visiting in-laws Archives - until suburbia!

Stroll Through History, Woodland, CA

September 29, 2023Silvia

As some of you know and some of you might suspect already, we moved to Woodland last year. One of the first events we enjoyed here is their annual ‘Stroll Through History’. Besides an open house tour, where generous owners open their door to the public, there are walking and bike tours. Last year we did one walking tour, the bike tour explaining Woodland’s trees, and enjoyed the open houses. We learned so much about our new home town and met really nice people along the way!

This year on Saturday October 7th, 2023, the 34th edition of the Stroll Through History invites people to five homes. Among them is the Gable Mansion, Woodland’s signature Victorian. Their sidewalk roses cascade around the fence, enclosing it with beauty. I just recently learned it is in private ownership; it is so grand! Imagine it as an event space. I think couples would love to have such a marvelous backdrop for their wedding celebration. I can’t wait to see it up close myself.

Last year I was amazed at the generosity of the home owners to open up their private residences. Some were present to talk about original features, things they changed, and memories.

The bike and walking tours are free. If you decide to participate in the house tours advanced tickets are $30, but they also offer tickets to purchase at the event for $35.

Do you enjoy a stroll through history?

Sandwich board announcing all concerts on the plaza in the series

Enjoy Concerts on the Center Plaza, Mountain View

September 8, 2023Silvia

Last Monday was Labor Day and it feels like summer is over. But a few summer activities are still going on. Mountain View, for example, will run its Concerts on the Plaza series until the end of September. The Plaza Green that encircles the City Hall and the Center for Performing Arts is also a great spot for hanging out during the week. If you prefer to sit and listen to music, you can bring a chair or put on your dance shoes and come on Friday nights from 6 pm – 7:30 pm to the Center Plaza.

The last four concerts are:

September 8: The Hitmen (Funk/Soul/Disco/Latin)

September 15: Wolf Jett (Folk/Soul)

September 22: The Groove Foundation (Top 40/R&B/Funk/Rock)

September 29: The Loose Interpretations (A Cappella)

Additionally Mountain View’s Art and Wine Festival is happening this weekend! This is one of the largest festivals in the Bay Area. The Civic Center Plaza features multiple bands from around 11 am to 7 pm and street performers all along Castro Street.

The Civic Center Plaza is located at 500 Castro Street in Mountain View, CA. You can purchase beer, wine, and other drinks at the Bean Scene Cafe.

Have you visited any of the outdoor summer concerts?

Tasting cups of olive oil from Séka Hills

Taste Test Some Olive Oil

September 1, 2023Silvia

Séka Hills in the Capay Valley is home to the olive oil mill and tasting room of the Yocha Dehe Wintun Nation. Séka in Patwin, the language of the Wintun Nation, means blue and describes the blue hills that overlook the Capay Valley.

We started our olive oil tasting journey by enjoying the olive oil ice cream. The richness of this creamy goodness was enhanced by adding a pomegranate balsamic reduction. The olive oil cookie added an extra crunch. Overall an excellent tasting experience!

Next on our agenda was the free olive oil tasting. Standing in front of the bar, our very knowledgeable sommelier informed us of the certified olive oils and other products.

You first get a cup of water to clear your palate. Next, warm up a tiny plastic cup filled with oil by rubbing it in your hands. Sniff the oil and explore the aroma of peppery, floral, or fruity. Then, slurp the oil to emulsify it and release the flavors. We tasted four extra virgin olive oils, two infused vinegars (pomegranate & elderberry), honey, and almond butter.

You can also enjoy a lunch or buy some gift items together with your olive oil purchase.

The Séka Hills olive mill and tasting room is located at 19326 Rd 78, Brooks, CA 95606. Tasting room hours are Wednesday through Sunday from 11am to 5pm.

Have you taste tested olive oils before?

Max Cabello Jr. playing at Jazz and Beyond in Sunnyvale

Dine with Jazz, Sunnyvale

August 4, 2023Silvia

I have to say, I’m really impressed with Sunnyvale’s downtown. Murphy Street is now a street block reserved for pedestrians; tables from restaurants take over the sidewalks. The Sunnyvale Downtown Association is doing its part to create a welcoming atmosphere. The series Jazz and Beyond is a 7-week music concert series with jazz or other alternative live music every Saturday evening from July to August.

Left and right off the stage there are white tables and chairs set up. You can reserve one of those tables on Eventbrite. Use your phone to order dinner from 20 participating restaurants and get served right there. This is great for a small group with different diets, or who prefer different cuisines.

We ended up dining at Burma Taste and could listen to the music while enjoying their tea leaf salad and other delicacies. If you are more of a dancer there was enough room for a small crowd in front of the stage. All around a good time.

For August there are still four Jazz and Beyond concerts:

8/5 – The Flow

8/12 – Jim Witzel

8/19 – Legally Blue

8/26 – East Side Funk

*Band line up subject to change without notice.

What’s your favorite downtown in the Bay Area?

A sign saying Antiques and Collectables Enter

Steal a Deal, San Jose Antique Row

July 14, 2023Silvia

This post is one of those I-put-off-for-too-long, or more accurately, when-I-don’t-get-to-go-out-and-explore post.

It turns out that according to the San Jose Spotlight, San Jose’s Antique Row might be a thing of the past soon. The San Jose City Council voted unanimously to annex a portion of the ‘Row’ for new housing, including urgently needed senior housing. A new development there might replace the antique stores currently occupying the space.

Antique Row is on W. San Carlos between Brooklyn Ave and Hester Ave in San Jose, an area known as Burbank. This is a great place to check if you collect a specific antique, or if you are looking for some pieces not labeled made-in-China. The staff understands that you need time to browse and is very knowledgeable if you have specific questions.

The four most well-known antique stores on Antique Row, Antiques Colony, Burbank Antiques, Briarwood Antiques and Collectibles, and Memory Lane Antiques, are still open. Tony, the owner of Memory Lane Antiques told me he plans to retire next year. I was unable to get anyone else to confirm they were closing in the near future.

I hope when the time comes they can relocate and create a new Antique Row within San Jose. Meanwhile catch them while they are still in this location.

Antique Row is located on W. San Carlos between Brooklyn Ave and Hester Ave in San Jose. Opening hours vary by store.

Do you enjoy bargain hunting?

Entrance to the history museum in Winters, CA

Memorialize the History of Winters

June 16, 2023Silvia

Winters is a small city in Yolo. Off the main street, on 13 Russell Street, you will find the Winters history museum. The current exhibit Wide World of Winters’ Sports in the front shows a collection of famous sports events, gathered by locals.

I found the printing presses in the back the most amazing artifacts in the collection. They are still working and we saw some nice examples of embossed wedding invitations. Through the passionate eyes of the volunteers you will be guided to local history events and the printing press operations. We were introduced to the immense time-consuming act of typesetting with lead molds, which were hazardous work environments.

The free history museum was a welcome stop while we explored Winters. It is open Thursday through Sunday from 1:00 pm to 5:00 pm. And if you are lucky there will be fresh baked cookies, too!

What is your favorite history museum?

Visit the Excellent Rose Garden in Woodland

May 5, 2023Silvia

The Carnegie Library in Woodland is on its own worth a visit. From the 121 libraries built by the Carnegie Corporation in California, from 1899 to 1917, 37 still operate as libraries. Since 1989 there is another attraction around the building, the rose garden. To be exact, this garden is composed of multiple rose gardens. In 1991 the Memorial Rose Garden was established. A year later the Perimeter Wall Garden opened up. Since 1998 the John A. Saltsman Garden has extended the gardens of the Library to the north and west.

With nearly 600 varieties of roses this is a delight for every rose lover. Furthermore, in 2015, they won the “2015 Garden of Excellence Award” by the World Federation of Rose Societies. It’s an incredible honor, overall there are only 11 US rose gardens that received this award. Other examples are: San Jose’s Municipal Rose Garden, Sacramento Historic Rose Garden, and Biltmore Rose Garden.

Gregg Lowery, an antique rose expert, reveals that

”Their two plantings of Rosa primula represent the only correctly named specimens that I have encountered in gardens, both public and private, in the world.”

If you would love to learn more about how to cultivate roses you can join the group, meetings are every 2nd Saturday of each month, membership fee starts at $15. Every January they invite you to learn about pruning. Check out their web site for further events.

The Woodland Rose Garden can be found around the Woodland library, between College and Court.

Combine Flowers and Art, Margrit Mondavi Art Garden

April 14, 2023Silvia

Adjacent to the Manetti Shrem Art Museum on the UC Davis campus you will find the Margrit Mondavi Art Garden. A lovely tribute to a main donor to UC Davis, Margrit Mondavi on her 90th birthday in 2015,. A painter herself, Mondavi’s subjects were flowers. Atlas Lab, who landscaped the garden in 100 days, took inspiration from Mondavi’s paintings and planted an array of diverse and colorful flower beds. Curvy small walls with curved benches invite the visitors to sit, to contemplate, or start to sketch.

The sculptures you will encounter at Margrit Mondavi’s Art Garden are William Tucker’s Leda (1989-90), bronze, John Connell’s Earth-Touching Buddha (2002), bronze, Dan Snyder’s The Restoration of Hope II (1983), ceramic with cement, and Andrew Rogers’ I am (2016). Above all, this is a flower garden that even has a rose cultivar named after the gardens namesake “Margrit Mondavi”.

I found this an unexpected but joyful place worth discovering. Best said by Margrit Mondavi herself in the UC Davis Magazine in 2014, “There is so much beauty in the world, if we look for it.”

What is your unexpected but beautiful place?

Culinary garden at the CIA at Copia, Napa

Savor the Culinary Garden at the CIA

April 8, 2023Silvia

Not only should you check out the Chuck Williams Culinary Arts Museum when you are in Napa, you should also make a stop at the culinary garden. This gem of a cuisine garden is in front of the CIA at the Copia. While it features a variety of citrus trees on the right side, the main attraction is the 32-bed-garden. It is as educational as practical. Everything this edible garden has to offer is used by the CIA. In rare cases the website promises to offer any surplus at the Marketplace. The two gardeners Jacob Tracy and Rachel Kohn Obut show their love for the job and the sustainability of the land by ensuring crop rotation, no-till gardening, and an interesting array of local and climate related plants.

Currently they are working on offering garden tours, summer produce and flower sales.

The little stone walls invite you to sit down and take in the beauty and smells. You could even bring lunch from the next door’s Oxbow public market. The only thing you are asked to not do is sample any produce. Nevertheless they do offer a seed library! Get inspired and start your own culinary garden.

I hope you will take some time to enjoy the culinary garden at the CIA.

Sign for di Rosa with red sculpture in the back

Picnic and Art, di Rosa Center for Contemporary Art, Napa

March 24, 2023Silvia

Once the rain is gone I’m looking forward to a picnic. A classic spot for a picnic is Napa. You can combine it with wine tastings surrounded by vineyards. If you want to step up your game, impress someone special, or just not into wine, I recommend visiting di Rosa Center for Contemporary Art.

Di Rosa hosts two galleries with a focus on contemporary artists from the Bay Area. However, there is much more to discover. Located in a nature preserve within wine stocks, you walk by sculptures, an immersion of nature and art.

When we visited last weekend we saw Willian Allan’s Negotiations with Eden in gallery 1. Allan was a leading figure in the Bay Area’s Funk scene in the 1960s and 70s. His fish paintings show off a whimsical trait reflected again with the painted beans in a few display cases. This playful view on art, e.g., lucky number beans or birds eyes painted on beans, continues in his photographs where he reveals an eye for nature’s curiosities. Negotiations with Eden is open until May 14th, 2023.

Gallery 2 is labeled The Incorrect Museum – di Rosa’s permanent collection with a focus on ‘beat,’ ‘funk’ and other key movements in Bay Area art history. My favorite was the house of bottles in an outside area: Mildred Howard’s Memory Garden Phase 1. You can actually go inside the bottle house!

Due to the heavy rain the sculpture meadow, as well as another installation, were closed to the public. A bit unfortunate since I was looking forward to seeing the sculptures. However, while there were some sculptures on the way to the gallery 2, I can see myself returning on a sunny day with some friends, a picnic basket, and enjoying the sculpture garden and installation we missed.

On the second Sunday of the month they also offer nature hikes through the Sculpture Meadow and up the northern side of the property. Hikes start at 10 am, advanced tickets are required.

di Rosa Center for Contemporary Art is located on 5200 Carneros Highway in Napa, CA. General Admission is $20, senior, military and students are $17, under 17 free. Opening hours are Friday to Sunday, 11 am – 4 pm.

Do you know of great picnic spots?