"You moved where?"    "Sacramento"  "Why?"         Sacramento is not thought of very highly by a lot of Bay Area-ites.  I'm not entirely sure why.  I suppose many cannot separate the town from the stink wafting up from the State Assembly and Capital.  Politics as a whole is repugnant to your average person, and California's is especially loathsome. It's an unfortunate metonymy, "Sacramento" for the sludge that leaks out of the State Assembly, but it is to be expected.  When one considers "Washington DC", its a rare soul who thinks of the Smithsonian first and the politics second.   I grew up in Menlo Park, decidedly Bay Area-centric.  In the circles I came of age in, Sacramento wasn't

Solar Cooker System as “Most Meaningful Carbon Offset” Campaign Launched Sacramento, CA, November 24, 2009. Solar Cookers International (SCI), a not-for-profit organization founded in 1987, announced today the launch of “The most meaningful carbon offset is also the simplest” campaign. This campaign is arriving at a time when an enormous number of individuals want to do something meaningful to slow global warming. Yet, while our governments are painfully slow to act, options to offset our own carbon usage have been limited and, for many, of questionable impact. A recent report that voluntary carbon offsets for airline travelers do more to assuage guilt than reduce carbon emmissions has

Longtime Sacramentans are accustomed to our city being misrepresented in the media - we get attention for legislative gridlock, under-performing teams, homeless tent cities, the foreclosure crisis and the latest, our chart-topping rate of drunk driving. Oh, and Dorothea Puente. We're so insecure about how we're perceived that we have a well-established civic inferiority complex. But we're a pretty good time, really. Beautiful, interesting, comfortable, entertaining, sporty, unpretentious - if you tell the truth about our city, it sounds like a made-up personal ad. But it's true! So, it's gratifying to have Sactown portrayed so accurately today, in no less a place that the New York Times

                                                                                        See fall colors in Hope Valley!   Yesterday I went with a group of 13 photographers to Hope Valley to capture fall colors. We saw spectacular views. Here is the route we roughly followed:  Hwy 50 to Mormon Emigrant Trail to 88, followed 88 over Carson Pass and through Hope Valley to 89, followed 89 over Monitor Pass (high and glorious views) to Hwy 395, took 395 North and looped back to 88, followed 88 back to 89 and take Luther Pass to Echo Summit and came back to Sacramento on Hwy 50. Caught a great sunset while passing Placerville.               Photos | Kati Garner

Saturday, October 10, 2009 Solano Land Trust Rush Ranch “Celebrate Adventure!”  The Walk with Rock & Horse Fair Even though outside the Sacramento County boundaries, this is an organization that deserves all our attention and support.  Spearheaded by Michael Muir (great-grandson of John Muir) he is an adventurer and trailblazer in his own right.  Access Adventure needs your/our help! In order to continue serving the community and accomplishing their mission to provide recreational and educational programs for people with mobility challenges and underserved youth, they need a steady funding stream. They depend on their annual “Celebrate Adventure” event to pay for horse feed, transporta

While there are many phrases in life that are sure to bring a smile to my face—“early retirement,” “winning lotto ticket” and “three-week vacation” among them—I must admit “Food and Wine Festival” is right there at the top of my list. I can hardly contain my enthusiasm ("ARE WE THERE YET?") as the rubber meets the road, with a full tank of gas, a couple of baguettes and a Google map at my side, knowing that at the end of the journey lies my pot of Epicurean gold. One thing Sacramento does not lack is geographical appeal (a.k.a., location, location, location). In two hours or less, you can be skiing, gamboling, taking a bay cruise beneath the Golden Gate, or walking the vineyard trail, tra