A couple of months ago my best friend Megan called and asked if I would be interested in visiting the Guayaki company headquarters in Sebastopol. I responded, “Sure! What’s a Guayaki?” The first thing you need to know about Megan is that she is truly... Continue
Summer, summer, summertime. I love summer in Sonoma, packed as it can be with outdoor movies and festive concerts at wineries, town bashes in the Plaza, plenty of farmer’s marketing, pig-filled barbecues and decadent lobster boils, and backyard dinner parties with close friends and plenty... Continue
Local, first of the season, strawberries are here! Oh, what a long, fruitless winter it has seemed! It is always right about the day that I am thinking, “Not one more orange. Not one more banana. Please!” That is exactly the time when, thank heavens,... Continue
My boyfriend has a Harley. Yes, grandma, we wear helmets. It’s a sleek, black, monster of a motorcycle and there is no more spectacular way to experience Wine Country than from the back of that thing. As we wind around the little country roads the... Continue
It was nearly four and a half years ago, a strangely warm October evening, that I stood in the Plaza flabbergasted by the beauty of a table stacked magnificently with old wooden crates overflowing with colorful heirloom tomatoes. I, simultaneously, felt positively woozy from the... Continue
I stood there with the golden orange glow of the fading summer afternoon softening the spectacular surroundings and felt the fabulous energy of a hundred happy gay men. It was the second day of Out in the Vineyard’s 2011 Gay Wine Weekend and I was... Continue
There is a quiet sort of peacefulness about mornings on Tomales Bay, wisps of damp fog tend to settle into the hills and between the branches of the eucalyptus trees towering over the winding coastal roads, fat drops of dew falling from above. Those sorts... Continue
The bed was shaped like a boat, shiny teak surrounding the most luxurious mattress, mounded high with a pile of fluffy down pillows and crisp white sheets that were surely a zillion thread count. In fact, the whole cottage was shaped like a boat, even... Continue
I remember, like it was yesterday, the first time I sat at a sushi bar, the first time I even walked into a Japanese restaurant. I was fifteen. I was nervous and jumped a little when I slid the chair from under the bar and... Continue
I pulled open the glass door and excitedly stepped into the new Crisp Bake Shop. I could hardly contain my delight as my eyes darted quickly from one thing to another, I could hardly stop myself from doing the “happy dance.” As I glanced around,... Continue