What exactly do you do?
I’m a longtime journalist and author, Bay Area native and 30-year resident of San Francisco. My book, Great Escapes: Northern California (Countryman Press 2008), covers 30 weekend getaways and day trips in northern California. I have a blog on northern California and recently wrote and photographed two travel apps that can be downloaded on iPhones and Ipod Touches — one on San Francisco’s Chinatown and the other on San Francisco’s North Beach and Fisherman’s Wharf. They are guides that include interactive maps, website links and suggestions for restaurants, bars, attractions and historic sites to visit.

What do you love most about the Bay Area?
I love the great diversity of everything: the natural landscape, the people, the cultural activities. We’ve got such a wide range of choices for things to do, from hiking along the coast or in forests, to eating in some of the best restaurants in the world and visiting museums, shopping or exploring a small town like Pescadero or an urban neighborhood like the Mission. Even the weather is diverse. In the summer, you can go from cool fog on the coast to blistering hot in less than an hour’s drive.

Where is your favorite place to hike/bike in the Bay Area?
I love to hike on Mt. Tam and Point Reyes, but I live in San Francisco and, almost on a daily basis, I find myself taking long walks on Crissy Field, in the Presidio (on some of the wonderful new hiking paths that have been added there), or on the Land’s End trail, which, on a clear day, has got to be one of the most amazing walks on the planet. They’ve really done a great job sprucing up that trail lately.

What is your favorite restaurant in the Bay Area?
I love so many, but I’m partial to Delfina in the Mission because the ingredients are so simply prepared and high quality. I also love inexpensive little neighborhood places. La Taqueria in the Mission is my favorite for tacos and Shanghai Dumpling King in the outer Richmond is my top Chinese spot.

What is your favorite place to get coffee or tea?
I normally don’t recommend chains but it’s a local chain so I don’t mind as much: the La Boulanges around San Francisco. I love their almond croissants with a latte. When I’m in North Beach, I head to Cafe Puccini or Cafe Greco for good espresso.

What is your favorite place to shop for clothing?
There’s a little place called Alaya in the inner Sunset that I like. If I’m downtown, I’ll go to Zara and Loehmann’s.

If you had an out of town guest coming to visit that had never been to the Bay Area where would you take them?
I’d show them around San Francisco, starting with the top of Twin Peaks if it’s a clear day. People love that and it gives them the lay of the land. I’d make sure to show them the Victorians on Liberty Street in the Castro, take them through Golden Gate Park (people always love seeing the buffalo and the Conservatory of Flowers), the Ferry Building and walk around downtown a bit — Union Square, Chinatown and Yerba Buena Gardens. Then I’d cross the Golden Gate Bridge and go up to the headlands for a view of the city and the bridge from there. If there were time, we’d go to Sausalito, Muir Woods and drive to Point Reyes to see west Marin.

Favorite winery?
Bartholomew Park Winery in the eastern hills of Sonoma, which has beautiful gardens for a picnic and a very interesting, small museum of the area.

Favorite bar?
Tosca in North Beach. You can’t beat the atmosphere. I love sitting in one of the red booths along the back wall, talking with friends and watching people. On a chilly night, have one of those house specialties with steamed milk, hot chocolate and brandy.

Thank you!

Visit www.greatescapesnorcal.com to learn more.

Crab Stands at the Wharf - by Laura Del Rosso

More sunny-foggy Marin days.

I think Mill Valley should officially change its name to Fog Valley.

This is what happens in Marin when you put a McDonald’s next to a trail.

Thanks Wordless Wednesday!

More info about hiking in Marin.

PS. Please become a fan of Sally Around The Bay on Facebook.
Thank you!

The Cruising Club founded in 1949 is a funky old barge turned in to a bar/restaurant/dance club with live music. It’s actually a “refurbished WWII ammunition barge”. You have to be a member or know a member to get in. Fortunately my friend Jessica is a member and she invited me to come see The California Honeydrops. For a $15 entry fee I got an awesome concert and a buffet dinner. I invited my friend SFDoug to go because I thought it would be a fun experience for him. If you follow Doug’s blog you know his dining style is more the kind that goes with fine wine, not serve-yourself-all-you-can-eat buffet. Doug was a good sport. I think he actually enjoyed himself.

The buffet had fresh Caesar salad, a mixed veggie salad, chicken legs, cheese bread, pesto, pasta, rice with chicken and another pasta with red sauce. I tried a little bit of everything and enjoyed it all!

I almost forgot to mention the view! The barge is located on the Bay in Sausalito with an amazing view! (that my iPhone did not do justice to)

I loved The California Honeydrops! Their music is fun and happy! The kind that makes you want to dance.

Digging deep into the roots of American music, The California Honeydrops embrace the traditions of Blues, Gospel, Second Line New Orleans Jazz, and early R&B. -www.cahoneydrops.com

The Sausalito Cruising Club is located at the foot of Napa Street in Sausalito, docked at Dunphy Park.

My favorite frozen yogurt place is Swirl. Swirl is one of the newer kids in the neighborhood but I love the self serve concept. The yogurt is sold by weight so you can eat as much or as little as you want and you can mix your yogurt and toppings as crazy as you’d like. For instance, I had a little of each of these toppings on top of my last yogurt: mango, strawberry, raspberries, chocolate chips, gummy bears and chocolate syrup. It’s like a salad bar of yogurt and toppings. (I know I should have totally taken a picture of my concoction but I was too busy eating it.)

Something else I love about Swirl is the atmosphere. It’s fun! Swirl is owned and operated by a local Mill Valley family. When the owner is there he walks around with his camera snapping pictures of all the happy frozen yogurt eaters. Those pictures get uploaded to the big screen TV so the next time you come in you can watch for your picture on the screen. I’m up there at least twice.

This frozen yogurt is great fun for everyone!

Mill Valley Swirl
417 Miller Avenue
Mill Valley, CA, 94941
415.388.2636

Hey Mill Valley what is your favorite yogurt place and why?
I know we’ve all been doing a lot of comparison tasting.

Please leave a comment below. Thanks!

The event was held at Rick’s Wine Cellar in Corte Madera. It seems last night was a national Pinot Noir Twitter tasting event. People across the country drank Pinot Noir at the same time and discussed it live via Twitter using the hashtag #pinotnoir.  Our event had the special added twist of trying the new glasses made by Andrea Robinson, The One glasses.

When I arrived to Rick’s Wine Cellar I was greeted by the bartender who asked if I was there for the Twitter event. She showed me to the back room where the event was happening. This room had a lovely table and chairs set up with a big plate of cheese and wine glasses on the table. The walls were filled with selections of fine wine.

The first guest to arrive besides Alana (@girlwithaglass) and I were Doug (@sfdoug) and Jason (@Jasonswineblog). At this point I knew I was already in over my head. Here I was getting ready for a wine tasting with 3 wine experts. Rick, the owner (@rickswinecellar) asked if we were ready to start the tasting. He brought out 3 mystery glasses. He asked us to try each glass and to then guess where the grapes were from, what year the wine was and who the winemaker was. I’m thinking to myself yeah right. I wouldn’t have even known it was Pinot Noir if they hadn’t told me. One by one my 3 wine expert friends made their guesses on Bottle #1. Bottle #1, Bottle #2 and Bottle #3 made me think of The Dating Game: Bachelor #1, Bachelor #2 and Bachelor #3.

As you can see my head was not in the same place and my 3 new friends. While they were swirling the wine around, smelling the bouquet, twisting and turning the glass and talking about the taste… well, I was visualizing the 3 bottles sitting behind the wall on The Dating Game. When Rick got to me I said, “I plead ignorance”. Rick gave me a free ignorance pass on the first round but after that he forced encouraged me to play along. Of course, I never guessed anything right but my 3 wine expert friends were pretty far off in their guesses too so I didn’t feel so bad.

We tasted, we guessed, we talked wine. Alana was so sweet, she took the time to answer my questions about the wine and the tasting in English (ie. not in Wine language). I actually enjoyed myself and did not feel like a big dufus. Rick the owner was awesome; he took the time to sit down and explain to Nancy, Mike (@ATOMsanRafael) and I how important it is to match the right glass with the right wine. I’d heard this before but didn’t really believe it. Rick had us try the same wine in 3 different glasses, and you know what? It did taste and smell different! Nancy actually went home with some new @AndreaWine glasses.

Alana who is an expert at pairing food and wine taught me all about how different cheeses work with different wines. The food you eat can change your wine tasting experience.

I learned a fun little insider tip for Marinites. If you purchase your bottle of wine at Rick’s Wine Cellar and bring it to many of the local Marin restaurants and show them it is from Rick’s Wine Cellar, the restaurant will not charge you a corkage fee. Pacific Catch in Corte Madera is one of these restaurants. The full list of restaurants that offer free corkage of Rick’s Wine Cellar wine is on the Website: http://www.rickswinecellar.com/

Even though I’m more of a beer or champagne girl I really enjoyed the Pinot Noir Twitter Tasting last night. I learned that good wine paired with good people is a great combination!

After a quick review of Yelp! it seems Marin County is loving the new addition of Mi Pueblo. There were some concerns of the new big store having an impact on the smaller mom and pop stores but overall it seems it’s brought employment to the local neighborhood which is a good thing.

Mi Pueblo has lived up to their mission listed on their Website:

We strive to create an ambiance reminiscent of the fresh-food markets of Mexico and Latin America, while also carrying all the grocery items generally available in mainstream supermarkets, always welcoming everyone with a warm smile.

I was in the neighborhood so decided to stop by Mi Pueblo out of curiosity. I had already eaten and did not need any groceries so I just walked around the place.

My first impression upon walking in was that Mi Pueblo was a happy place to shop! Festive Latin music in the background, a colorful, fun Taqueria located right in the store, Pinatas hanging above the produce. The place made me smile and the music made me want to start dancing.The employees were super friendly and welcoming, every one we walked by said hello and smiled.

Shopping at Mi Pueblo is a cultural experience. It has everything you would find in a traditional grocery store including organic produce PLUS all sorts of Mexican and Latin American food. It’s a great opportunity to try new food and drinks. I bought a Mango Agua Fresca – it was delicious and refreshing.

I took a stroll through the produce. I was happy to see the produce looked very fresh, there were organic options and special produce from Mexico and other Latin American countries; things like Mexican Squash – stuff you might not find in a traditional “American” grocery store.

They were making handmade hot tamales ready to eat for $1.49. I was kind of wishing I was hungry so I could try one.

Mi Pueblo is located in the Canal are of San Rafael
330 Bellam Blvd
San Rafael, CA 415-578-3971

Sally Waters considers herself a skin care problem solver. She created products to solve her own sensitive skin care issues and eliminate toxins from her daily skin care regimen. Birdy Botanicals offers  several options with multiple uses, 100% natural scents and has a 100% guarantee policy. Sally is a stickler about ingredients and is constantly striving to make her products as user-friendly as possible. Plus they smell divine!

“I have lived in San Francisco for 20+ years and not a day goes by that I am not blown away by the beauty, diversity and culture that the city provides. We have access to some of the best food and drink in the world and as far as the people, an unwritten policy of “anything goes.” And believe me, it goes.” ~The Other Sally.

Where is your favorite place to hike/bike in the Bay Area?
My favorite places to hike are San Francisco neighborhoods, Muir Woods and exploring all areas of the North Bay just over the GG Bridge. For biking I love Golden Gate park and over the Golden Gate Bridge into Sausalito. I will beat that hill coming back someday!

What is your favorite restaurant in the Bay Area?
That depends on the day but my list would include:
Yountville
- Bouchon
San Francisco
- Chapeau
- Pacific Cafe
- Clement Street Bar and Grill
- La Mediterranee
- My kitchen because my husband rocks! We call it Cafe Mac.

What is your favorite place to get coffee or tea?
Besides my own daily homemade cappuccino compliments of my Bialetti and milk-frother I would go to Peet’s coffee on 16th and Geary because everyone knows my name.

For tea I love going to the Aroma Tea shop on 6th at Clement and tasting as much tea as my heart desires. My heart always ends up with the Phoenix eye-  White tea and Jasmine pearls. (That’s my favorite tea too!)

What is your favorite place to shop for clothing?
My favorite experience shopping for clothes is when you find that gem amongst the heaps at a thrift store like Thrift Town or Goodwill on Fillmore Street or Crossroads,…though I have to be in the right mood.

If you had an out of town guest coming to visit that had never been to the Bay Area where would you take them?
I would take my guests to the De Young Museum, Golden Gate Park, Napa Valley, The Ferry Building (and the Ferry Farmer’s Market) and possibly to the Frisbee Golf course in GG Park although I suck at it.

You can also find Sally and Birdy Botanicals on Facebook & Twitter!

We had Sangria. Café Flore makes great Sangria!

It seems Wednesday nights (during the summer) are Farmer’s Market night right there on Noe.

After our drinks we wandered a bit through the Farmer’s Market and then headed to La Mediterranee, an authentic Mediterranean restaurant with really good food and friendly service.

We decided to order the Mediterranean Meza (for 2 or more people) $15.95 a person “an assortment of 10 house specialties and appetizers including Lule Kabob, Chicken Pomegrante (my favorite), Spinach & Chicken Fillos, Dolma, Hummos, Baba Ganoush, Tabuleh and much more”. We first started out with the special salad which was a watermelon, beet salad with walnuts and a special cheese (i can’t remember if it was goat or feta but it was good!). The watermelons were surprisingly tasty mixed in with the beets. All of the food was amazing!

Our waitress was great! I asked her what her name was and it turns out her name is Sally! I got overly excited about this fact because I don’t usually meet anyone named Sally unless they are 90 or older. This Sally looked my age or younger so I asked her if I could take my picture with her.

After dinner we headed to Japan down because another friend with her 2 young boys was in town and staying at the Hotel Tomo, a hotel I’d never heard of but was super impressed by. If you are looking for a cool place to stay in San Francisco definitely check out Hotel Tomo. It’s actually a Best Western Hotel that has been recently renovated. Hotel Tomo is inspired by Japanese pop-culture. There is a big giant bed looking thing in the lobby facing 3 televisions. Anime murals on the walls, the doors of the rooms are all different colors, and there are glow-in-the-dark desk blotters in each guest room and the place is very clean and inviting.

Here is how the  Website describes Hotel Tomo:

It’s fun! Our bright, whimsical rooms are perfect for families with kids, or the young at heart. Our gaming suites come equipped with PlayStation 3, Wii, bean bag chairs, and a 6-foot LCD projection screen.

One of a kind design – If you’re into J-pop, comics and anime you’ll love Hotel Tomo.

After checking out the cool hotel we headed back over the Golden Gate Bridge to home. It was a beautiful summer night in the city!

Cafe Flore is located on the corner of Market and Noe. La Mediterranee is across the street on Noe. Both in the Castro district of San Francisco. Hotel Tomo is on Sutter near Webster in the Japan Town area.

Instead of food, we’re consuming “edible foodlike substances” — no longer the products of nature but of food science. –Michael Pollen, In Defense of Food, An Eaters Manifesto

Leslie Citroen of Mill Valley is teaching the Bay Area how to get back to eating real food one chicken at a time.

Leslie and her children run Mill Valley Chickens. They sell chickens and teach classes on everything you need to know to keep your backyard flock happy and healthy.

I really enjoyed visiting with Leslie and her daughter Logan. Being in Leslie’s backyard with the chickens and talking with her adorable daughter about 4-H brought back a lot of memories. I grew up with chickens in my backyard and was a 4-H member! (Yes, we had chickens in Orange County.) I was impressed with 6 year old Logan’s knowledge and handling of the chickens.

Leslie has a multitude of different types of beautiful chickens. (I did say beautiful chickens – some of these chickens were beautiful!)

I saw chickens of all shapes and sizes. I even discovered a new chicken called a Naked Neck (see photo below). I learned these Naked Neck’s are popular among the boys… I think it is their almost Sci-fi creature like look. I have to admit when I first saw the Naked Neck I thought it was a hen that had been pecked by the others. I assumed she was at the bottom of the pecking order. Leslie seemed to have a weak spot in her heart for the Naked Necks, she talked fondly about how sweet they were.

The chickens are actually great animals for kids. As you can see, Logan was carrying the chickens all over the yard and they seemed perfectly content in her arms.

Since Leslie’s chickens are truly free range (pastoral) meaning they are free to roam around her yard they’ve started playing Easter Bunny. According to Leslie and Logan everyday is like an Easter Egg hunt. They find the eggs hidden behind trees, under bushes, in holes…

There are many benefits to having your own backyard chickens; here are a few:

• Fresh eggs.
• Chickens are easy enough to take care of that a 6 year old can manage it.
• Kids learn responsibility.
• Something fun for bored kids to do.
• Getting food from the source and avoiding the use of oil to ship the food to the grocery stores.
• Not supporting factory farmed chickens.

Even though I’ve focused on kids and chickens you do not have to be a kid or have a kid to reap the benefits of your own backyard chickens.

Fun facts about chickens:
Chickens lay more eggs when there is more sun light. You will get more eggs during the summer months.

You can determine egg color by the color of a chicken’s ears. ie. white ears equals white eggs, brown ears equals brown eggs.

When your chickens eat scraps and forage in your yard for bugs -eggs are far healthier and chock full of vitamins —  than commercial raised eggs.

Not so fun fact about chickens:
Factory farmed chickens are often stored is small cages where they can’t even move and the lights are left on 24 hours a day to encourage more egg laying. Besides the cruelty to the bird imagine what the stress does to the quality of the egg. I’m not going to go in to the gory details of our food industry… I’ll save that for another time and place.

Looking for something fun and unique to do this summer?
How about visiting Leslie and her family at Mill Valley Chickens? Just contact Leslie and set up a date a time. You can purchase your own backyard chicken and take one of her classes to learn all about taking care of your backyard chicken. The chickens run from $15 -$25 each. Chickens range in age from 3 weeks to 3 1/2 months so they are already past the critical chick stage and well on their way to be egg laying hens.

You can also purchase ready-made chicken coops from Leslie or arrange to have her build a custom one for you.

In addition to the chickens, I was very impressed with Leslie. She’s a licensed general contractor. It’s not every day that you meet a female licensed general contractor!

On top of taking care of the chickens, her business and her kids Leslie has a fantastic garden full of fruit, vegetables and flowers. I was lucky enough to be sent home with a bouquet of fresh cut flowers from her garden, a handful of eggs and some lemons.

To top it all off Leslie joined Twitter after hearing me rave about it. You can follow her at @MVchickens.

To learn more about Leslie, Logan, Luca and the chickens visit: http://www.millvalleychickens.com

If you are thinking about getting your own backyard chickens contact Leslie! She knows her stuff.

The point is I did it! It was not easy and to be honest it was not fun.

One night a few Twitter friends and I were having a conversation about the oil crisis that is going on. One friend said she was going to commit to riding her bike at least once a week to work and she challenged me to ride my bike to all the places I check in on Foursquare. Of course, my first reaction was, “you have not seen my hill!”.

For the last 15 years I’ve lived up this VERY STEEP hill, I’ve always dreamed of biking but never thought it was possible for me (the wimp) to get up and down that hill. Besides the strength (lung and leg) needed to get up that hill I have a serious un-rational fear of riding downhill. But this oil mess really got to me. I felt helpless. I didn’t feel comfortable just blaming BP and boycotting or blaming the politicians. In my heart I know it’s not any one person or one company’s fault; it is all of our (oil consuming) faults.  So here I am knowing  I’m partially responsible and using my hill as the excuse I had to continue driving everywhere.

Then… I had a light bulb moment. I realized I go hiking every single day up and down steep hills on the trails behind where I live so why on earth could I not hike up and down that one short (steep) hill to my house.

It just so happened Mike’s Bikes in Sausalito was having a big sale that weekend! So… I went and got my bike. I got great service from Brian who asked me questions about what kind of biking I was going to do and showed me the different bikes he thought would work best for me. I found my dream bike! The color and everything was exactly what I had been visualizing. I picked out my bike, Brian took it to the back and had the mechanics check it out and then it was ready to go! I went for my first ride on my new bike right out of the store along the Sausalito bike path all the way to the water. It was such a beautiful day!

The first week I started out driving my bike up and down the hill but I soon got tired of putting the bike in and taking the bike out of the car so I decided to overcome my hill fear and just go for it! I figured I’m a great hiker I could walk this hill no problem if biking was too difficult.

Friday night I rolled/walked my bike down the (very steep) hill and headed to Mill Valley Beerworks to meet my Twitter-turned-real friends for a beer. Mill Valley Beerworks was happening! We squished 11 people around a 6 person table. (Blog post coming soon).

Fortunately on Friday night I got a ride back up the hill but today… I was meeting someone for coffee in downtown Mill Valley and just couldn’t justify driving my car there and back so I went for it. Today was my first day coming up the hill on my new bike. It was not easy but I did it! If I can ride a bike, so can you!

I’m not fully giving up my car. I will still drive places but I do plan to bike more and drive less.

I challenge you to ride your bike more and drive less. I would love to hear about your biking stories. Please leave a comment below.

*I always wear a helmet when I bike… I just took it off for the photo.