Joseph Ballinger Chiles (cheye-els) was one of the people who received a land grant from Mexico in the 1800s. Like most people in the...

I stopped in Napa Valley for lunch before driving home from three days in the Calistoga area. Joe’s Downtown has corn riblets on its...

One of the reasons to join a wine club is the opportunity to pick up shipments in person. I'm lucky that I live close to Napa Valley...

The Antinori family of Italy claims to have been making wine for the past 630 years. It is a business they are in for the long term....

All the years that I have been visiting Calistoga, I've driven past the Bale Grist Mill. Today I stopped and took a tour. The mill was...

Saratoga, New York became famous for its hots springs. When I was growing up in upstate New York, I took many trips there. First, to the...

The tallest lighthouse on the West coast is the Pigeon Point Light Station. Built in 1871, it is still an active aid to navigation for...

Redwood trees are one of the most difficult subjects to capture. If you make an image straight on, only a tiny portion is captured. If...

Hakone Gardens started as a private estate in 1915, when Isabel Stines started planting a garden just outside the village of Saratoga,...

It has been two years since California had its residents sheltered in place because of Covid. Since then, the world has been under...

I went to Sunnyvale Skate Park today hoping to see some amazing action—skateboarders catching air, speeding up and down concrete...

New York City dancer, singer, and painter Marta Becket gave up city life to move to Death Valley Junction in 1967. She purchased an old...

While driving through central California last week, I past many almond orchards. This is the time of year for them to blossom. The...

Driving back from Paso Robles, the route winds past lots of farm land. Some is still brown, having been recently planted. But there are...

In a desert that is mostly shades of brown and white, bright colors, especially red, can be quite striking. During my recent trip to...

I scheduled our Death Valley trip to coincide with a new moon so that the sky would be dark and stars more visible. Indeed, each night we...

Artist’s Palette is one of the must-see drives in Death Valley. It winds and dips its way through hills of many-hued volcanic deposits....

One of my favorite sites in Death Valley is the Devil’s Golf Course. According to Wikipedia, it got it name from this quote in the 1934...

One of the most photographed and visited spots in Death Valley is Zabriskie Point. It is almost a right of passage for a photographer to...

There aren’t too many ways to get to Furnace Creek in Death Valley for those coming from the Bay area. You can approach from the south,...