San Francisco Bay Area

Here are the best green Bay Area destinations oM has discovered this year. A Wine Time: East Bay Winery Bike Tours | Oakland California’s newest wine sensation is closer than you think. And you can reach it by BART. And bike. Enjoy a day away exploring the urbanite oenophile’s dream in Oakland and Berkeley. American Pie: Pie Ranch| Pescadero A working farm with a pie-in-the-sky mission of spreading food knowledge to the community,

Main Street, U.S.A. is alive and well. And there is a well-preserved example of it in Petaluma, California. Quaint, charming, and at the same time modern, Petaluma has a little bit of everything—whether you’re after a relaxing stroll down memory lane or a wild outdoor adventure. Here, what to do in Petaluma

About 15 years ago, I got a job in Sausalito. Within days, I was eating my lunch on the bay-front rocks while the egrets and pelicans dined on theirs 40 feet away in the San Francisco Bay. I weaved my way through tourists and window shoppers, all of us giddy with the Northern California sun in January. I met the locals in bars and restaurants on Bridgeway. We talked crystal

With family ties to Midwestern farming culture, I occasionally feel like something is missing from my metropolitan life in the East Bay. “Where are the endless rows of corn, larger-than-life skies and barn dancing parties?” I ask myself at the end of another evening at a crowded, expensive bar. One day, after spending an hour Googling the nearest line-dancing venues in the Bay Area, I decided that it was high

We interrupt your healthy New Year’s resolutions with this message: It’s California Restaurant Month. We know, it seems like cruel and unusual punishment (or at least a serious test of willpower) to time a month’s worth of delicious deals with fresh starts and shiny new vows to work off that holiday gut. But think of it this way: Restaurant Month doesn’t have to be about gorging, and it can even help

On a recent car-free weekend in wine country, we discovered the lesser known pleasures of Napa Valley, from a classic 1960s-style diner to educational adventures in aging caves to a 13th century-inspired castle on a vineyard. Settle in to Old Napa I set up base camp at the Wine Country Inn (1152 Lodi Lane), a quintessentially quaint establishment located just off of the St. Helena Highway. The first bed and breakfast

I’ve been taking more two-wheeled road trips lately, so I’m not traveling much anymore in my Toyota. Public transportation has allowed this suburban-bred driver the unaccustomed ease of getting to work in the East Bay without a car. Yet still, I can’t bring myself to part with it. I’ve had it since high school. But why should I keep the darn thing, paying for insurance and maintenance and parking, if

Oh by gosh, by golly. It’s that time of year yet again. And with Black Friday, Cyber Monday, Mobile Tuesday, and all the other shopping days days out of the way (please!), it’s time to get down to what’s real this season: hot cocoa, time with loved ones, and that child-like sense of wonder. Sure, we’ve got our gorgeous trees in Union Square and Pier 39, but if a little