Get Out Bay Area

Where: 1350 N. Main Street, Walnut Creek, CA
When: Fridays, July 16th-August 20th
Cost: Free admission
Website: www.walnutcreekdowntown.com

Sounds Around Town will take place six Fridays in a row, July 16th – August 20th from 5:30pm-8:30pm. This event invites guests to stroll though the many unique retail shops and restaurants of Downtown Walnut Creek, while enjoying some of the finest shopping, food and music. Many downtown businesses are providing special promotions on the dates of this event. For a complete listing of promotions & musical locations, visit www.walnutcreekdowntown.com.

Where: First and Main Streets in Downtown Napa, Napa, CA
When: August 28, 2010 1pm-6pm
Cost: Free Admission
Website: http://napadowntown.com/bbandbbq.html

Enjoy BBQ ed beef, chicken – even oysters, and sauces to buy. Musicians include a blues review, KFOG stage and more. Wine makers will compete in a rib eating contest. Beer, Napa Valley wines and other beverages available. The event is free and open to the public.

Where: First and Main Streets in Downtown Napa, Napa, CA
When: August 21, 2010 10am-3pm
Cost: Free Admission to public; Registration to show your car $35 before 8/6; after $40
Website: http://napadowntown.com/mainstreetreunion.html

Join the Napa Valley Cruisers and the Napa Downtown Association for one of the most popular events in downtown Napa. Stroll the streets viewing 400 pre 1976 cars ,while enjoying  music by the Time Bandits. Cars will be judged and awards given in 29 categories. Tee shirts, henleys and baseball caps w/ pre registration. Food, beer, wine and other beverages available. The event is free and open to the public.

Where: Main and Second Streets in Downtown Napa, Napa, CA
When: September 11, 2010 10am-6pm
Cost: Free Admission
Website: http://www.napadowntown.com

140 artists will show their original hand crafted art. Enjoy a glass of Napa Valley Wines as you stroll the street. Three small stages and one main stage will feature great jazz. Food and other beverages throughout. The event is free and open to the public.

Arrrrr… Talk Like a Pirate Day may be a couple of months away, but we took the opportunity to hone our skills this weekend at the Northern California Pirate Festival.

Thousands showed up for this annual event located along the Vallejo waterfront. Even though we arrived a few hours after it opened, we were able to park well within walking distance, which only gave us more time to enjoy the pirate costumes as we made our way to the entrance. Admission was free, but they did ask for donations at the door in order to keep the festival free – we gladly obliged.

With any festival like this, there’s the threat that it could rapidly descend into campy territory. Not here – these folks take their pirating seriously! There weren’t any dime-store Halloween costumes here. Most of the costumes were beautiful, elaborate arrangements, ranging from scruffy-looking deckhands and wenches to true pirate royalty. Most surprising were the number of attendees dressed in the type of finery one might expect from English aristocracy during this time period. Pirates and pirate-hunting British naval officers intermingled along the crowded routes snaking through the festival grounds.

The pirate theme seems to be a crossroad genre, incorporating some of the same fashion and flair from renaissance fair, goth and punk communities with just a wee bit of S&M thrown in for good measure. One merchant sign we came across summed it all up – “Boots and Boobs”.

The music was fantastic, though we only caught three acts. The all-woman sea chantey group Queen Anne’s Revenge focused on songs from the perspective of women at the time, which were just as bawdy and hard scrabble as the traditional tunes sung by men. Dogwatch really got the crowd singing and clapping, especially as they were joined off stage by a reveler dancing in time with a hula hoop. The group Pirate Charles surprised us – when they took the stage with an electric guitar and drum set, they raised my skepticism. But they belted out traditional and non-traditional tunes to a heavier beat that fell perfectly in line with the pirate way of life – sort of like a pirate version of the Dropkick Murphys.

The wares on display ranged from simple trinkets to beautiful handmade outfits that anyone would be proud to wear among their fellow pirates. Attendees could purchase gorgeous wooden tankards, flasks, hand-struck medallions and all manner of bodices, corsets, boots and other finery for the ol’ pirate chest.

The pirate theme took a bit of a break at the food court. How, exactly, are gyros and burgers related to pirates? There were meat pies, oysters and – of course! – turkey legs, but you had to do a bit of searching for these. It was a bit jarring to see a gelato stand nestled between a “haunted pirate adventure” booth and a display of cutlasses.

All told, though, it was an incredible time and great festival experience. Though we attended this year in street clothes, we’re already planning our costumes for next year. We plan on making this an annual family tradition!

See all of our photos from this event on Flickr, then add your own to our public Flickr Group!