The first house on the tour was on a hill in northern Vallejo and multiple tiers and outdoor structures with a view of the Mare Island Causeway. I love the one-of-a-kind sculptures.
Community Garden on Sonoma Blvd.:
Pennsylvania Street downtown:
Homeacres house:
House near community garden:
This was my first time at the Solano County Fairgrounds and I was impressed with the site. LGBTQMinusTobacco had a booth there that day. We saw lots of incredible art and enjoyed the part of the fairgrounds that we got to see.
Our friends Greg and Steve joined us for a trip to the art lofts in Benicia. I had never really wandered around there, nor did I know how cavernous the studios were. I also was very impressed the the gardens on the ground and some of the military (?) architecture even as it begins to look neglected.
One of the joys of living in Vallejo is that we are adjacent to Napa County. In the city of Napa itself, we had a wonderful meal with a bunch of friends and had a long walk through the downtown area to see many light exhibits. The revamped downtown is very Parisian. There was lots of nightlife, a lot of live music and joy, despite the chill in the air.
We ate at a great Mexican restaurant on the river with heating lamps outside. Walking around town I noticed at least two groups of people who were speaking Italian, to my surprise. Here are some images of our evening.
My friend, neighbor, and fellow Humane Society of the North Bay volunteer, Carlene Coury, directed a staged reading of The White Card, written by Claudia Rankine, at the Pinole Community Theater. In the audience were some activist Vallejoans I was able to introduce her to. After the reading, we got to discuss the multi-layered script with the cast and director. It was quite a moving and timely experience for Black History Month.
Many events have drawn me to this organization, including the fundraising Trivia Night, the Vallejo Garden Tour, and various symposia. I’m glad to further entrench myself in this community by supporting this amazing institution with a long history here in town.
While we lived here last year, I regret I was too exhausted from the Photos with Santa in 2021 to participate. This year both Shando and I participated. We were highly impressed with the whole shebang. We intend to be even better prepared next year when there will hopefully not be as much rain. I’m glad we all muddled through though!
In a very poignant gesture, Santa Tom Bilbo put a big pink “Q” at the back of the float, which represented our solidarity with our brothers and sisters who were targeted for being LGBTQ (as all of this float’s participants were in that category or an ally). It is also a symbol against gun violence and assault weapons being available for civilians, to paraphrase Tom when being interviewed for Vallejo Times Herald.
We loved this event, which was a fundraiser for the Vallejo Naval & Historical Museum. To our amazement, two of the houses were on our little block – only two and three houses away from us. In fact, those were our favorites since the use of their backyards was so well-planned. It was amazing to see from their perspective the same eucalyptus forest I see from my backyard many an afternoon in my own sanctuary. I was definitely inspired and amazed at the time that was spent by so many of these gardeners. As the president of the Glen Cove Community Association, I was also particularly proud that three of the houses among the ten involved, were in Glen Cove itself (including the two on our block).
This was our second vacation/road trip since the beginning of the Covid Era. We spent a long weekend in Palm Springs and drove back and forth so we could bring our own kitchen, not have to mask up on a plane, etc.
We did get to see our good friends from the Bay Area Ken, Kevin, and Rich who now live in Palm Springs. Of course, they tried to convince us to move down, but we don’t see that happening. We want to keep visiting often though!
On our way back we stopped for milkshakes in Valencia, a very cute town. However, that was not a good idea for my tummy I soon found out. We made a pit stop in Santa Barbara as we took the scenic route home, but sadly sunset happened so quickly it wasn’t all that scenic for much of it. I still think on a Sunday evening it’s faster to travel that route than being backed up on the 5, but it was a good nine hours.
Shando had some work in San Francisco so we made a day of it, taking our two younger dogs, since the seniors are having mobility issues and we knew we’d be making several stops and going through the hills of San Francisco, which we did traverse repeatedly to get everything done. We took some time to take the scenic route back and forth from Vallejo and minimized only taking the Golden Gate. GPS kept trying to get us to take THREE bridges to get one way to San Francisco with extra tolls just to save five minutes. We’re glad we took the “long” way.
Our first stop was in the Potrero Hill area, where Shando used to live years ago.
For the first time in my life, I drove up to and wandered around the Palace of Fine Arts. Growing up in the Bay Area and having lived here most of my life at this point, I never made a point to go there.
Here is some of the scenic drive back out of the city: