Clear your calendar for the first weekend of June and get ready to spend an action-packed weekend getaway filled with non-stop music, premium wines, hand-crafted beers, and family-friendly activities at the 32nd Annual Walnut Creek Chamber Art & Wine Festival—one of the top community festivals in the nation.
On Saturday & Sunday, June 1 & 2, Heather Farm Park in Walnut Creek will sizzle with the sights, sounds, and flavors of the best Bay Area artisans, musicians, winemakers, festival foods, and the zany Grape Stomp Competition, kicking off summer fun under Walnut Creek’s sunny skies. More than 90,000 attendees are expected over the weekend, and admission is FREE!
We’ve all been there: You’re at work on Monday morning, listening to your co-worker tell you what an awesome time she had at the Cheese Festival in Petaluma on Sunday and how you would have loved it. Okay, so now you wish you had gone, but A) you didn’t know about it or B) you forgot to add it to your calendar. Well, now there’s no excuse. Below are my four favorite events taking place this spring in Sonoma County’s Wine Country and four great excuses to hop in the car for a fun weekend road trip. So open the calendar on your smart phone and start typing.
I’m always amazed at how few Californians have spent time exploring the Sonoma Coast, or even knew that Sonoma County has 76 miles of gorgeous, pristine coastline. If you’re one of those people, then it’s high time you spent a long weekend exploring one of the prettiest regions of the state, brimming with golden beaches, wine tasting, romantic lodgings, hiking trails, horseback riding, and fantastic coastal cafes, crab shacks, and restaurants. I’ve been writing about this region for more than 20 years, and if I took four days explore the best of Sonoma County’s coastline, this would be my dream itinerary…
I remember as a kid driving north through Ventura County with my parents and seeing nothing but fields and farmland. Coming from L.A., I might as well have been on another planet. But times they are a changin’ and now the county’s three cities—Camarillo, Oxnard, and Ventura, otherwise known as Ventura County West—have become popular destinations for a California vacation. And with so much of land devoted to farming, Ventura County is home to a wide range of up-and-coming wineries and restaurants. Here’s what I recommend for first-timers wanting to get a flavor of the region.
When you mention the Wine Country most people think of Napa or Sonoma Valley. But true wine geeks have long known that some of Northern California’s best wine and wine-tasting experiences can be found well beyond the valleys, often at family owned wineries tucked away on one-lane roads that would be impossible to find if it weren’t for the periodic signs pointing you in the right direction. It’s experiences like these—casual yet captivating conversations with winemakers as you savor the fruits of their years of hard work—that make visiting these esoteric wineries worth the effort. Ergo, here are a few of my “Who knew?” favorites. 
Creamy chevres. Sharp cheddars. Herbaceous triple crèmes. Lucky for us Californians, more and more “swoonable” cheeses (as I like to refer to them) are made right in our own backyards, particularly in and around Petaluma. In between nibbles of fresh burrata and tantalizing sheeps milk fetas, discover some of the Wine Country’s other culinary artisans, including a honey farm, award winning bread makers, and pioneering olive oil makers. Combined with a little wine tasting, it’s all the right ingredients for a wonderful weekend getaway.
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