visiting in-laws Archives - Page 2 of 15

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.

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.

Taste Point Reyes Cheese, Point Reyes Station

June 27, 2025Silvia

Point Reyes blue cheese is my go-to blue cheese. It was a real treat to see where the cheese comes from – the pastures and the cows.

The road towards the market is winding and narrow. You may need to pull over to let the ongoing traffic pass. On our way back, a cow was blocking traffic. But after we took her picture, she gracefully moved away.

The cheese tasting was in the little market. Note: The signage was a bit confusing – all we saw was a ‘No Access’ sign. We wandered around a bit before finding the stairs to the entrance. But the gift shop was lovely. With a warm welcome, we were educated about the cheeses and enjoyed all of them! The fennel blue cheese was my favorite!

For our picnic, we picked out a soft, ripe cheese and a passion fruit jam.

Make sure to check out the patio and the garden. All comes with a healthy portion of country air!

Point Reyes Cheese marketplace is open for free cheese tastings Mondays through Saturdays from 11 am – 3:30 pm. It is located at 14700 Highway 1, Point Reyes Station.

They celebrate their 25th year anniversary this year with a special tasting ($55 per person ) on June 13th, July 18th, August 15th, September 26th, 2025.

What is your favorite cheese?

I did not receive any compensation for this post.

If you are more into goat cheese I highly recommend Hartley’s Farm in Pescadero.

Learn to Shuck Oysters, Hog Island Oyster Company

June 6, 2025Silvia

I usually recommend some frugal adventures. But as a special treat, we visited the Hog Island Oyster Company in Marshall, CA, near Tomales Bay, and learned everything about how to farm oysters.

This is a true gem if you like oysters. They taught us about different oysters and how they manage them. One fun or rather interesting experience was holding a sea cucumber. Not as firm as a cucumber and it moves like a snail!

The grand finale is a lesson in how to shuck oysters. You take the oyster, hold it in a towel, and pry the shucking knife into the end of the oyster. With not too much force, you twist and turn as if you are holding a key and the oyster is your lock.

The other two couples in our group were celebrating birthdays. With a price tag of $48 per person, it is truly a special occasion activity.

Hog Island Oyster Company is located 20215 Shoreline Highway in Marshall, CA. The Classic Farm Tours are offered on Fridays through Sundays at 9:30 a.m. Online registrations are required.

To round out your experience, you can have lunch at Tony’s Seafood restaurant and enjoy fresh seafood. We tried the fried oyster lettuce wrap and it was delish!

Hog Island Oyster Company, in the SF Ferry Building Marketplace, is the San Francisco oyster bar, full-service bar, restaurant, and retail outlet for this Tomales Bay oyster farm.

I am not affiliated with the Hog Island Oyster Company or Tony’s Seafood restaurant.

Entrance of Sonoma Harvest in Fairfield, CA

Taste Test Sonoma Harvest Products, Fairfield

April 25, 2025Silvia

We received a warm welcome at the Sonoma Harvest tasting room in Fairfield. Since it was our first time, we were cleverly guided to the olive oils through a lot of really cute kitchen items.

There are a lot of flavored olive oils to try. You can cleanse your palate with some croutons. Next are the vinegars. Again, there are many interesting flavors to elevate your salads. Have you ever had balsamic vinegar so good that you might want to use it as an ice cream topping? Yes, that’s here for you to taste (you have to imagine the ice cream right now – but the richness is mind-blowing!). From sour to sweet, the next station was their creative jams. The strawberry chocolate and spicy peach are delish! We skipped the spicy section, with a BBQ sauce and chili oil, but returned to the kitchen gifts. This is the place if you like to buy local products.

The Sonoma Harvest tasting room is located at 770 Chadbourne Road in Fairfield. It’s close to the Jelly Belly factory. Free tastings are Wednesdays to Sundays from noon to 4 pm.

I am not affiliated with Sonoma Harvest.

A bench overlooking the Bay at Point Pinole park

Visit Point Pinole Regional Shoreline Park

March 7, 2025Silvia

The first thing I noticed while hiking the Point Pinole Regional Shoreline Park was the typical Bay smell. Thankfully, it wasn’t persistent, and for me, it was an occasional whiff of offense. The smell is due to the anaerobic decomposition of organic matter in the sediment. I guess one can call it the smell of the low tide.

What struck me next were the many eucalyptus trees. Usually, you’ll find native oaks in parks, and eucalyptus is considered an invasive species. As the Oakland Side warned in an article in October of 2024, “Eucalyptus trees are simultaneously dry and filled with flammable oil. They shed long, shaggy debris, covering the ground with dry fuel for wildfires, and when they catch fire, the oil in them burns hot and fast. Their seed pods can explode in a wildfire, shooting embers across the landscape.” (https://oaklandside.org/2024/10/29/oakland-eucalyptus-trees-wildfires-history/).

But here in the park, the eucalyptus has an interesting history. They were planted as a buffer for explosions. From 1881 to 1960, this site was used as a dynamite manufacturing company, the Giant Powder Company. Dynamite, the invention of Alfred Nobel, was essential in the development of California, blowing through mountains and building roads. Nowadays, the eucalyptus are home to many wildlife species, like deer, hawks, owls, and Monarch butterflies.

The park was well attended on a weekday. Lots of people were exercising and enjoying the view of the Bay.

Point Pinole has two entrances. One is on 5551 Giant Highway, Richmond, and the other parking lot is on 3000 Atlas Road, Richmond. Parking is $5 between April and October.

Relax in a Native Garden, Martha Walker Gardens, Napa

February 21, 2025Silvia

It’s almost spring and time to think about your garden again. I always love to see other gardens to get ideas or to just relax. Martha Walker Gardens in Napa, a California Native Habitat Garden is a perfect place to relax. Part of Skyline Park in Napa, the garden, a 2.5-acre site, is a tribute to Martha Walker. She was a beloved resident and naturalist of Napa. She taught classes and even had her own radio show: “Let’s Go Into the Garden”.

The garden invites school groups, hikers, and natural lovers to explore. Almost 200 different species have been planted. I especially enjoyed the little redwood grove. Even if it is just a small part of the park, the garden has a lot of paths and benches to enjoy peace and quiet. The Napa-Solano Audubon Society donated fruit trees to attract birds.

The entrance to the garden is gated to keep the deer out. But the gates themselves are really beautifully crafted, just a little tricky to open.

Skyline Park is located at 2201 Imola Ave. Napa, CA and open 7 days a week. Parking is $6. They don’t allow dogs on trails and close the park at sunset.

What is your favorite garden to relax in?

Visit Historic Locke

February 14, 2025Silvia

Locke is the only town in the United States built by the Chinese for Chinese people. The first buildings were established in 1913. Due to California’s Alien Land Law of 1913, which prevented all foreign-born aliens from owning land, Locke’s residents rented the land from George Locke, Jr. Because the people hoped to return to China, these houses weren’t built to last, with cheap materials and metal roofs.

To experience how the people of Locke lived, you can visit the living museum town north of the Sacramento–San Joaquin River Delta. There are multiple museums, like the Locke Boarding House, the Chinese School, or the Dai Loy Museum, the former gambling hall. In 1990 Locke was made into a National Historic Landmark.

The boarding house offers a peek into the daily lives of the visiting farm workers. During its heyday, there were multiple restaurants, hotels, rooming houses, a grocery store, a fish market, a dentist’s office, and a Chinese school. But behind the storefronts, there were also gambling halls and opium dens. It became known as the “Monte Carlo of California”. When prohibition ended and the asparagus industry declined, Locke lost its visitors.

There are many fascinating facts about Locke. On Saturday, February 22, 2025, 12pm – 4 pm, the Locke Foundation invites you to celebrate Chinese New Year in Locke.

The Boarding House Museum is open Saturdays and Sundays 11am – 3pm, 13916 Main Street, Locke.

The Dai Loy Museum is open Friday, Saturday, and Sunday 12pm – 4pm, 13951 Main Street, Locke.

Sign in front of the Arts Guild announcing that the gallery is open

Be Enriched by Art, Arts Guild of Sonoma

January 10, 2025Silvia

The Arts Guild of Sonoma is one of the oldest continuously operating artists cooperatives in California. You can find the Arts Guild at 140 East Napa Street southeast of the main plaza in downtown Sonoma.

With changing exhibits throughout the year, visitors are introduced to Sonoma’s residing artists. The current exhibit “Past, Present, Future” runs until January 27th, 2025 with an artists’ reception on January 18th, from 5 pm to 7pm.

I loved the spacious gallery space with a myriad of artworks of paintings, jewelry, and pottery.

The Arts Guild participates in the First Thursday Art Walk, a monthly celebration of local art. Each month a different location hosts the Art Walk, but you can stop by the Arts Guild and pick up a paper map.

Visit the Arts Guild of Sonoma at 140 East Napa Street from Thursday through Monday 11 am to 5 pm.

Redefine Contemporary Art at the NIAD in Richmond

December 6, 2024Silvia

‘Art is what you like,’ is a German proverb. When the NIAD Art Center in Richmond proclaims that it redefines contemporary art I wonder if they also had this liberating view of art in mind.

NIAD stands for Nurturing Independence Through Artistic Development and is a progressive art studio for adult artists with developmental disabilities. For more than 40 years this place has given opportunities to people with intellectual and developmental disabilities. NIAD artists have been recognized by the Whitney Museum, the Studio Museum of Harlem, and OMCA. They are part of the permanent collections of the Museum of Modern Art in New York, SFMOMA, MADMusée, Belgium, and the Institute of Contemporary Art in Miami.

I felt the art come to life when I visited NIAD. There were many vibrant pieces, including the Pom-Pom Wallhanging by Felicia Griffin. In addition the space and the people were welcomed us warmly. The only thing I was disappointed about was the fact that the nice outside sitting area didn’t offer coffee, but it invites you to sit down and admire the fountain.

The founding couple, Dr. Elias and Florence Ludins-Katz, believed strongly in the Progressive Art Studio methodology, to focus on acceptance rather than assimilation of artists with disabilities. It also allows the artists to earn from their art sales.

Current Exhibit

From December 7th to the 27th, 2024 More than enough is NIAD’s Holiday Shop. This celebration of community and art is inspired by a collectively written “Abundance Poem”.

NIAD Gallery Hours are from Monday – Friday, 10 am – 4 pm and every second Saturday, 1 – 4 pm.

For the Holiday Season there is a special gallery open hour on December 7th, from 1 – 4 pm. On December 21st, from 1 – 4 pm, there will be a Holiday Spectacular.

You can visit NIAD Art Center at 551 23rd St. in Richmond, CA.