Twilight Tour with wine and cheese on Friday 9/7!

With the kids back in school and the last wisps of summer fading away, you might be busier than ever. You might just need your own little Open House night to wind down and get away from it all for a few hours! If that’s the case, stop by 1947 Eagle Peak Ave. in Clayton for a wine and cheese Open House event!

This condo is so beautiful, it could star in the next Better Homes and Gardens Magazine. It’s a quiet respite with breathtaking views, top-of-the-line finishes and a serene appeal. It boasts 3 bedrooms, 2.5 baths, a deck overlooking the cozy backyard, and modern updates.

As usual, we will have our normal Open Houses this Saturday and Sunday from 1-4 p.m. each day, but you don’t want to miss the chance to see the house on Friday night from 5:30-7 with wine in hand. Join the neighbors for this exclusive event and take a look at this stunning space! I would love to see you! If you like what you see, contact me at www.kristinlanham.com , 925.899.7123 or kristin@lanham.com. I’m happy to help with sell or buy the perfect home for you!

Open House at 407 Midway Pl. (Martinez) this weekend!

Come check out 407 Midway Place in Martinez this weekend for a home with great curb appeal! It’s situated on a cozy court and has a large, flat backyard with redwoods scattered throughout with enough space for a pool if so desired! An entertainer’s delight with plenty of privacy, good shade and stone retaining walls with landscaping, and a basement area with water that can be built for an outdoor bathroom.

In total, it is a 4-bed, 2.5-bath with vaulted ceilings, multiple decks, a formal dining room and a kitchen-family room open-concept combination. The master bathroom is delightfully decadent, and the half-bath upstairs also draws high praise.

The home contains triple-pane windows, and welcomes in lots of light. An Owens Corning roof, new rain gutters, a high-efficiency water heater, and exterior paint creates the charming curb appeal. The landscaping in the front and side yards were re-done in 2014, and solar panels with a 20-year lease were added that year, too.

The aforementioned master bathroom was remodeled as recently as 2015, and an entertainment system with surround sound was added to the family room in 2016. The pictures, beautiful as they are, do not do this place justice. You have to swing by and check it out for yourself. You will be amazed!

The Open House will be held from 1-4 p.m. this weekend, on both Saturday, Mar. 10th and Sunday, Mar. 11th.

Road Trips: Mt. Rose

Winter is here, and it’s time to hit the slopes! Hopefully, we get some more snow this week! I love going up to Tahoe to ski, especially when the sky is blue and the snow is powdery. But, unlike many who probably prefer Northstar, Squaw and Heavenly, I love Mt.Rose! It is where I learned to ski growing up, it is a local’s resort and it has some great runs, especially if the chutes are open.

Mt. Rose is the highest peak in Tahoe and usually gets the most snow every winter. But it’s also just a cool place to hang out! Most of the mountains in Tahoe have villages, bars, restaurants, ice skating rinks, and other things to help you relax and recover after a day on the snow. And Mt. Rose is no exception, but it has a more casual local vibe with fun activities on the mountain and just some great runs (“Northwest” is my favorite), including a few with a view of Lake Tahoe!

In fact, they have some unique events like the Santa Crawl, where you can get heavily discounted lift tickets by dressing up as Santa for the day while you’re on the mountain. They also do a Beerfest, New Year’s Eve spectacular, poker runs and many other events throughout the year. Recently, they also added a “Magic” lift, a dual conveyer belt for one of their hills (it’s the 1st one in North America and only the 2nd one in the world!).

I always have a great time when I go to Mt. Rose. Usually, I stay in Reno and then it is just a 20-minute drive up the hill, but it is also easily accessed from Incline or Kings Beach; even from Northstar. They have a newer lodge on the old Slide side of the hill and many locals on a nice day will tailgate in the parking area. The Mt. Rose lodge is more crowded, but the bar is my favorite, with no kids allowed and a taco/burrito bar.

Enjoy spook-tacular events all weekend long!

This weekend, you’ll be sure to see hundreds of little cats, vampires and ghosts running around Walnut Creek and the East Bay. It’s one of the most festive times of the year: Hallo-weekend!

Though the actual holiday is a week from today, there are plenty of events coming up over the weekend to take part in. For example, there’s a cool annual Candlelight Tour at the Winchester Mystery House. You get to tour the 160-room mansion with just a flickering candlelight to guide your way. The entire tour takes about 1 hour and tickets start at $20.

Another cool option is spending the night in a haunted jail cell in an underground dungeon on Halloween. For those of you who are really into scaring yourselves, the Ghosts of Alcatraz event by San Francisco Dungeon might be for you. Enjoy the darkness of an authentically reproduced Alcatraz cell for the night, and try not to faint from the terror.

For a couple more family-friendly, laid-back Halloween options, check out the pumpkin patch at Speer Family Farms in Alameda. It’s close enough to Walnut Creek but also worth the trek to see what they have available for you and the kids!

Lastly, on Friday from 2-5 pm, Walnut Creek Downtown is hosting a trick-or-treat for people of all ages! They ask you to bring your favorite costume and your own candy bag to collect treats from participating downtown businesses. Start at the Lesher Center and wind your way through from there. Broadway Plaza will host a similar event on the actual day of Halloween.

Whatever you do for Halloween weekend, make sure to be clever and creative with those costumes, not eat too much candy, and be safe while walking at night!

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Road Trips: Capay Organic Farm

This is a repost from the previous week due to some technical difficulties with loading pictures into WordPress, just in case you missed it, I think it is worth a repost.

I subscribe to an organic vegetable and fruit home delivery from Capay Organic Farms. I can choose every week or every other week for a month. They have a standard selection of items, but I can delete items and add others. I can even choose from other vendors who have pesto, cheese or milk. Do you remember when the milkman delivered glass jars to your door?

It also comes with a sheet that has recipes and a note from Farmer Thaddeus. What makes Capay different is they also host a handful of events at their farm throughout the year. Capay Organic Farm in Capay, CA (just Northwest of Sacramento) is only an hour away and is a peaceful place to reconnect with nature, avoid crowds and have a relaxing day.

I recently took a day trip for their Capay Crush. Picnics were encouraged, but they had some food trucks and about five wineries doing tastings. We were also encouraged to pick tomatoes, take a tractor ride around the farm, and try various artisan products from pesto to olive oil. All the while, live music by three different bands were playing throughout the day!

The best band was saved for the last from 8-10 pm. Dirty Cello played, adults and kids danced and just celebrated an overall great day. If you wanted to, you could camp for $35 for the evening amongst the fig trees. I spoke with one guy who has been doing this for more than 15 years and talked fondly of seeing the bright, clear stars at night. Here are some additional pictures:

The last event of the year at Capay Organic Farm is its Pumpkin Palooza on Sat., Oct. 21st, from 11 am – 2 pm. You can buy tickets at the farm ($5 for adults, FREE for kids 12 and under!) if you want to go!

Check out some of the fun things they offer for Pumpkin Palooza:

Farm Talk with Farmer Thaddeus
Organic farmer’s market stand
Tractor rides
Face painting
Petting zoo
Pumpkin patch
Local olive oil tasting
Homemade pesto tasting
Authentic Mexican food from Tacos 911
Hand-baked goods from The Upper Crust
Artisan gelato
Cold brew and hot coffee

If you’re looking for a fun family road trip that is still a reasonable drive away and will make for a memorable Saturday, go take a look at Capay Organic’s Pumpkin Palooza in a couple weeks! Or one of their other events coming in 2018.

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Capay Organic Farm: box delivery, fun events…who knew??

Check out some of the fun things they offer for Pumpkin Palooza:

Farm Talk with Farmer Thaddeus
Organic farmer’s market stand
Tractor rides
Face painting
Petting zoo
Pumpkin patch
Local olive oil tasting
Homemade pesto tasting
Authentic Mexican food from Tacos 911
Hand-baked goods from The Upper Crust
Artisan gelato
Cold brew and hot coffee

Lokanta is the new Mediterranean spot downtown

Mediterranean food is a favorite of mine – from hummus to kebabs to fish, they always make their dishes with savory flavors that keep me happy. Here in Walnut Creek, we just got a new place for all you foodies to try and will probably give Opa a run for their money: Lokanta!

Lokanta has menus for all types of occasions: brunch, lunch, dinner, happy hour, dessert, kids’ menu and more. I tried the Lokanta Classic Martini – it was perfect! The St. George Botanivore Gin made a big difference. Of course, the flaming cheese is an attraction (and delicious) along with the mixed platter.

Their daily happy hour is from 3-6 p.m., and their delicious appetizers (hummus, pita, meatballs, dolmas, soup, salad, calamari, lamb burger, shish kebab…to name a few) are all $10 or less at that time. Beers and wine are $5 or less and they have bottomless mimosa brunches both Saturday and Sunday.

Lokanta has another popular location in Pleasanton, but only recently opened its doors on Locust St. in Walnut Creek where you will see the owner making his rounds to ensure that everything is running smoothly and the customers are happy.

For you wine-lovers, there is a half-off wine deal on Mondays and no corkage fee on Tuesdays if you want to bring your own bottle to the restaurant. The atmosphere is cozy, a great bar area and a community table to eat at as seats become available.

All in all, I highly recommend giving Lokanta a shot next time you’re downtown or craving some Mediterranean/Greek food in Walnut Creek. I give it 4 out of 5 Mt. Diablo’s!

Time for this summer to get in-tents!

Hah, get it? It’s officially summer in the Bay Area (if you couldn’t tell by the triple-digit heat…), which means it’s time for you to plan some fun camping trips!

Luckily, we live in one of the most serene, nature-filled parts of the country and dozens of great campgrounds are just a short drive away. That brings me to this list of local campgrounds provided by Placer Title Company.

Some you’ve probably heard of, some you haven’t, but either way you can’t beat the Northern California summer. Some of my favorite areas are Tahoe (of course) and the Redwoods.

On this list, I can’t recommend the Tahoe State Recreation Area, Big Basin or Tuolumne Meadows (Yosemite, so get reservations like…yesterday!) enough. I’ve also found that Desolation Wilderness near Tahoe is an amazing, remote spot for hike-in camping.

If you have kids, Angel Island is a simple ferry ride (also fun for the kiddos!) and close enough to home that you can do an easy one-nighter. Obviously, if you want to be extremely close to home in the East Bay, hit up Mt. Diablo. They have pretty great campgrounds and almost every single one has a great view of the entire East Bay.

I love camping, whether it be in a car or a tent, in the warm NorCal summers. Check out that list, pack your car, and take a weekend off to enjoy the beautiful outdoors. Our natural surroundings are some of the best parts about living in California, so take advantage of it soon!

Don’t miss the next Beford Gallery Art Walk this weekend!

If you’ve been following this blog, you know about our recurring Saturday feature “Art Town.” A lot of those cool pieces of art are either related to the Bedford Gallery or found when strolling downtown Walnut Creek.

So, when I tell you that you MUST go on the Bedford Gallery Art Walk this Saturday, you better believe I mean it! I’ve learned a lot of cool stuff about Walnut Creek and its artwork just by writing those blogs every few weeks, and it’s forced me into wandering this town we often take for granted and experiencing some of its hidden beauty and best artwork.

This Saturday, June 17th, Beford Gallery docents will be leading the public art walking tour of Walnut Creek’s greatest works and will give you more interesting, in-depth information about your hometown than you could ever imagine.

Tickets are just $5 (cash only) and include admission to the Gallery itself. You don’t even have to RSVP. Just show up at 11 a.m. outside the Lesher Center and get walkin’ and art watchin’!

Additionally, there is a new self-guided audio tour available for public art in Walnut Creek, featuring 33 stops along the route. Have you seen those pink and orange signs around town designating public art? That’s where you can listen to the history of the piece on the Public Art Walking Tour app! Here’s a good map of all the public art the tour hits.

I’ll be there this weekend, and I hope to see you there too!

Fill your weekend with garage sales, art and wine

Have any plans this weekend? If not, we’re hosting our annual Parkmead Garage Sale this Saturday at 8:00 a.m.!

Neighbors all over Parkmead have cleaned out their closets, garages and attics to put items together for this awesome event. Grab a map and look for the mailbox balloons to identify which homes are participating. Lilac and Newell (west of Trader Joe’s) are entry streets to the neighborhood.

If past years are any indication, there will be plenty of outdoors equipment, kids toys and clothes, furniture, jewelry and kitchen utensils. If you’re looking to stock up or upgrade for cheap, this is the place to be in Walnut Creek on Saturday!

And as a bonus, the Walnut Creek Art & Wine Festival takes place all weekend, starting at 11 a.m. on Saturday! You can swing by the Parkmead Garage Sale, fill your arms with thrifty finds, and then wander to Heather Farms for a glass of wine in the sun.

Can’t beat that!