On our latest "Foody" adventure in the City of Napa , California, our walking tour happen to pass…read moreone of the most recognizable buildings in the city " The Winship-Smernes Building" also known as the "Hennessy Building". This building is a fine example of late 19 century "Italianate Victorian " architecture. In 1887, a wealthy gentleman from Minneapolis by the name of Edward H. Winship had local architect " Luther M. Turton" design plans for the building. The most notable feature of the building was it's octagon tower, which was damaged and later removed after the devastating 1906 San Francisco Earthquake. The turreted tower you see today was reinstalled during the renovation and restoration of the building in 1985. Thanks to the restoration efforts of developer " Ging Chan " architect "Dan Paterson ", and builder " William Cook", the Winship Building has won the covenant " Napa Chamber of Commerce Civic Improvement Award for Historic Preservation " and was placed in the National Registry of Historic Places in 1977. The street level store front was first occupied by druggist "Springsteen" and then soon bought out by "Levinsons Drug Store" in 1897 and operated in this location for the next 80 years ! Today the building is home to one of Napa's most popular coffee roasters " Napa Valley Coffee Roasting Co." So if you ever happen to be in the City of Napa, sit back , sip some wine and take in its amazing history ! I will surely be back soon ! Thanks for reading !

In a city that is split by the Napa River, the First Street bridge is pretty cool. Built in 1914…read moreand surviving multiple floods and earthquakes, it was added to the National Register of Historic Places in 2004. The bridge is reinforced concrete with three spans with a total length of 155 feet. It carries two lanes with a wide pedestrian sidewalk on each side. If you get here early enough when the water is still, you can get some amazing pictures. [Review 17598 overall - 391 in California - 1116 of 2022.]

Beautiful views on this lovely bridge at the heart of Downtown Napa!! I killed some time sight…read moreseeing and enjoying the views and sunlight before my lunch reservation at Ristorante Allegria. Definitely will visit First Street Bridge again when I return to Napa!

San Antonio Fire is an all volunteer fire department formed in 1966 by local ranchers after a…read morewildland fire swept through the valley taxing local resources. Starting from a humble beginning of one engine the department has grown to a cadre of 6 pieces of rolling stock and 25 volunteers. Ironically the original engine was purchased from Marin County Fire after it was burned over in the fire that prompted the department's forming. Unlike many departments that have a tax assessment support, San Antonoio is supported entirely by donations and it's fund raising activities. Sitting about 40 miles north of San Francisco and 25 miles east of the Pacific Ocean, our response area covers approximately 35 square miles and is a mix of agricultural, residential and light commercial. Our northern boundry is the Petaluma City Limits, southern is the Marin County Line, east is the Petaluma River and west is "D" Street and it's extension. A major North / South coastal traffic artery, State Highway 101, at the eastern side of our area gives us a large amount of traffic related calls. Since this section of the highway has not yet been improved to freeway specifications with over/underpasses and has 100,000 vehicles/day load, the high speed roll-over and "T-bone" is a common occurence. Summertime, with dry weather, brings high fire danger to the rolling grasslands usually resulting in a couple of 20+ acre wildfires. Just short of 200 calls per year is our expected average

Fitting that I was here in Napa during the Bottle Rock festival…read morehttps://www.yelp.com/biz/bottle-rock-napa-valley-napa that featured quite a bit of usage of these loudspeakers, with Metallica and Pink the headline acts two nights. The marker reads, "Napa - Birthplace of the loudspeaker and the Magnavox Corporation. Peter Jensen and Edwin Pridham's invention occurred at 1606 F Street in May of 1915. This statue, unveiled on May 18, 1985 is the work of Napa sculpture Franco Vianello." Easy enough to stop by and check it out. It is a simply concrete pedestal with an "old-fashioned" speaker on top of it. Yes, Edwin Pridham and Peter L. Jensen invented the moving-coil loudspeaker in 1915 in their Napa workshop while working on an improvement for the telephone receiver. Pridham and Jensen went on to found the Magnavox Company in 1917. Magnavox went on to do great things though it was acquired by the Dutch electronics conglomerate Philips in 1974. And then it was sold off to Japan-based Funai Electric in 2013. There's some complicated history since then and I believe that the Magnavox brand is back under Philips today. [Review 17657 overall - 448 in California - 1178 of 2022.]

"Interstate 680" is the preferred route from the Fairfield (I-80) to San Jose and back again. You…read morewill avoid the I-880/ I-580 freeways and the concentrated urban centers of the SF Eastbay. I-680 tends to have less interchanges, so less merging traffic. The road is better planned and better maintained. Last week, I drove from Benicia to San Jose. It was a fairly smooth drive. The right lane south of Pleasanton has been repaved, the usual beatup roadway had been fixed up. It's great how there's extra lanes for slower vehicles to climb the Sunol grade going in both directions. Overall, it's not a bad drive if you don't hit commute traffic.

This freeway runs from the 80 at the north end near Fairfield all the way south to San Jose where…read moreit turns into the 280 and heads back north to SF. The north portion from the 80 down across the Benicia Bridge and thru Concord is not bad if you hit the traffic right. The section from Walnut Creek to Pleasanton is a fast section thru East Bay suburbia with carpool lanes and that stupid fastrak. The part I really hate is the section from Dublin all the way to Fremont over the Sunol Grade ... what a traffic mess all the freakin time! But hey, traffic is traffic but what gets this freeway a 2 stars is the stupid implementation of this TOLL lane combined with carpool lane. You HAVE to have the Fastrak transponder in your car, or you're SCREWED! How the hell do they (toll and Caltrans) expect all of the out of area travelers to know this, especially out of state tourists who never even heard of this "fastrak, and tolls!" $25 fine for using the lane with out the Fastrak thing, even if you have enough people for the freakin CARPOOL! I hate the Bay Area freeways for this! I come infrequently, maybe 3 times a year to the Bay Area and I'm not gonna fork out a Fastrak deposit and then deposit money on the thing just to use the infrequent times I get into this mess of traffic. Tolls to use the lane to get ahead ... yeah, I know why it's called the "Lexus Lane", only people with money get to use it! California with all it's uppityness for equality and non-discrimination .... WTF? I-680 is becoming more and more infested with these money lanes! Otherwise, it's a fine freeway to drive late at night and really fast!

What a nice and quaint post office! Norman was behind the counter and was so friendly and helpful…read more Had a good conversation with him about postal things. The man even invited us back to stop in for a visit when we are passing by.

Reminds me of the Wild Mouse Ride in Santa Cruz. You either love it or you hate it. You're so busy…read morewatching the road (if you're smart) that you can't look up to enjoy the view and there's nowhere to pull over nearby. And don't even THINK of pulling over "down the road" and walking up, too dangerous, don't do it. JUST DON'T. You're not that invincible.

This road... is quite an adventure…read more It was definitely an unexpected adventure, as I didn't expect my GPS to make us take this route! We were originally planning on going through the Old Sonoma Highway them up to Hwy 29 to get to Napa from Sonoma... but good ol' Garmin decided to put us off course. By the time we entered Trinity Rd and realized what route we were taking (I spent a lot of time studying Google Maps), it was already too late to turn around and my boyfriend decided to commit to this drive. Thank goodness he was driving, because I would've been a nervous wreck. While not quite as crazy as the Road to Hana in Maui or the Muir Woods road in SF... it's still very windy with lots of steep turns and blindspots - seriously, be careful for locals who drive really fast on this road (good for them, conquering a road like this). The speed limit is 45 mph, but with all the sharp turns and switch backs it's impressive people can drive the speed limit here. Doesn't help my nerves to know that they don't put rails on the areas where if you were to slip off the edge... it's a long way down. But after calming down, I got to appreciate the route for what it was. Though a bit exciting with all the turns and the one lane bridge... it's very scenic with the nature covering the route. You'll see some vineyards (which is pretty amazing given how high up the road is) and a few farmhouses along the way. Honestly, I think we were lucky to accidentally take this route from Sonoma to Napa - the view at the end is very pretty and worth the crazy drive. It's amazing how much the weather differs between Napa and Sonoma. Driving up, we didn't get a view of the valley because it was so foggy in the morning... but once we hit the Napa side of the mountains it was so clear and beautiful. This will definitely become our tradition whenever we want to go from Sonoma to Napa. ;)

The San Rafael Chamber is a wonderful organization with friendly people who really care about the…read moreSan Rafael community. Our company has been a member for years, and we've found their events and services invaluable to our business. The Chamber works incredibly hard to benefit local businesses through large events and networking mixers. The staff is always respectful, accommodating, and great to work with.

This is a Chamber of Commerce worth joining! As a business owner for many years I've tried to be…read moreactive in various Chambers over the years - with mixed results quite frankly. The San Rafael Chamber is different; a warm group of folks (many 'Ambassadors' at every event so new members get comfortable quickly and (even more importantly) the SR Chamber has a big voice in local and regional government. We have a world class ED leading a team of Chamber Pros who keep a keen eye on facilitating business and supporting our members. Do something good for yourself and your business; join the Chamber :)