Tess' Kitchen Store in Grass Valley, CA, featuring 3 floors, and classes

On my next visit to Grass Valley, CA, I want to go to Tess' Kitchen Store.  This place features 3 floors and is 6,400 square feet!  Also, they offer cooking classes!

Resources:

Tess' Kitchen Store
115 Mill Street
Downtown Grass Valley
tesskitchenstore.

Garin Park Apple Festival- old fashioned apple fun!

We had a great time at the Garin Park Apple Festival on September 6th.  Highlights included a tour of the apple orchard, tasting antique apples, eating home-made ice cream and fudge, trying out stilts, and playing tug-of-war.

Garin Park is in the East Bay Hills above Hayward.  The apple orchard there includes apple trees of all sorts -- "ancient apples" that you typically do not find in any grocery store.  The tasting at the festival included roughly 24 different types of ancient apples.  Flavors ran from very tart to very sweet, and everything in between.

Blacksmith at work:

Dogs welcome:

 Pulley versus block-and-tackle system:

Band with Fiddle:

Block and tackle:

 Horse saddle:

Outside the barn:

 The barn:

Dogs allowed on leash:

The very dry but beautiful hills:

 Antique apple tasting:

Touring the orchard:

 Cow-milking simulation:

Looking down from the hills:

Using an old scrubbing board:

 Sack racing:

Woof:

Resources:

Garin Apple Festival
September 2014
Garin Park
Hayward, CA 

The Making Of Instruments, Works by Sung Kim, original instruments on display from Sept. to Nov.

Studio Grand has announced a 3 month residency for Sung Kim, who makes original instruments.  The studio is having his instruments on display.  The studio also has space for rent.

Resources:

The Making of Instruments
Works By Sung Kim
www.studiograndoakland.org
3234 Grand Avenue
Oakland, CA

Celebrate farming and pioneer past at the Garin Apple Festival today, Saturday, September 6, 2014

Today we are going to the Garin Apple Festival at the Garin Regional Park in Hayward, California.  There will be opportunities to celebrate farming and pioneer past at the park with hand cranked ice cream, pressed apple cider, music, dancing, and crafts.  This is also home to an antique apple orchard with varieties of fruit you won't find anywhere else.

Resources:

The Garin Apple Festival
Saturday, September 6, 2014
noon to 4PM
Garin Regional Park
1320 Garin Avenue
Hayward, CA
94544

Camping Lights-makes the tent or cabin look homey

We went to family camp this summer,and some of the people decked out their cabins in lights!

These are some of the lights they used:

Sienna 150 light icicles
indoor-outdoor use
www.Sears.com

String-A-Long
GE Contant ON miniature Lights

The Crawford Hotel, at Union Station in Denver, Colorado

When my son were traveling across country on Amtrak, we stopped to stretch our legs in Denver,Colorado and heard the buzz about the new Crawford Hotel, located within the Denver Amtrak train station.  This is a luxury hotel and I'm sure it is gorgeous!

Resources:

The Crawford Hotel
Union Station
Denver, Colorado
thecrawfordhotel.com/
(844) 432-9374
1701 Wynkoop Street
Denver, Colorado  80202

Upcoming Harvest Festival, October 11th and 12th, 2014- Ardenwood Historical Farm, Fremont, CA

There is a Harvest Festival on October 11th and 12th at Ardenwood Historical Farm in Fremont, CA.  Are you ready for harvest time on the farm?  Bring your family and join your friends to help bring in our corn crop.  Enjoy some down home country fun. Harvest Indian corn and popcorn and help fill our corn cribs.  Take home a share of our colorful corn for your holiday table.  Enjoy magic shows, cider pressing, old-time music and crafts. Ride the farm's train, visit our pumpkin patch and tour the beautifully restored Patterson House.  Bring your own bags to take home your harvest.

Resources:

Harvest Festival
Ardenwood Historical Farm
10AM- 5PM, Saturday & Sunday, October 11 & 12
Fee:  $10.00/adult, $8.00/senior (62+), $6/child (4-17 yrs.) and free/under 4 years. Free Parking.
34600 Ardenwood Blvd., Fremont, CA  94555

Historic Rail Fair was today at the Railroad Museum at Ardenwood, Fremont, CA

Today, for Labor Day,  I took my son to the Historic Rail Fair at Ardenwood Historical Farm.  The 14th annual Rail Fair was at the farm Saturday through today, August 30th through September 1st.  The main attraction for my train loving son was the two antique steam locomotives:  "Ann Marie" an 1890 steam porter engine and "Antelope & Western #1" an 1889 steam porter engine."  My son enjoyed a children's hobo scavenger hunt game where children got a popsicle at the end, steam train ride, hand car rides, displays of model railroads, rail yard equipment displays, Early Day Gas Engine and tractor displays, and music from an old player piano.

Resources:

Historic Rail Fair
14th annual
10AM-4PM, Saturday-Monday, August 30th-September 1st
Fee:  $10/Adult, $6/Senior (62+ yrs.), $5/Child (4-17 yrs.) Free for kids 3 years and under.

Patterson House tours, Ardenwood Historic Farm, Fremont, CA

Every Thursday through Sunday, tour the beautifully restored Patterson House Museum.  Discover its history on tours lead by docents dressed in 19th-century clothing.  This Queen Anne Victorian farmhouse is listed on the National Register of Historic Places and is operated as a museum of local history and Victorian Life.  Check for tickets at the Train Station.  Special tours for children 6 and under are offered Thursday and Fridays at 2:30PM, Saturdays and Sundays at 11:30AM.

Resources:

Patterson House
Ardenwood Historic Farm
(East Bay Regional Park District)
34600 Ardenwood Blvd., Fremont, CA  94555

Website:  www.ebparks.org
telephone:  510-544-2797
e-mail: awvisit@ebparks.org

Free 3rd Fridays-  The East Bay Regional Park District is celebrating its 80th birthday by offering Free 3rd Fridays in the park.
September 19th, 2014
October 17th, 2014
November 21st, 2014
December 19th, 2014

Mariposa Baking Company, Gluten Free Bakery in Oakland, CA

Yesterday, we were planning on visiting family so I stopped by the Mariposa Bakery to pick up some gluten free treats.  A family member asked, "Does gluten free really make a difference?" I said, "It does for me!"  I had picked up chocolate cupcakes with vanilla frosting, donuts, other gluten free treats for desserts.  They were delicious!

Resources:

Mariposa Bakery
Oakland, Telegraph Ave.
Ferry Building, San Francisco