Pictures from others who were there:
Solano County Fair 2025
Category Archives: Art
Artichokes and Lemons
We had a wonderful time with fellow Stephanie Miller fan (we’re both Steph-heads), Vallejoan, and progressive activist friend Diane Hume in her gorgeous home and garden. We compared notes on several subjects and check out this beautiful haul I got from her garden! Fresh lemons and artichokes? My favorites!! Diane is another reason why I know I made the right decision when I moved to this city five years ago!
Mare Island Museum’s Annual Sailor’s Cellar
This unorthodox garage sale was in a very cool building and I found a couple of things with my hopefully increasingly honed eye for thrift goods. I used to hate shopping, but I love doing it when it’s my newfound FB marketplace, thrift stores in and around Vallejo, and situations like this, particularly as I’m imagining things in my home under renovation. It took me a minute to realize how gorgeous the building was. I love the sign that says that the crane has been immobilized!
Greg wouldn’t allow me to leave until he had me pose with this book. Maybe I should have read the title before I realized what he was doing? Greg!!!
Inspiring Friends
We had a wonderful visit with Nick Dong. He is a world-renowned master designer/artist/genius and a good friend of many years who, like so many, helped me find some resilience and silver linings in the horrible event from last January (my catastrophic house fire and the loss of five precious canine souls). It was a privilege to revisit his custom home and for Shea to get to know him.
Nick inspires me to manifest my dream house with this rebuild and find ways to live my best life. In the footage Shea took you’ll see a reflection of the three of us in a small sampling of Nick’s mind-blowing kinetic pieces. If you ever get a chance to see the work of Studio Dong in person, don’t miss the opportunity!
One of his two amazing koi ponds with the most friendly fish I’ve ever met in my life!
Xmas morning at Sister’s
This was Shea’s first time meeting my brother-in-law. My niece and sister had stopped by months ago when my daughter was visiting from Florida.
Bonnie made herself at home in Rickie’s bed while Snoopy and Rickie played away.
My sister has some of the work my Zia Antonella from Catanzaro, Italy, painted at her house, so I photographed them. I had some of her paintings at my house which I lost in my January fire.
After a visit to Granite Bay, we made our way to Pittsburg to visit Shea’s family. Sadly we forgot to take pictures there.
Vallejo Car Museum
Yesterday was Shea, Greg, and Steve’s first time at the Vallejo Victorian House tour, which is another Madhatter event. This year the kickoff was at the Car Museum in Vallejo which I had never been to. What an incredible jewel, but sadly I hear it is rarely open to the public and may be closing down. I even heard that many other vehicles have regularly been swapped in and out. I didn’t realize how much I would geek out at car museums until I went to the one in Danville, and now every opportunity I have to see a car show I go to it. I was a Matchbox car fan as a kid, but I was one of those (gay) nerds who never liked them to get dirty like my brother’s Hotwheels cars. Anyway, I hope these exhibits will somehow be shared with the public going forward. This would be such a magnet for Vallejo tourism. Here is just a taste of the exhibits at the lovely welcome reception we had with good food, live music, etc.
Vallejo Victorian Home Tour 2024
The end of the tour was at Godfather’s Winery on Mare Island:
Vallejo Capitol Mosaic Stairs
While walking around the Vallejo Victorian Home Tour we had to take our obligatory shot in front of the Capitol Stairs Mosaic downtown, which is beautifully maintained with its adjacent gardens. It’s a sight to behold and a very cool feature of Vallejo that reminds me of some areas of Rome.
Madhatter Holiday Parade 2024
Compilation of the videos of other folks who attended:
Pictures from others who attended (even capturing us in some of the pictures):
Footage from friend Marc Svenson Thomas:
Painted Church
Driving to Hōnaunau Bay the first stop is the Painted Church.
This is still an active church with a congregation. It has interesting architecture which makes sense for this climate and has unique depictions of biblical history on the inner walls. I don’t know if we’re allowed to photograph them, but a violinist was playing at the time anyway. It’s pretty much an open-air church on amazing grounds on a hillside, which is the slope of a volcano.
