checked out the art, we also wanted to stop by the FarmStand. The FarmStand Garden is advertised on the town of Yountville’s website as a “thriving, community-powered space growing fresh, seasonal produce in the heart of town.” What we didn’t realize was that this was so much more than a place to buy fresh produce.

In the back of the Yountville Commons, a former Elementary school that now awaits a community space overhaul, we found the Coop. The Coop is a café with inviting yellow and green seats in the shade. Additionally, it serves as a collaboration of the 4G gardening club’s FarmStand and the Hoopes Winery owner’s cafe. The 4G gardening club stands for Grow, Garden, Glean, and Give. You can find the FarmStand next to the Coop. Shop for locally grown produce, support sustainability, and find community.

The Coop offers a changing menu, drinks, and a welcoming space to hang out. This is a fantastic place to meet old and new friends! And if you are a Yountville resident or worker, you’ll receive a discount! They are a flagship for sustainability and community building. A definite stop if you are in Yountville!

The Coop and the FarmStand are located at 6554 Yount Street. Opening hours for the Coop are Tuesdays to Thursdays 10 am to 5 pm, Fridays to Sundays 9 am to 6 pm.

Follow the Art, Yountville Art Walk

August 16, 2025Silvia

Yountville combines food and wine culture with an advocacy for the arts. The Yountville Art Walk displays more than 30 outdoor sculptures. Many of these artworks are for sale.

We picked up a brochure at the community center. The community center is a great starting point for the art walk as a lot of sculptures are nearby. But you can really start this art exploration anywhere. Most of them are on a 1 mile stretch of Washington Street. At Van De Leur Park is another cluster of sculptures. The park is not very extensive but it offers shade and the possibility to sit and rest. It also has a little rose garden.

The Steve Rogers Gallery at the community center hosts six free exhibits a year. Currently, they are displaying painted trays, Midnight Snack Trays – A Feast for the Eyes by Seward Johnson. These trays can be viewed through September 12, 2025.

My favorite sculpture was this Yellow Sphere by Ivan McLean – a large yellow ball made out of woven metal.

We enjoyed our stroll while we discovered Yountville. What an excellent way to promote both the walkability of Yountville and the arts!

The Steve Rogers Gallery is located at 6516 Washington Street. Opening hours are Mondays through Fridays from 9 am to 4 pm. You can also listen to descriptions about the sculptures in an audio tour: https://youraudiotour.com/tours/yountville-art-walk/

Information about the art walk can be found on their website: https://ca-yountville.civicplus.com/238/Art-Walk

Jonah and the Whale mechanical bank at the Napa Toy Museum

Adore Vintage Toys at the Napa Toy Museum, Napa

August 9, 2025Silvia

They name themselves the collectors of collections. The owners of the Napa Toy Museum proudly display their collections of wind-up toys, mechanical and still banks, patent models, and salesman samples from 1890’s to the 1960’s. It’s as fascinating as it is whimsical.

We were offered a tour that was included in the admission, and we gladly accepted. Our guide, one of the owners of the museum, opened cases and demonstrated how a mechanical bank works, and showed us vintage wind-up toys.

The Barbie collection is on loan from the collector Myk Ciapusci. Ninety-eight Barbies with accessories prompted us to share memories and stories about miniature outfit creations.

But there is also a lot of history in those pieces. Like the patent models that inventors had to submit to the patent office with their inventions. Or the Ark toys that were popular in Germany around the late 19th century. These toys were also called Sunday toys because they were the only toys kids were allowed to play with on the Sabbath. Although only a fraction of the 150 ark animals are displayed in the case, we still appreciated the love that went into carving the animals.

Thank you to the Halls for sharing and explaining your collection.

The Napa Toy Museum is located at 964 Pearl Street in downtown Napa and is open Wednesday to Saturday from 10 am to 5 pm. Admission is $8 for adults with discounts for seniors, locals, first responders, and kids. The museum is free for under-8-year-olds. If you bring an unwrapped, new toy for Toys for Tots through December 17th, 2025, you will receive one free admission.

Hike the Grist Mill Trail, Bothe-Napa Valley State Park, St Helena

August 1, 2025Silvia

Last week I talked about our visit to the Bale Grist Mill in St Helena. An added bonus adventure is to hike the 2.4 mile round trip starting from the Bothe-Napa Valley State Park.

We began this hike by stopping at the visitor center at Bothe Park. The nature exhibit, history, and 3D map of the area are informative. The center has a little shop where they sell ice cream and popsicles. If you need something to fend off ticks, they have that too. They also have a Native American plant garden next to the building. But our agenda was already tight, so we skipped the garden.

We parked the car in a shady spot on a loop near the cemetery. The cemetery is the final resting place for some of the original settlers in Napa Valley. To go on the grist mill loop, start on the right towards the cemetery loop and hang right. A little while in, I wished I had studied the 3-D map. The hike was surprisingly steep and narrow. We came from the direction of Napa and had passed the mill. So walking up when the goal was near the street seemed counterintuitive. Since the mill is water-powered, it needs to have water flow from an elevated reservoir. So once you are near the resevoir, you will hike down towards the mill.

We picked a hot day, but the weather can differ, so be sure to check ahead. But for us, the heat led to another bonus adventure. Once you return to the visitor center at Bothe Park, you can buy tickets to the swimming pool at the visitor center! The $5 per person was a great price for cooling down.

Information

The Bothe-Napa Valley State Park is open daily from 8 am to sunset. The entrance fee to the park is $10 per vehicle. The swimming pool is only open Saturdays and Sundays from 1 pm to 5 pm, during the summer season.

Water wheel for the Bale Grist Mill in St Helena

Grind Corn at the Bale Grist Mill, St Helena

July 25, 2025July 30, 2025Silvia

A grist mill converts grains such as wheat or corn into flour and animal feed. Built in 1846, the Bale Mill in St Helena is one of the oldest structures in Napa County. This marvel of ingenuity still works; you can watch it in action on the weekends.

Tours are offered at 10:30 am, 11:30 am, 1 pm, 2 pm, and 3 pm. We got there a little late, but it was no problem to join a tour midway and then stay a bit longer to catch up on what we missed.

Our guide was very knowledgeable as he presented the history of the mill and its owners. Then he turned on the waterwheel. He set it at the slowest setting so he could demonstrate it and yet still be heard once we moved inside. The mechanics for the mill are efficient. It can be operated with just two people. Cup elevators transport the grain through the system. The pinnacle of the demonstration is to watch the flour come out of the grindstone. There is also a hands-on element where you can grind corn by hand.

You can buy various flours at the historic granary gift shop. These are marked ‘Not for human consumption’, as the mill operators opted for a personal demonstration area that doesn’t meet the high hygienic standards.

The Bale Grist Mill State Historic Park is located at 3315 St Helena. Parking fee is $10 and the entrance fee for adults is $8, children 6-17 pay $3, and children under 6 are free. The mill is open Saturdays and Sundays from 10 am to 4 pm.

A bench that looks like a stick of butter under the MAC sign

Experience the MAC, St Helena

July 17, 2025Silvia

Riding through Napa Valley with my husband we were talking about how much of Napa feels like chasing experiences. For example, the wine train is a luxurious experience on a vintage train ride featuring elegantly curated menus. The price tag starts at $225 and can easily go for $600 a person for an experience.

You may already know that I am trying to find more frugal savoir-faire for you in this blog. But I’m also a foodie; sometimes these worlds collide. No, I did not ride on the wine train. When you rarely drink alcohol, you don’t have a problem skipping offerings centered around wine. However, I learned about an exhibit featuring Julia Child at the MAC (The Napa Valley Museum of Art & Culture) in St Helena. The $25 entrance fee per person made me pause. I paid it, I enjoyed it, but my husband decided to wait outside. If you can’t share your experience with others, is it worth it?

I did not grow up watching Julia Child, but I read her book My Life in France, and I saw the movie Julie & Julia. The exhibit starts by introducing Julia’s upbringing and then her work for the Office of Strategic Services (OSS) during World War II. While in Kandy, Ceylon (now Sri Lanka) she met her husband, Paul Child, who also worked for the OSS.

Although Child was not the first TV cook, she was the first to win an Emmy for an educational program. I really enjoyed seeing a set up of the TV kitchen with an old-style monstrous camera as my highlight. It becomes clear in this exhibit that Child was an icon, beloved and admired by her colleagues. Through the black and white photographs of Paul Child, you can see the love the couple had for each other.

Additional Information

To round off your experience, the café at Under Study, next door to the MAC, offers a three-course prix fixe menu inspired by Julia Child for $38.

On Saturday, 7/20/25 at 11 am, you can meet John Donohue at the MAC. Donohue is a cartoon artist who has famously drawn restaurants in Paris, London, and New York. Some of his drawings can be viewed at the MAC gift shop for free! The event on Saturday is also free.

Julia Child: A Recipe for Life is on display at the MAC until March 8, 2026. The MAC is located at 607 St Helena Hwy, St Helena, CA. It is open seven days a week from 10 am to 5 pm. Admission is $25 for adults, $15 for 5 – 17 year olds, free for children under 5.