Explore the North Bay & Beyond January 2021 by Weeklys

2021

the north bay & beyond

PUBLISHED BY THE BOHEMIAN, PACIFIC SUN AND EAST BAY EXPRESS

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Introducing a familiar place to shop, dine and unwind.

RED HILL

WE ARE OPEN!!!

The center of it all Chase Bank www.chase.com • 415.453.4306 CVS • www.cvs.com • 415.456.9900 The Hub • 415.785.4802 Get in Shape for Women www.getinshapeforwomen.com 415.521.5984 High Tech Burrito www.hightechburrito.com Hot Wok Chinese Food 415.454.0877 Jillie’s Wine Bar and Shop jillieswine.com • 415.521.5500 JOLT! • www.joltgifts.com Safeway www.safeway.com • 415.458.1170 Kitty Corner • 415.747.8322 www.marinhumanesociety.org Lark Shoes www.larkshoes.com • 415.258.9954 Mathnasium of San Anselmo mathnasium.com/SanAnselmo 628.400.4002

Peet’s Coffee & Tea www.peets.com • 415.306.0310 Pet Food Express • 415.455.8888 www.petfoodexpress.com Pizzalina www.pizzalina.com • 415.256.9780 Precision 6 Haircutting 415.457.5340 Red Hill Cake & Pastry 415.457.3632 Red Hill Holiday Cleaners 415.457.9992 Sophie’s Nail Spa sophiesnailspasananselmo.com 415.459.6868 Subway • 415.456.1170 • subway.com Swirl Frozen Yogurt SwirlSA.com • 415.457.7947 Bella • 415.457.1066 www.bellamarin.com West America Bank www.westamerica.com

Spud Point Crab Co. – we are now open 7 days a week for takeout and dining at outdoor tables with limited hours and menu.

Carol’s World Famous Clam Chowder is made fresh daily. It’s a must try!

ALL COVID-19 PROTOCOLS FOLLOWED

1910 Westshore Road, Bodega Bay, CA Let us know if you have any questions! 707.875.472 | spudpointcrabco.com/

Shopping Center

2021

the north bay & beyond

FROM THE EDITOR

INNER KINGDOM

Implored to explore 4

Seek and ye shall find 22

TAKE A HIKE

The best North Bay hikes 6 NATURAL REMEDY

As easy as breathing 10 LIFE’S A BEACH

Notes from Dillon Beach 16

YOU DON’T KNOW JACK

Jack London hither and yon 26 PET RENT

Humor with fur, first and last 34

CEO & EXECUTIVE EDITOR Dan Pulcrano

DESIGN DIRECTOR Kara Brown

PUBLISHER Rosemary Olson

PRODUCTION OPERATIONS MANAGER Sean George

EDITOR Daedalus Howell COPY EDITOR Mark Fernquest CONTRIBUTORS Christian Chensvold Mark Fernquest Daedalus Howell Sara Ost Charlene Peters Jonah Raskin

See the Golden Gate, Alcatraz, the San Francisco Skyline and more, all from the air!

SENIOR DESIGNER Jackie Mujica ADVERTISING DIRECTOR Lisa Marie Santos OFFICE MANAGER Liz Alber ADVERTISING ACCOUNT MANAGERS Karen Klaber, Lori Lieneke, Danielle McCoy, Mercedes Murolo, Lynda Rael

PUBLISHED BY THE BOHEMIAN, PACIFIC SUN AND EAST BAY EXPRESS

445 Center Street, 4C Healdsburg, CA 95448 Phone: 707.527.1200 bohemian.com

Phone: 510.879.3700 eastbayexpress.com

1020 B Street San Rafael, CA 94901 Phone: 415.485.6700 pacificsun.com

1.415.332.4843 www.seaplane.com 2021 EXPLORE THE NORTH BAY

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CAN’T GET THERE FROM HERE

WE’RE ALL

Ye olde map of Scandinavia as drawn by a Venician cartographer, circa 1539.

EXPLORERS NOW W

elcome to the hangover of your life. The blurry, emotionally tumultuous, boozeaddled, Groundhog Day of 2020 with all its socially distanced sourdough of fear and loathing, Zoom gloom and conspiratorial conniptions has given way to a bright new day. Congrats, you made it. Pat yourself on the back— you know how to do that, it’s just like coughing into your elbow. It’s not only a new year, it’s a brave new world—though not necessarily in the Aldus Huxley sense. We barely avoided that one, with its totalitarian state, lack of critical thinking and grotesque consumerism. It’s a

Christian Chensvold is a native of the Bay Area just returned from 20 years wandering from Los Angeles to New York. He is the founder of Trad-Man.com, a new site on spirituality, philosophy and the Wisdom Tradition. An inveterate explorer of spaces both inner and outer, Mark Fernquest is writer and copy

brave new world in that bravery itself is a prerequisite for facing 2021’s terra incognita. I’m reminded of the old maps of yore, upon the oceans of which cartographers inscribed the admonishment, “Here Be Monsters,” whenever they ran out of continents. For those of us fortunate enough to survive 2020, we can collectively say, “Been there, done that.” Sure, there may not be a road map to 2021, but at least there is a mission. Everyone wants the world to be a better place—better than 2020 and better than before. We don’t know how this will look other than we hope it will be different than closed storefronts and tent cities. Truly, all we can do now is explore both what’s left and what’s next. From the wilds of our cities to the depths of our beings, it’s time to reacquaint ourselves with the world-at-

editor of the North Bay Bohemian and Pacific Sun and editor of The Oak Leaf magazine. Editor Daedalus Howell is the writer-director of the feature film Pill Head, author of Quantum Deadline, and is the editor of the North Bay Bohemian and the Marin Pacific Sun.

Sara Ost is a writer and editor who founded a media startup in a recession (and lived) and now splits her time between California and the Pacific Northwest. Quenching a thirst for the exotic, Charlene Peters has spent over a decade exploring wellness and wine

large and the worlds within. Here’s your word of the day: Reconnoiter, an intransitive verb, which means “To make a preliminary examination of an area or a group usually by moving around and observing” (Thanks, Wordnik). What will we see as we reconnoiter? Dunno. But a line from Backward Bill, a Shel Silverstein poem about a cowboy who bumbles through life in opposition to expectation by doing things such as riding his horse backwards, comes to mind: Backward Bill he rides like the wind Don’t know where he’s going but sees where he’s been. Yep. It’s time to saddle up, take the reins, face the horizon and move forward—not to the sunset but to the sunrise. It’s a new day and it’s time to explore again. — Daedalus Howell, Editor

destinations around the globe. She recently published the book Travel Makes Me Hungry: Tales of Tastes & Indigenous Recipes to Share. Jonah Raskin is the editor of The Radical Jack London: Writings on War and Revolution and two pamphlets about the author and his work, Burning Down the House and The Mysteries of Jack London.

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PHOTOS BY MARK FERNQUEST

FIRST STEP Often the best local hikes and walks are hidden gems like this rural alleyway.

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ALLEYS AND VALLEYS The North Bay’s best hikes and walks BY MARK FERNQUEST

’m a walker and a hiker. It’s in my blood. Growing up in the ’70s and ’80s I walked long miles through the Silicon Valley foothills and I’ve walked extensively in and around every Bay Area city I’ve lived in since. It’s what I do for fun, exercise and relaxation.

PHOTOS BY MARK FERNQUEST

What’s the difference between a walk and hike—the type of shoe one wears? Maybe. I don’t know. I’ve “hiked” on beaches and across cities, and “walked” dirt paths for miles through sublime wilderness. To me there is no distinction between the two, except perhaps the rate at which one travels. It’s been a helluva year and we all need a break. Sometimes a good, solid walk or hike is the best way to do that. Me, I’m attracted to locales that are a bit left-of-center, and that’s not just a political statement. I like places that are off the beaten path and contain unique historical, artistic or visual magic. That said, here is a guide to some of the North Bay’s best hikes and walks.

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HUT HUNTING AT SOUTH SALMON CREEK A little-used stretch of prime real estate sits just north of the town of Bodega Bay, off of Bean Avenue on the south side of Highway 1’s Salmon Creek Bridge. It’s called South Salmon Creek Beach, and it lies south of the parking lot at the end of the road. The long, sandy beach runs along the front of the area known as Bodega Dunes. Not only is this stretch of real estate wonderfully empty and pristine, it’s lined with the occasional driftwood hut. While most of these structures are small to medium in size, I once came upon a veritable driftwood mansion, replete with multiple interior rooms and a roof perch, and talked to a young man who confessed to having spent two full months building it. While this beach is perfect for brisk, soulenergizing hikes, no visit would be complete without a brief “stay” at a driftwood construct. And, if you bring your significant other, nothing says "I Love You” like a picnic in a driftwood tipi on a brisk day. Finding a way to get out of the wind is half the fun. Be sure to pack a portable camp stove for hot tea or soup during the cold

winter months, and for God’s sweet sake dress warmly and bring two blankets—one to sit on and one to snuggle under. If you are so smitten with this locale that you want more, consider returning for an overnighter at the Bodega Dunes campground. Nestled among the sandy dunes, the campsites are a short walk from the beach, allowing campers to indulge in hikes at dawn and dusk. Trust me—it’s sublime.

WALKING SANTA ROSA’S BACK ALLEYS When the coronavirus hit I burned up all my usual walks in downtown Santa Rosa. In looking for new routes I stumbled upon a network of paths sitting right beneath my nose. Santa Rosa’s McDonald Historic District lies a few blocks east of downtown, just north of 4th Street. Easily navigable, it’s an urban hiker’s dream. Historic mansions line wide boulevards and it’s difficult not to stop and gawk at the gardens and architecture. Be sure to check out the movie-famous McDonald Mansion, also known as Mableton. Built in 1876, this estate takes up much of a square block and is nothing short of majestic.

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DON’T FENCE ME IN The exurbs

offer many pastoral passages to explore.

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Keep an eye out as you walk this neighborhood or the adjoining Cherry Street Historic District or Junior College Neighborhood, and you will begin to notice side alleys. These alleys serve as driveways to the backyard garages of many of the houses. I’m told, too, that in decades past they were used for garbage pickup. They form a series of back roads that get very sparse traffic indeed. Many are downright delightful to walk. Some of them are paved, some are gravel and some are dirt. Some are pristine, while some are so overgrown as to be only traversable by foot. The first thing I notice every time I step into one of them is the silence and the clean air. They see virtually no automobile traffic and are buffered from the surrounding streets by backyards and houses. My favorite stretches are the grassy, unpaved ones littered with pine needles and shaded by tall trees. On hot days they provide respite from the sun and on rainy days they protect from the elements. The architecture one encounters in these

alleys is delightfully quaint and old-fashioned. The backyard barns, old sheds with sliding wooden doors, boarded-up shacks, cabins and any number of interestingly constructed garages all harken back to another age. These alleys stretch as far as six blocks at a go. Some are arrow-straight, while others curve randomly. They are the very definition of quiet, country lanes. If you choose to walk these quiet backalley lanes, please remember to show proper respect to all homeowners and their neighborhood. Keep the noise down, don’t linger, don’t take photographs, don’t litter, be courteous to people you meet and report any suspicious activities to the police.

THE SPRING LAKE CIRCUIT Santa Rosa’s Spring Lake is a North Bay gem, one that I enjoy greatly. Easily accessible from Highway 12 or 4th Street, it lies on the east side of town. It is often quite crowded during the summer months, but this doesn’t inhibit the ambience. As popular as this hike is, I like it because it’s beautiful, relaxing and the

oak-studded landscape just plain feels good. Also, I find that no matter where I am along the route, it’s always possible to step off the beaten path and find solitude, whether on a bench, down a side path or in the woods. I recommend parking at Howarth Park and taking the paved footpath east past Lake Ralphine to Spring Lake for the best and longest excursion. It’s possible to walk either way around Spring Lake, but I veer to the right and take the counter-clockwise route. I give myself an hour and a half to make the full circuit, though it takes less time if I don’t stop for a break. This hike passes picnic areas, public bathrooms and lakeside benches with fantastic views. It also includes a walk along an earthen dam. Spring Lake itself is 154 acres in size, with an island and kayakers. There are many side paths and roads which lead to unexpected beauty and exploration. I spent a summer teaching myself to play the didgeridoo at the water’s edge down a quiet, wooded peninsula. There they are, my favorite North Bay hikes. Each has some magic, and each is as much of a workout as I choose to make it. Have fun, get some exercise and stay safe! South Salmon Creek Beach, 116 Bean Avenue, Bodega Bay. 707.875.3483 www.sonomacounty.com/outdooractivities/south-salmon-creek-beach. McDonald Mansion/Mableton en.wikipedia.org/wiki/McDonald_Mansion Howarth Park, 630 Summerfield Road, Santa Rosa. 9am to 5pm. 707.543.3425. srcity.org/1271/Howarth-Park Spring Lake, 393 Violetti Road, Santa Rosa. 7am to Sunset. 707.539.8092. parks.sonomacounty.ca.gov/Visit/SpringLake-Regional-Park/

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Welcome to

Ginochio’s Kitchen Our beautiful waterfront patio and additional outdoor seating around the restaurant is open! Our “To Go” window is open too.

FISHETARIAN THE TRUE BODEGA BAY EXPERIENCE! FISHETARIANFISHMARKET.COM

Cooked with Smokin’ Hot Italian Love

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Voted 2019 in the Top 3 Press Democrat “Best of” for Outdoor Dining, Best Restaurant, Best Breakfast and Best Brunch

707.377.4359 | GINOCHIOSKITCHEN.SMARTONLINEORDER.COM | 1410 BAY FLAT ROAD, BODEGA BAY

BLUE WHALE CENTER 1580 Eastshore Road, Suite D • 707.377.4250

Owning & Managing Vacation Rentals in Bodega Bay Since 2001

FIND YOUR WAY In the forest that surrounds the Djerassi Resident Artists Program.

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PHOTOS BY CHARLENE PETERS

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BREATH

DEEP How eco-therapy helps to navigate the new ‘now’ BY CHARLENE PETERS

ake three deep breaths. This is all you need to start every day feeling empowered, according to Breathe to Succeed author Sandy Abrams.

PHOTOS BY CHARLENE PETERS

I met Abrams during a visit to the yearold Canyon Ranch Woodside, the newest location to the Canyon Ranch brand (in addition to locations in Tucson and Lenox, Massachusetts). This retreat property is located in a remote redwood forest about 16

miles south of San Francisco. Often referred to as an escape from the tech rat race, I consider it nirvana. Abrams, whose area of expertise is breathwork, appeared as a weekend guest speaker at the ranch, and I was intrigued about her methods. It sounds absurd to think humans would require a breathing coach, but once you’ve taken a breathing workshop, you’ll understand the variations on inhaling and exhaling, holding one’s breath for a short

count in between, or breathing deeply in a rolling manner. Many of us could benefit from a primer on the proper way to breathe: inhale enough to expand the belly, and then release the breath upwards from the bottom of the belly in a l-o-n-g, slow exhale. Modifications include holding your left nostril closed and breathing out of your right nostril for a surge of energy, while the opposite movement can create a calming effect. Breathing properly is a no-cost prescription for healing ourselves from the trauma of

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FEED THE SOUL

Dinner at Canyon Ranch Woodside with fireplace seating.

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It sounds absurd to think humans would require a breathing coach, but once you’ve taken a breathing workshop, you’ll understand the variations on inhaling and exhaling, holding one’s breath for a short count in between, or breathing deeply in a rolling manner. ««

2020 and can actually become a basic form of meditation. Canyon Ranch Woodside is the ideal place to take that first step even farther.

GRATITUDE BUILDS AWARENESS Jennifer Clarke, whose title at Woodside is Mind-Body Practitioner, sums up her take on meditation like this: “It’s narrowing the aperture, letting the mind quiet down enough to pay attention to just one thing, whether sound, sensation, walking, seeing,” with the ultimate goal to become self-aware and grateful. Throughout my visit, Clarke proved her point as she led a series of “forest bathing” meditations to guide us toward the possibilities of healing through immersion in nature, or eco-therapy. My own immersion began the moment I entered the glass-clad treehouse in the redwoods, which was my guest room and “place to disconnect to reconnect.” Once unpacked, I headed for a healthy lunch served in front of the fireplace in a sociallydistanced dining room with doors open to the great outdoors.

Chef Isabelle Jackson Nunes cooked up a lunch of seasoned prawns with locally sourced squash, and I washed it down with a cup of strong, brewed ginger-turmeric tea before group orientation, the official start of a three-or-four-day stay here. We met at the base of Sonoma sculptor Bruce Johnson’s oversized piece made of salvaged redwood, fittingly called The Void (available for a purchase price of $55,000), as we were about to empty our minds to relax. We were ushered down steps to an aweinspiring hiking path, stopping frequently to be “in the moment.” During those breaks, as instructed, we breathed in the moist green of the forest after a few days of rain … admired the velvety, moss-covered tree trunks … and delighted in the sound of talkative birds overhead. Within this quiet space, we felt our bodies and mindfully observed sensations. An afternoon workshop focused on tools to add gratitude to our lives, mainly by journaling or taking long walks. I was grateful to discuss options among the small group of women gathered in front of the

loft fireplace, and even more grateful dinner was next on the itinerary. Woodside’s locally-sourced dinner menu changes daily, and this evening’s selection included grass-fed beef from the Markegard Family Ranch in nearby Half Moon Bay. My side servings included a healthful lemon-and-parsley marinated broccolini and basmati rice. Once again, I perched by the dining room’s fireplace, this time with a bottle of 2018 Ghostwriter Pinot Noir from Santa Cruz that paired with both the flavorful steak and crème brulee dessert. At Woodside, an amenity that’s verboten at the other Canyon Ranch properties is allowed here: a menu selection of wine, beer and hard cider. In the morning, we headed to The Void for a group forest meditation. Down the hiking trail, we stopped at a “fairy ring” of redwood stumps (conveniently social-distanced). We sat, closed our eyes, and let Clarke guide our meditation with instruction to take a few deep breaths and “feel the sun on your skin, feel each inhale from beginning to end and feel each exhale from beginning to end.”

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CHANGE PERSPECTIVE

Gazing skyward from a fairy ring of redwoods.

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She continued, “Smell the earth of the forest floor and when you open your eyes, look around you to take in this beautiful path lit by golden sun rays working their way through the branches of the trees high in the canopy.” Upon opening my eyes, it seemed the uber-vibrant shades of green moss covering nearby boulders and the shades of brown tree barks surrounding us appeared more vibrant than before the breathwork. Looking up, I better appreciated the beauty of the treetops reaching for a pool of radiant blue sky. Other timely and enlightening workshops included tools for selfcompassion and forgiveness. Our takeaways were discussed over a dinner of free-range chicken, halved baked artichoke and one sea scallop, all served under a bed of creamy grains. I washed it down with a glass of Ethic Ciders Golden Rule Sparkling Dry Cider of Sonoma County. The next day, I geared up for a three-hour hike with a breakfast of grits with pork sausage and fried egg before we shuttled to the forest that surrounds the Djerassi Resident Artists Program. This unique private park is located on 500-plus acres on a former cattle ranch. Pre-pandemic, it offered free, month-long residencies to artists in the fields of dance, creative writing, visual arts and music. We took in the distant shoreline and felt the brisk ocean breeze as we walked to the forest. Once off the path and in the depths

of the redwoods, we began to spot various forms of rustic art embedded in the forest floor. Was that a witch in the trunk of a redwood? Perhaps. More importantly, we were taught much about these majestic redwoods and the process by which they convert carbon dioxide into fresh oxygen, the better for breathing healthfully and with benefit to our lungs.

NATURE-DEFICIT DISORDER IS REAL. FOREST BATHING IS THE SOLUTION. Shinrin-Yoku, roughly translated as forest bathing, is a Japanese practice developed in the 1980s and thought to improve physical and mental wellbeing. Ancient redwood trees, in particular, emit phytoncides (defined as exterminated by the plant), which are antimicrobial compounds known to reduce the production of stress hormones, lower heart rate and blood pressure, boost the immune system, speed up recovery from illness and improve mental clarity. Hugging a tree sounds funny, but the instinct to laugh at the practice is quelled once you realize it can be a path to increased happiness, given its ability to increase levels of the hormone oxytocin. Forest bathing means connecting to all things nature in order to gain feelings of calm and emotional bonding. We gathered on our final morning on

a deck tucked in the edge of the forest at Woodside, where Clarke guided us in meditation as we gently swayed in our eggshaped hammocks. With our eyes closed, she exhorted us to “feel our steps through the forest, hear our footsteps gently as we continue to walk along the path. Hear the sound of the birds singing and begin to hear the sound of a small creek nearby. Follow the trail to the edge of a small creek lined with big, beautiful stones covered with smooth, dark green and light green-yellow moss.” She continued, “Now, make your way back to the trail. Turn around and see the entire forest. Feel the calm rush over you and know that any time, any place you allow yourself to sit and stop and breathe, you can close your eyes and come back to finding that peace, serenity and calm. And then, when you’re ready to open your eyes again, you’ll see the world around you with fresh vision.” I’d spent three days learning simple, practical, no-cost ways to calm the turmoil that had built up inside me during 2020 from a combination of forest fires near my home, images of jobless/homeless/ hungry citizens, the horror of Covid-19, the presidential election and so much more. It dawned on me that, at Canyon Ranch Woodside, I had learned about the tools that could calm that turmoil, and that they were located as near as the closest forest. Charlene Peters is a travel writer and author of “Travel Makes Me Hungry.” Email siptripper@gmail.com.

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Voted Wine Country’s BEST ANTIQUE STORE 23 years +

WHISTLESTOP ANTIQUES Open daily 11am–4pm Every Day 130 4th Street • Historic Railroad Square • Santa Rosa

707.542.9474 • Whistlestop-Antiques.com

DILLON BEACH

NOTEBOOK

Exploring from Shore to Store BY DAEDALUS HOWELL

illon Beach has long confounded me. It starts with its spelling, which defies my cultural touchstones of both Bob, blowing in the wind, and Thomas raging against the dying of the light. Then there's the fact that the beach is ostensibly in Marin County but has the distinctly Sonoma County area code 707. This is all to say, that when visiting the resort town it's probably best to leave your expectations at the sandy doormat and delight in the simple seaside pleasures sure to come. ÂťÂť

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MAMMOTH MINERALS The appropriately nicknamed Elephant Rock, a natural landmark PHOTO BY DENNIS FERGUSON

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THIS WAY Dillon Beach is a brief, bucolic drive from downtown Tomales.

PINOT AND PIG The grab-n-go ham sandwich and a can of Head High pinot noir are the perfect pairing. Photos by Daedalus Howell.

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No matter your point of departure, whether you’re coming from the North, South or East, it seems the best way to reach Dillon Beach by car is through the rural enclave of Tomales (if you’re coming from the West, you’ve presumably already been to the beach). I’ve heard tell of a forgotten passage through Valley Ford that snakes around the back end of Dinucci’s Restaurant and Bar but this route robs you of the best view of the famous natural landmark known as Elephant Rock. The country road winds seaward,

carving a swath through grassy pastures and rising high enough to spy ocean swells. Eventually, you will encounter these Jumbo-sized, elephantine boulders that appear to be grazing the greenery below. They not only make for a fine, Insta-worthy photo-op, they’re also incredibly majestic and frequently cause visitors to experience fits of sudden altruism. On this particular reconnaissance trip, I witnessed a tourist suddenly taken to humbly picking up the litter less thoughtful tourists had left behind. Pay your respects to these sentries of

the sea and continue your trip through the verdant hills, which are occasionally festooned with groves of eucalyptus trees. These invasive species are the remnants of a failed enterprise known as the California Eucalyptus Plantation Company, circa 1911. The erstwhile plantation was one of many entities that have conducted business in the area since the mid 1800s. The entrepreneurs that have lent their names to the various holdings that evolved to define the beach community are a litany of hoteliers, at least one wine baron, and as of two years ago, Mike Goebel of San

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Will Bucquoy Photography

Sonoma Wine Country’s most spectacular vineyard setting Lunch, Dinner & Weekend Brunch | 9900 Sonoma Highway (CA12), Kenwood | 707.833.6326 | saltstonekenwood.com

Voted Best Outdoor Dining – Press Democrat

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PROVISIONS everything you need from beach blankets to T-shirts, hoodies and gourmet groceries can be found at the Dillon Beach General Store.

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Anselmo, who purchased the Dillon Beach Resort with an apparent commitment to ushering in its current renaissance. In short, it’s working. Goebel, who also owns restaurants and bars in San Francisco as well as Petaluma’s local fave, Brewsters Beer Garden, drilled down to the essence of the resort and subtly amplified it. As you enter the resort area, a sign jauntily invites you to “Eat Play Stay,” which could also be the title of an Elizabeth Gilbert follow up memoir. It’s also an enticement to participate in Dillon Beach 2.0, which successfully integrates the resort’s timeless seaside charm with an understated sophistication and a classy curation of goods and services. Eat Play Stay, indeed — I wish I could do all three, instead, I was on the clock as a professional day tripper (though the row of modern, tiny house-style cottages were cozy and alluring enough for me to consider going rogue). I didn’t even have time to enjoy any of the tasty offerings from the Dillon Beach Coastal Kitchen, which is operating for take out during the lockdowns, though there is a spacious outdoor patio that some elect to sneak some socially-distanced bites. Instead, I opted to peruse the wellappointed General Store which offers “Provisions — Land and Sea.” Not only will you be stunned by the stellar wine and beer selection, you will also be happy to know that there are an abundance of must-haves from beach blankets and Dillon Beach-

branded hoodies to cappuccinos made to order and sundry comestibles that would be the envy of any wine country pit stop. Local brands abound here: Griffo Distillery, Henhouse Brewing, Bellwether Farms, Equator Coffee, Marin Kombucha — there are literally dozens of the area’s beloved providers represented throughout the store. I opted for a delicious grab-n-go ham sandwich prepared by the Coastal Kitchen and a can of Head High pinot noir. Outside, I found a far off corner of the patio with a coastal view and had myself a personal picnic while another visitor’s licoricecolored labrador watched me from afar. Her name was Gizmo. Did I mention the place is dog-friendly? In fact, the General Store cashier asked if I had a dog. I said I had a son, which is pretty close, and she explained that the beach was optimal for running both. On this particular assignment, however, I never made it to the beach to run any kind of creature. I know this sounds counterintuitive given all the possibilities Dillon Beach has to offer. But here’s the thing, if the last year has taught me anything, it’s to enjoy and explore the smaller moments. A coastal breeze, a sip of wine, a view of the beach — it’s more than enough. The Dillon Beach General Store could package it in a kit and call it “Perspective.” It would sell out. Visit dillonbeachresort.com.

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OFF-WORLD IN INNER SPACE The ‘Hidden Kingdom’ Is Closer Than You Think BY CHRISTIAN CHENSVOLD

stronomers recently discovered a planet where winds howl at 1,000 miles per hour, rocks rain down from the sky and the seas smolder with lava. It was called the most extreme planet ever found, and, as K2-141b isn’t a very catchy name, the distant inferno was quickly nicknamed “Hell Planet.” Now, I know what you’re thinking: you thought that moniker belonged to Earth in 2020. Which is why if you perpetually find yourself saying “Get me off this planet,” know that it’s really not that difficult. Seekers, sages, shamans and spiritualists have been doing it for eons. All it takes is a crafty escape to your own private kingdom-not-of-this-world.

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Imaginary fiefdoms are notoriously difficult to find. Parsifal, one of the knights of the Round Table, stumbled into the secret Grail Castle, said the wrong thing, and was shot back into harsh reality. He searched for 20 years before he found it again. But here are a few tips to get started. First, find a familiar spot—say, the edge of a park or a town square—with cars, people and buildings on the one hand, and trees, flowers, birds and bees on the other. See these two realms as separate from each other, with living things in each one almost entirely oblivious to the activity in the other. Holding both in your consciousness simultaneously, note that these are indeed two different, but overlapping, worlds: one is the planet with its fine-tuned perfection, and the other is what we call human civilization. There’s nothing wrong with the “world,” or material reality. The source of your angst is the other part. Hell, as Jean-Paul Sartre said, after all, “is other people.” This gestalt shift should clarify that the world of human events is far different from the timeless realm of nature, with its eternal cycle of the seasons, day and night, life and death. You’re now on the path to the hidden kingdom. For the next step, find yourself a lazy afternoon when you can lie down and close your eyes while you listen to your

favorite music. As you slip into a meditative state bordering on a snooze, the music will lead you to your heart’s resonant frequency, the inner vibratory channel where all your memories are stored. It’s where every person, place and thing you’ve ever loved is saved; an inner radio station broadcasting wake or sleep, whether you listen or not, with fact and fiction all mixed together beyond all rationality. As you reach the hypnagogic state that precedes sleep, that favorite music you’re playing will conjure up beautifully illogical images, as friends and family and fictional characters all blend together in an archetypal reality beyond time and space. You’ll notice how all the things that vex and roil you in everyday life have magically been edited out, left on the cutting room floor by the higher intelligence operating as editor of this great narrative. This is the soul’s record of its earthly journey. And this is all that really matters. This is what will play when your life flashes before your eyes, when the pineal gland releases DMT as you exit this realm and head off on the next great adventure. You’ve now spent a few precious moments inside the inner kingdom—what in esoteric traditions is often referred to as the subtle plane. You actually go in and out of this realm all the time, you just don’t realize it. It’s where

you go when you dream at night. It’s also where your sunlit daydreams emanate from, the kinds of things that blossom in your mind presenting a vision of your heart’s desires, of the things that are most important to you. It’s the place of imagination, the source of all creative fertility when it comes to building and painting your life. Before anything was ever created in the physical realm, it began as an idea in someone’s inner kingdom. And where was it before that? Perhaps higher up still, hence the concepts of divine inspiration and the Greek muses who filled the hearts of poets with words and melodies. According to the eminent 19th-century mage Eliphas Levi, magic is essentially a psychological process, based on the combination of imagination and will, capable of manifesting fantasy into reality. Escaping into nature makes it easier to find this inner kingdom of tranquility, for in nature we discover that the outer world of sunsets and forests, and our inner world of feelings, memories and imagination, are united in a higher, invisible reality joined by consciousness. So heed the call and embark on the great journey in search of the mysterious and hidden kingdom. You may be surprised what you find, for you might just run into yourself.

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AT WORK Jack London

writing in 1905. The author was part of the radical literary enclave dubbed ‘The Crowd’ that, among other causes, unfortunately supported eugenics.

YOU DON’T KNOW

JACK On the Road With Jack London BY JONAH RASKIN

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For nearly 40 years, the San Francisco Bay Area was London’s stomping ground. In his heyday, he signed his letters, “Yours for the revolution” and added his alias, “Wolf.” A social animal and also a loner, he blazed a literary trail that Hemingway, Kerouac, Cormac McCarthy and others followed. No 20th-century writer dug deeper roots in the Bay Area than London. And no writer captured its essence more fully than he did, in books like Martin Eden, about a writer who becomes famous and takes his own life, and The Valley of the Moon, which begins in Oakland and ends in Glen Ellen in Sonoma County. A troublemaker

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PHOTO COURTESY OF WIKICOMMONS

new guide book for the San Francisco Bay Area offers dozens of exhilarating walks, hikes and historical sites for locals and tourists. A People’s Guide to the San Francisco Bay Area mentions Jack London’s The Call of the Wild, a socialist fable disguised as a dog story, but it doesn’t locate any of the places associated with the author. That’s a pity.

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The waters of San Francisco Bay lay at the heart of London’s world. One can view them from the shore in Oakland and in San Francisco, and one can literally feel and smell them on a boat ride to Alcatraz. ««

and a fiery public speaker, he ran for mayor of Oakland twice, but didn’t allow campaigning to interfere with his writing schedule. Had he lived to 100 or so, London probably would have campaigned for Bernie Sanders. Along with his devoted readers, he called for the eight-hour work day, an end to the exploitation of child labor and the right to speak freely. Curious folks can take in the highpoints of London’s world in a single day. That means traveling from Oakland, where the author roamed the waterfront, to Berkeley, where he attended the University for a semester, and then to San Francisco, where he was born on Jan. 12, 1876 to a spiritualist and her live-in lover, William Henry Chaney. London was the name of his stepfather. That day-long journey around the Bay would then end in Glen Ellen, where London died on Nov. 22, 1916, at the age of 40, an alcoholic, a workaholic and a visionary who almost single-handedly created the field of California literature. Beauty Ranch, where he raised horses and pigs, and aimed to grow crops organically, is now Jack London State Historic Park. I’ve visited it dozens of times and have introduced it to tourists from France and

Germany who love the spectacular hikes. Adults and kids of all ages are inspired by the recently revamped museum at House of Happy Walls, where Jack’s widow, Charmian, lived for several decades. The big surprise is the ruins of Wolf House, the mansion that burned down in a fire in 1913. Jack thought it was arson, though no one was ever charged and arrested. The waters of San Francisco Bay lay at the heart of London’s world. One can view them from the shore in Oakland and in San Francisco, and one can literally feel and smell them on a boat ride to Alcatraz, the island that once housed a federal prison and is now a tourist destination. London wrote about San Francisco Bay in books such as The Fish Patrol, available in an inexpensive, attractive edition from Heyday Press, a local publisher. After making a living as “an oyster pirate,” London worked for the fish patrol to apprehend pirates. Oysters are available at Hog Island Oyster Company in San Francisco’s historic Ferry Building. Jack London Square in Oakland boasts the restored cabin where London lived when he prospected for gold in the Yukon. The Square also boasts “Heinhold’s First

and Last Chance Saloon,” where the author consumed great quantities of alcohol, studied the bartender’s dictionary and amassed a vocabulary. The Square is home to stores, restaurants, hotels and an Amtrak Station. One could arrive by train from L.A. or Sacramento and eat breakfast at the Oakland Grill, the Buttercup, the Chop Bar or the Seawolf, which is named after London’s demonic captain, “Wolf” Larsen: a wolf of a man. It serves breakfast burritos and other Mexican favorites. For a time, Oakland residents wanted to erase the name Jack London from the Square, on the grounds that the author uttered racist comments. Jack London wrote a lot about Asians and Asia. One of his basic fears was that the Japanese and the Chinese would forge an anti-American alliance and make life difficult for the U.S.A. politically and economically. He called it “The Yellow Peril.” In fact, the Chinese and the Japanese became intense adversaries. London covered the war between the Russians and the Japanese in 1904-1905. When Japanese military forces defeated the Russians on the battlefield, London was shocked. He couldn’t believe that Asian soldiers defeated “white” soldiers.

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LONDON

Portrait of the author, circa 1914.

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PHOTO BY ARNOLD GENTHE

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From the heart of Oakland, it’s a short car ride across the Bay Bridge to Third Street and Brannan in San Francisco, where a plaque marks London’s birthplace. The house where he lived briefly as an infant burned down in the fires that accompanied the 1906 San Francisco Earthquake. ««

London had Asian servants, but he never regarded Asians as his equals. They could help him dress and prepare him for bed, but they were never friends. “Paternalistic” is how one might characterize his outlook.

BAY AREA BORN From the heart of Oakland, it’s a short car ride across the Bay Bridge to Third Street and Brannan in San Francisco, where a plaque marks London’s birthplace. The house where he lived briefly as an infant burned down in the fires that accompanied the 1906 San Francisco Earthquake, an event London wrote about for Collier’s magazine. He also took dozens of black-andwhite photos that document the damage. Some of them can be viewed on the website for the California Department of Parks and Recreation (www.parks.ca.gov/). The smoke from the fires reached all the way to London and his second wife, Charmian Kittredge, on their mountain top in Glen Ellen. They packed their bags, decamped for the city and recorded the catastrophe. As a journalist, London also contributed regularly to the San Francisco Examiner, the newspaper made famous by William Randolph Heart, a.k.a. “Citizen

Kane,” that’s now free and in boxes nearly everywhere. “San Francisco is like the crater of a volcano,” London wrote on May 5, 1906 in “The Story of an Eyewitness” and with the city still smoldering. “The bankers and the businessmen have already set about making preparations to rebuild.” Glen Ellen was, in London’s day, a sleepy hamlet. It still doesn’t have a Starbucks, a McDonald’s or a Walmart. That’s part of its charm. But there are good places to eat, including the Glen Ellen Star and the Fig Café, which have offered take-out all through the pandemic. There’s also the Jack London Saloon, a place one can go to soak up ambiance. Jack London Ranch Road climbs from the valley floor into the hills until it arrives at Jack London State Historic Park, which has been staffed and operated for years by locals, with help from Sacramento. In the early 20th century, visitors often took the train to Glen Ellen. Alas, that’s no longer possible. But the drive by car, whether on Highways 12, 116 or 37, runs across eye-popping landscapes and along cascading vineyards. Due to Covid-19, visitors can’t visit the museum at House of Happy Walls, once Charmian London’s home. Also off-limits is the cottage which

boasts artifacts she and Jack collected during their globetrotting days. Despite the pandemic, visitors walk, bicycle and gallop on horseback across a huge estate where London built a sturdy silo and a round house for pigs that the media called “a palace.” Picnic tables are available, as are restrooms. The old buildings, which were constructed with rocks and stones from the valley floor, exude the kind of romance that tourists often associate with Rome and Venice. London scholar and Santa Rosa resident, Susan Nuernberg, tells me that visitors to the park enjoy the miles of well-maintained trails. “The scenery is beautiful and the views are spectacular,” Nuernberg says. “Hikers can climb all the way to the top of Sonoma Mountain, or they can circumnavigate the peak. The signage is good.” The further away from paved roads, telephone poles and houses, the more you feel you’re in the wilderness. In a state such as California, where old buildings are routinely torn down to make room for new buildings, the ruins of Wolf House are truly unusual. Gazing at the outlines of the chimneys that reach for the sky, and musing on the stone walls, one

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ENTER HERE Oakland’s Jack London Square.

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can imagine the grandeur of the home which London hoped would last 1,000 years. So much for the big dreams of the bestselling author who wrote 50 books in less than 20 years, even as he welcomed a steady stream of visitors that included artists, translators, anarchists and ex-cons. London served them martinis and regaled them with tales of his own adventures, which still stir scholars such as Geoff Dunn, a Santa Cruz journalist, historian and London expert. “Jack was one of the most important American writers from about 1900 to the start of World War I,” Dunn tells me. “His stories have traction; he’s still widely read

and his insights about poverty and social stratification are as valid as ever.” London’s memoir, The Road, led to Kerouac’s On the Road; his novel The Iron Heel gave birth to Orwell’s 1984; and his first-person reporting on the war between the Russians and the Japanese in 1904–1905 opened a door for journalists who battled government censorship in World War I. Before you explore London’s Bay Area you might want to read or reread The Call of the Wild, White Fang or The Sea-Wolf. East Coast literary stars who ought to know better habitually turn up their noses at Jack and his oeuvre. That’s their loss.

PHOTO BY TONY WEBSTER

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, LAST AND DEPOSIT Appeals Judge Issues Decision in Controversial Pet Rent Case BY SARA OST

n a landmark lawsuit that has gripped the region and pitted the pet-haves against the pethave-nots, U.S. circuit Judge Pete S. Cockburn decided in favor of the defendant, child social worker and homeless volunteer Mia Cordero, 31, bringing to a close a lengthy Bernal Heights renterlandlord dispute.

The case, which has played out breathlessly in worldwide media coverage since March 2020, centered on whether or not the landlord, a t-shirt entrepreneur, aspiring rapper and Jamaican food truck company chief executive who self-styles as

Trés but whose legal name is Joey Chad Ryan Jr., had the legal right to charge Cordero’s pets rent, and to subsequently attempt to evict them for failure to pay their pet rent. The matter, which appeared at first blush as a simple misunderstanding between a landlord and a tenant over a rescue cat named Bubbles and an aging dachshund named Banana, soon took on ever more wild heights of complexity. “In what has certainly been one of the strangest matters of my judicial tenure in the 9th [San Francisco Circuit Court of Appeals], but not the absolute strangest,” wrote Cockburn in his decision, “I find the plight of Bubbles and Banana to be a timely example of extreme landlord abuse, improper litigiousness and, finally, a willful denial

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The service iguana incident further tangled the media narrative, as a debate about regular pets versus service pets versus emotional support animals exploded in online media. ««

of a standard of reasonableness to which we should hold sentient but non-human creatures in a court of law.” Chad Ryan, 48, who is not Jamaican, inherited the property involved in the dispute from his deceased mother, Karen “Candy” Chad Ryan, sometime in late 2019. After his initial attempt to double rent across the board for all nine tenants failed in January 2020, Chad Ryan quickly employed a number of other efforts to increase his revenues from the property due to “struggles getting his second memoir published” and claims of cost overruns for the fabrication of his food truck. (No evidence of a first memoir—other than a self-published pamphlet listed on Amazon.com titled Don’t Make Me Creep!—has been found.) “Simply: Pets cannot pay rent because they do not understand what rent is,” wrote Cockburn. “While the plaintiff is correct in his argument that a pet could, in theory, earn income—such as, according to him, through ‘sidewalk stuff, busking, rodent killing, and other errands’—it does not follow that a pet could understand a contractual agreement and as such, a pet clearly cannot be held accountable on a lease.” Cordero signed the lease on the secondfloor studio apartment in February of this year, for a one-year term. She says that

while she disclosed her pets, Bubbles and Banana, at the time, there was no discussion of pet rent. A copy of the lease, which does include a requirement for a pet security deposit, supports her claim. At first, Cordero thought her new landlord was playing a misguided prank. “It’s hard to even know where to start,” Cordero says. “Trés used to send me literal messages in the middle of the night demanding to know if Bubbles had gotten a job yet. Another time, he put a political poster on my door that said how entitlements are for lazy people, which I guess means renters, that we are bankrupting entrepreneurship in this country.” On the poster, the judge notes Chad Ryan had crossed out “people” and added “and pets!” to the illustration. “My basic point to him was that landlords can’t force tenants’ children to pay rent, because children can’t legally sign a contract and generally don’t or shouldn’t have to earn income,” Cordero says. “It would be wrong. So, how is a pet somehow magically supposed to be able to pay rent? That’s what the pet deposit is for.” Chad Ryan, representing himself as the plaintiff, initially brought a legal complaint after his attempts to evict Bubbles and Banana, but not to evict Cordero “because

she’s been paying her rent,” were ignored by the defendant. He sought recompense for “back rent from the smushy-face cat and the old weiner dog” as well as damages for his apparent emotional distress. But without a lease agreement in place to charge pet rent, the complaint was dismissed within 20 minutes. The saga, however, was only beginning. “At one point he even emailed and asked me what Banana’s FICO score was, and said that if either pet’s score fell below 650, it would be grounds for eviction. I was like … they’re pets?” Cordero says. The dismissal did not deter Chad Ryan, who appealed the decision and expanded his complaint to include his civil rights. Meanwhile, relations between the landlord and the tenants grew fractious. At one point, Cordero came to learn that her neighbor directly across the hall, who wishes to remain anonymous, was not being held to the same expectation despite having a pet iguana. “Trés said it was a service iguana and therefore did not have to pay rent, and then he berated me publicly on Facebook as ‘ableist.’ I mean, I’m a social worker,” Cordero says. The service iguana incident further tangled the media narrative, as a debate about regular pets versus service pets versus emotional support animals (a non-working animal and thus controversial category) exploded in online media. At one point, #lizardsagainsttheBs—a dig at Bubbles and Banana—became a trending hashtag on Twitter. Simultaneously, colony collapse activists misunderstood the hashtag and, in an episode emblematic of the modern media climate of fragmentation and interference, were deceived by a Chamber of Commerce– affiliated bot platform into participating in a smear campaign against Cordero. “I woke up one morning to shouting outside my window,” Cordero says. “It was an event being held against my supposed anti-lizard and anti-bee sentiments. Bubbles and Banana had no clue what was going on. They just thought it was another San

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Francisco thing, I’m sure. I mean, we didn’t have a conversation about it.” Chad Ryan, who also lives in the building he owns, was involved in the ensuing melee, blasting his new “Caribe-baby Cali-maybe fusion” album and shouting insults at Bubbles and Banana through a megaphone. “I won’t repeat them,” Cordero says. “Mainly because I couldn’t understand them.” In an ironic twist, the neighbor with the service iguana called the authorities to disperse the event. “I mean, Mia definitely has nothing against bees,” says the neighbor. “That’s when I felt like Trés was taking it too far. Plus, she’s always been pretty nice to Harold.” (Harold is the tenant’s service iguana.) In his conclusion, Cockburn notes, “Chad Ryan, who goes by Trés, dba as Caribebaby Cali-maybe fusion LLC, appears to have enacted a number of schemes and campaigns hostile to the tenant and her

pets, including protests, social media screeds, bot attacks, and other various forms of harassment. In his effort to extract $45 more per month in rent from his tenant, who had already paid the pet deposit, he has escalated what should have been a petty matter to one of the highest courts in the state, and as a result, is likely to prove instrumental in setting back the growing spate of recent efforts by landlords to charge pets rent, as tenants reasonably argue that residents such as minor children and pets cannot legally consent to pay rent.” “Oh, he already tried to charge kid rent,” says Harold’s owner, upon being read the judge’s decision. “I guess that didn’t come up in court. One of our neighbors came home to find Trés had enlisted his eight-year-old twins in painting that old ice cream truck of his.” (Whether the ice cream truck is also the Jamaican food truck is unclear; Chad Ryan

has not returned our calls and emails.) Further investigation revealed that the parents took him to court for exposing their twins to toxic fumes and for committing labor trafficking and wage theft of a minor. The family settled out of court for an undisclosed number of free months of rent. “That’s probably when he got the idea to go after Bubbles and Banana,” Harold’s owner says. There is a happy ending in all of this, just not for Trés. @bubblesandbanana has become one of the biggest pet-influencer accounts on Instagram—with over 2.7 million followers. Cordero says she was not only able to move into a nicer, bigger 1-bedroom apartment in SOMA last month, she is now able to afford to send her niece to college with the extra revenue she earns from the social media platform. “So it turns out, Bubbles and Banana actually can earn money. But they still can’t pay rent,” she says.

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