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.
Every Vallejo Art Walk (which is monthly and year-round), we make a point to stop in Anchor Pantry for specialty food items. it’s very vegetarian-friendly and has novelty items, which always keep our visits interesting. I love supporting local businesses and I really appreciate that they stay open late on Art Walk nights so we can explore their wares.
This pasta product doesn’t have an Italian name at all, but my daughter showed me this brand when she was at an Italian supermarket in the East Village of Manhattan years ago. I can’t believe it’s a thing, but yes, it is our last name! It’s very cool that they have it here in Vallejo too!
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.
Another day of Photos with Santa at the Vallejo Farmer’s Market benefitting the Humane Society of the North Bay.
As part of our year-end efforts with fundraising for Humane Society of the North Bay, we were featured in the Vallejo Times-Herald on the cover again (see below). Yesterday was the first of two times we are doing this fundraiser in 2022.
Photo credits for some of these are Andrea Rodoni and Manny Furtado.
Halloween was in the air at the Farmers Market on this day when we tabled for Humane Society of the North Bay, as volunteers and I do about once a month year-round. In hindsight, we REALLY should have had some candy to hand out. Oops.
I tabled for the Humane Society of the North Bay again at the Greater Vallejo Recreational District‘s first Pup-kin Patch Dog Festival. Shando came later with our most ambulatory dogs and he caught the eye of a photojournalist.
This was our first time going to any street fair in San Francisco since Covid and we took the opportunity of taking the Vallejo Ferry for the first time, which was quite a cool experience.
While one can easily find all kinds of naughty pictures of the attendees, we will just include a few family-friendly pictures here to prove we were there. <smile>
We did get a chance to run into a lot of close friends who we hadn’t seen in a while.
Yearly we travel to Guerneville to take part in Lazybear Week. The Russian River area is an amazing part of California that we just adore.
I volunteered with the Humane Society of the North Bay on July 4 at the Barbara Kondylis Waterfront Green. There were some amazing kites and it was good to bring a lot of exposure to the shelter.