HILLS NEWSPAPERS:March 29, 2012
In all the Bay Area, who knew that Half Moon Bay would be a great place to pick up chicks?
I’m talking about the feathered kind, the kind popping up in coops around the Bay. Day in and day out, Half Moon Bay Feed and Fuel sells more baby chicks than their competitors — some 200 peepers a week. And these are not your father’s hens. Some lay white eggs, and some lay light brown. But some chicks lay pink, green and blue. Think Easter eggs without the dye.
HILLS NEWSPAPERS: March 16, 2012
I never thought I’d say it, but Lady Gaga has good taste. She had lunch at one of my favorite restaurants recently, ordering just what I would have ordered — muscles, frites and a Fig Kiss.
Can’t a girl get a martini without the world knowing about it? Apparently not, as Twitter and Facebook erupted with Gaga sightings across the Sonoma Valley. Continue reading
Doug Perry, of Alameda, stands in front of an amphibious vehicle where he works for Ride the Ducks, a company that takes tourists on a tour on the streets and in the waters in San Francisco, Calif., on Friday, Feb. 24, 2012. (Ray Chavez/Staff)
ALAMEDA JOURNAL: March 8, 2012
You think you’ve got a tough commute? Try driving a boatload of people around San Francisco — then ending up in the Bay.
Alamedan Doug Perry works for Ride the Ducks, the company that takes tourists on those curious white boats on wheels. They’re actually updated versions of World War 2 amphibious vehicles that motor down city streets and then take to the water like — you guessed it — ducks.
Driving one is harder than it looks. Continue reading
HILLS NEWSPAPERS: March 3, 2012
Travel takes on a different purpose for those of us approaching our “golden years.” We size up a destination with retirement in mind, asking ourselves what it would be like to live somewhere other than here.
In the last several years, I’ve known neighbors who’ve moved to Nashville, Tenn., Pittsburgh and even Mexico. There is life beyond the Bay Area.
On a recent trip to the Midwest, I met Jeremy Popelka and Stephanie Trenchard, two glass sculptors who left Rockridge in 1998 to raise their family in Sturgeon Bay, Wis. — population 9,000. Continue reading
HILLS NEWSPAPERS: February 17, 2012
My husband left his pillow in the hotel room again. And he says I’m losing it.
What is it about traveling that makes us forgetful? I’ve left cold creams and pajamas, glasses and even contact lenses in hotel rooms across this great planet. But a pillow? Who even travels with a personal pillow?
It turns out a lot of people do.
“We mail pillows to people quite often,” says the desk clerk at the Best Western Treehouse Inn in Mt. Shasta. And they send them for free, something surprising in this age of hidden hotel charges. Continue reading
CONTRACOSTATIMES.COM: February 3, 2012
Not since its heyday has Vallejo’s Mare Island seen this kind of publicity. The once-bustling naval shipyard that was shut down in 1996 is the backdrop for a major TV ad campaign touting Jaguar.
Three souped-up cars are playing “tag” on the ghostly streets of a shipyard gone silent. The Jags race past an old red brick building and a collection of giant warehouses and metal cranes. They skid to a stop inside a massive glass and steel structure that once housed thousands of ship builders.
During World War II, Mare Island was one of the busiest ship construction and repair sites in the world. Crews repaired or overhauled a staggering 4,560 vessels and built 392 more in the five war years there. Many of the later vessels were nuclear submarines, which lends to the eerie feeling you might feel on the island today.
HILLS NEWSPAPERS: January 20, 2012
Spring hasn’t sprung — but wedding season has already begun in one of the Bay Area’s most romantic destinations — the Sonoma Valley.
And it’s not just because the hit show ‘The Bachelor’ is being shot there this season. The mild weather has couples flocking to the Sonoma wine region to check pricing and venues for their upcoming nuptials. There was even a big wedding fair in the barrel room at Cline Cellars last weekend. Continue reading
HILLS NEWSPAPERS: January 6, 2012
It’s January — time to hike off those holiday pounds in our vast network of green belts and parks. A good way to bring fitness and fun front and center is to download the new 2012 East Bay Regional Park calendar.
The free photo calendar features some of the region’s most colorful creatures along with a running list of events in the parks. January celebrates the gray fox — an animal as elusive as a snowflake in summer because of its shy, nocturnal nature. Who knew this critter was also an expert climber? A sunset walk through Tilden might afford you the opportunity to see the gray fox, especially if you look up into the trees. Continue reading
Catching "snowflakes" on my tongue in the lobby of the Hyatt Regency
HILLS NEWSPAPERS: December 23, 2011
It’s Christmas by the Bay …
There’s much to be said for a white Christmas. It’s the stuff of carols and cards and Currier and Ives paintings. But singer Tom Hockenberry had it right when he proclaimed the best Christmas is just across the Bay — in San Francisco.
It’s our family tradition to spend Dec. 24 in the city. On the day before Christmas, it’s anything but calm, and that’s how we like it. We don our red apparel and head straight for holiday central — Union Square. Continue reading
HILLS NEWSPAPERS: December 8, 2011
What is it about holiday lights that we can’t resist? Like moths to a flame, we’re drawn to big, splashy displays of bobbles and bulbs and all things that glitter.
Perhaps it’s a way to counter the low natural sunlight of winter, but there’s no doubt a tree or a building that’s bedecked in bright lights does a lot for lifting our spirits.
So, too, does wine, if we’re to be truthful. There’s something quite grand about the deep berry shades of a rich cabernet or the blush of a light pinot noir. Indeed, the same can be said of a golden chardonnay and a bubbly glass of champagne. Continue reading
Ginny Prior 