Walnut Creek on ice is officially back!

It’s that magical time of the year when the temperature in California dips down into the frigid 50’s, an occasional rainstorm passes through, and…an ice rink forms in Civic Park? That’s right, downtown Walnut Creek hosts an ultra-cool ice rink through Walnut Creek On Ice.

The rink, which opened on Nov. 9, and will remain in place until late January, has become a local favorite during the winter, to give us Californians a little taste of a white winter, but saving us the 3-hour trip to Tahoe! You can take a date to the rink for a couple skate, or maybe teach the kids how to skate at the open rink.

There are even an ice skating academy and private lessons for those who are getting serious about being a future San Jose Shark or the next great Winter Olympian. This is a wonderful way to spend some quality time with your friends, family, and loved ones this winter. How nice does a short stroll to La Scala after a couple hours on the ice sound?

If you’d rather skate in a colder locale, foggy San Francisco and icy Lake Tahoe both offer some awesome rinks, too! At the Embarcadero, you can skate with beautiful Bay and Bay Bridge views and then saunter over to the Ferry Building for hot chocolate. In Union Square, you can circle the rink between the buildings and even take in a “Drag Queens on Ice” show. And in Tahoe, of course, Northstar’s village ice skating rink is not to be missed. It’s 9,000 square feet of joy, surrounded by bars, cabanas, and fire pits – and if you’re up at Northstar anyway…it’s free!

Walnut Creek is the hub of the East Bay for a reason, and hosting cool events like an ice skating rink is one of them. The rink itself is in its 14th year of operation downtown, meaning Walnut Creek On Ice has brought snowy joy to our citizens since 2004 – this is bound to be the best year yet. Let me know if you check it out, and how you liked it!

Event Round-Up: Sept. 15

It’s that time again, folks! School is back in full swing, and we’re on a holiday drought until Halloween. But that doesn’t mean the well of fun activities in the Bay Area has completely dried up. That’s one of the best parts about living here – there is always something to do!

Here are five fun events around the Bay Area for the next month or so to tide you over:

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Exploratorium After Dark (San Francisco – every Thursday)

The Exploratorium is a super interesting, cool museum no matter the time of day. But make it adults-only, serve drinks, cut the lights, and give us a mind-bending cache of exhibits to wander through from 6-10 pm every Thursday? Sold! Don’t miss it!

National Public Lands Day (All Parks – Sept. 22)

It’s one of the best days of the year for outdoor enthusiasts. All National Park Service sites that normally charge an admission fee will have free entrance for the day. If the one excuse for not exploring this beautiful place we live has been a desire to not pay the fees, well, now’s your chance.

Autumn Beer Tasting with Anchor Brewing (San Francisco – Sept. 26)

Anchor Brewing is one of the better local breweries to come out of the Bay Area, and now you have the chance to taste autumn beers right as the season turns. It’s only 20 bucks, 90 minutes of your time, and you get generous helpings of newly released beers from the head honcho brewer at Anchor!

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Movies Under the Stars: The Jungle Book (Civic Park – Sept. 28)

There’s nothing better than laying out under the stars and catching an outdoor movie with the family. On Sept. 28th, the Movies Under the Stars series in Walnut Creek comes to a close with The Jungle Book, playing at 7 p.m. on that night. There is a little music for about an hour beforehand too, if you want to come out early!

Grease Sing-A-Long at Sundown Cinema (San Francisco – Sept. 28)

Well, sorry Walnut Creek. San Francisco took your outdoor movie idea for this date and went all-in. You can go to the Jerry Garcia Amphitheater in San Francisco and watch Grease on the big screen outside for free! Food trucks and vendors will be there early, and the best part about this is you get to sing along to the catchy tunes of this movie classic!

Road Trips: Burma Superstar

I have a super tasty, local road trip for you all this week! It’s really a restaurant review, but I was able to go do a couple other things in the vicinity that made it more into a day trip that ended up being a blast! You may have heard of the restaurant: Burma Superstar! I went for the first time to the Alameda location (there is one in San Francisco and Oakland, too), and it was really good!

Honestly, I was a little bit disappointed in the spicy shrimp noodles, as they were a little too sweet, and I would have liked a little more spice. It was more like a pad thai dish than I was expecting. I had a chili cocktail, which was essentially beer, ginger, and squeezed lemon. That was really tasty and offset the spicy chili beef. They also had phenomenal coconut rice!  The fermented tea leaf salad was a burst of many flavors and definitely worth trying.

We also stopped into a cute little shop next to Burma Superstar called Daisie. It is perfectly situated because Burma Superstar tends to have lines and while people are waiting outside, they meander into Daisie’s homes goods/gift shop. I really enjoyed wandering through and found a cool vase. And, lastly, we were hoping to get into a little local theater production company but we couldn’t get there in time and they would not let us in because the stage was a circle you would have to walk over. We moved the reservation to September.

It was a great day out in Alameda. I finally got a taste of a popular restaurant, got to explore the local shops, and at least got to see the local theater company, even if we weren’t on time for the show itself. I’d highly recommend checking out Alameda, which is an often-overlooked part of the East Bay.

Road Trips: Pt. Reyes & Hog Island

There are a lot of fun, interesting things to do in the Bay Area. That’s part of the allure of living here – visiting San Francisco, Oakland, and Berkeley never gets old, and you have art, music, culture, food, drink, and outdoor adventure literally surrounding you at all times. But, there are still hidden gems out there that stand above the rest in their uniqueness. Recently, I took a day trip to do one of those things!

If you’ve never been to Point Reyes, you’re missing out. This is an underrated activity in the Bay Area. I spent a day enjoying oysters and drinking beer at Hog Island Oyster Company with friends, then we visited Drake’s Beach via Pt. Reyes Station, and Cowgirl Creamery. The area itself is a bit of a drive up, we took the route via Skywalker Ranch/Nicasio – a stunningly beautiful, but winding way to go to do something fun and out of the ordinary.

We went to Hog Island first, where there is only outside picnic bench seating or standing room (on a wine barrel) if you don’t have reservations. It also happened to be one of the nicest and warmest days the coast had to offer, so it was packed. You have the option of having your oyster shucked and ordering off the menu, or booking the area with grills and bringing your own food after you buy the oysters from Hog Island.

It was a wonderful experience and the food was outstanding. I think the ambiance and friends made it taste even better. We also stopped at Drake’s Beach, which has a bluff protecting the beach from the ocean’s breeze, so we had a warm summer day on an empty beach (which I’m sure is different than a place like Stinson Beach!) From there, we visited Pt. Reyes Station, meandered around the town, and took a peek around Cowgirl Creamery, where we tried their cheese at lunch. Take a look at the photo slideshow below to get an idea of how much fun it was!

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Next must-see pop-up? 29Rooms!

You heard about the Color Factory and the Museum of Ice Cream, which both popped up in San Francisco to massive fanfare. The next must-see pop-up exhibit in the city is going to be 29Rooms, an interactive exhibit presented by Refinery 29. It will be at the Palace of Fine Arts this June and I already got tickets – girls day out on Friday June 23rd, when a friend who moved back to the east coast will be visiting! Were you able to grab some tickets?

The exhibit is said to be composed of 29 different rooms bringing together “the worlds of style, culture and technology in visually stunning installations curated by a mix of artists, brands and even celebrities.” That sounds pretty awesome to me. Just check out some of these pictures and of course they are instagram moments:

29Rooms, Refinery 29's interactive fun house, is coming to San Francisco for four days only!
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29Rooms’ theme is “Turn It Into Art” and each room will tell a unique story. They still haven’t released this year’s artists or brands, though. According to the website, 29Rooms will be open to the public for only four days (June 21-24) for three sessions of three hours each day (11 am – 2 pm, 3-6 pm, 7-10 pm) and tickets are $39. They might be sold out, but somebody may be scalping them or they may be on Stub Hub!

Check out Boundary Oaks’ Harvest Block Party!

Are you looking for a fun, free, family-friendly event this weekend? Check out the Harvest Block Party tomorrow (Fri., Nov. 17) from 3-7 p.m. It should be a real hole-in-one!

via Boundary Oaks’ website

The Boundary Oaks Golf Course is hosting the party, which is free for Walnut Creek residents. They will have games for kids, a pie-eating contest, live music, pumpkin decorating, and food and drinks. Even if you don’t live right next door, you can swing on over to a beautiful venue to take part in the free (!) festivities (again, as long as you’re a Walnut Creek resident).

You don’t have to be a golfer, either, to appreciate Boundary Oaks. And you don’t have to be a neighbor to appreciate free events like this, just a Walnut Creek city resident! It’s a perfect way to keep your kids entertained for a few hours and mellow out before the weekend.

Boundary Oaks is at 3800 Valley Vista Rd., over by Arbalado Field and Northgate High School. For more information, you can call (925) 943-4775, or visit their website.

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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??

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?

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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:

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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.