Napa Newcomers

Working at home means a big move

A Silicon Valley transplant— Bonnie Bows ultimately decided to move from Menlo Park to Napa permanently last July. Once her employer announced no return to the office, she saw no point in remaining in Silicon Valley’s astronomical rental housing market.

Before the pandemic closed offices, making it possible to work remotely from anywhere, Bonnie daydreamed of one day retiring to Napa. The revelation that she could now live in wine country before retirement was life-changing, and she immediately pounced on the opportunity.

Last summer, during the strict shelter in place order in Menlo Park, Bonnie looked forward to joining her friends virtually every Friday for a happy hour DJ set streamed live from their home in Napa.

“The Friday happy hour virtual parties from Napa kept me sane during shelter in place,” she said. “I was living by myself, separated from my friends and family. ‘Lok Dwn—Get Dwn,’ gave me something to look forward to, a time for friends to be together and break up the monotony of isolation by playing our favorite music.”

The need to be close to her friends evolved from thoughts of renting a home for the summer to buying a home and permanently moving to Napa.

“I drove up to look at a rental on a Saturday, and thought ‘why should I make someone else rich by paying rent?’ Nearly on a whim I contacted a local realtor and saw six properties the same day, and made an offer on Sunday. We closed three weeks later, and here I am.”

Originally from Kansas City, Bonnie moved to San Francisco in 2004 from Washington D.C. to pursue a career in the arts after working as an archivist at The National Gallery of Art Library.

The move to the Bay Area

JILL WALLACE-COOPER

Submitted photos

Bonnie Bows, left, with Kirill Elistratov (aka DJ Kirill) and his daughter Maya Elistratov, 8, during the “Lok Dwn—Get Dwn,” a weekly live DJ stream hosted by DJ Kirill and Devildoll.

coincided with the 2008 recession. Bonnie opted to use the time of challenging employment opportunities to invest in a graduate degree. She decided to augment her archival work experience with an MA in Library and Information Science from SJSU. Bonnie’s interest in tech, combined with data science, led to studies that expanded her career opportunities.

Bonnie’s specialty area of taxonomy led to positions beyond the traditional archival world into technology companies. Today, she works as a Senior Taxonomist (not “taxidermist,” she clarified) at a social media company.

“I build data classification models, or taxonomies, to support content understanding for machine learning algorithms,” she explained. “Taxonomies enable classifier models to understand or recognize what content is about, such as an advertisement for shoes, and infer relationships to other concepts, such as content about boots.”

Bonnie is now happily living in East Napa with her three cats; her tabby Juno, and Tybalt and Leo, two Maine Coons adopted from a Napa pet adoption fair.

“I went into the store to buy cat food for Juno and came home with two more cats. They were bonded brothers and I did not have the heart to separate. I am a softie.”

Bonnie enjoys playing her violin as a creative outlet and taking strolls through the neighborhood.

“I love walking to Oxbow Market, past Tulocay Cemetery, and across the train tracks, catching the evening light. I visit the farmers’ market on Saturday mornings to buy fresh produce for the week.

“I also like having a glass of wine downtown and people watching,” she says. “People in Napa are so glamorous. I love the Napa-style and how everyone dresses up.”

She did not have any doubts about moving to wine country. “My friend warned me before moving here that living in Napa was not like being a tourist – ‘when you live here, you will not be wine tasting every day,’ he warned me. I said, ‘you wanna bet?’”

Her neighbors have welcomed her with everything from cookies and paintings to homemade tamales.

“I was not used to this level of friendliness. People are so very welcoming and supportive,” she said. “Every week, I fall in love with Napa more. I will make a discovery or find a new bit of magic.”

Bonnie was thrilled to discover an independent Napa Radio Project KCMU, 103.3 FM, that plays “eclectic and underground music. I told my friends, ‘did you know about this, that we have an independent, local radio station?’ I sense there are many unique things happening right under the surface here; you only have to look to find them.”

Now that she is an official Napa resident, Bonnie is looking forward to becoming politically active and finding ways to contribute to give back to the community. “Special places like Napa aren’t manufactured,” she said. “They are a reflection of the people who live here. I am very fortunate to have made Napa my home. I cannot imagine living anywhere else in the country.”

“I just kept driving south”

JILL WALLACE-COOPER

Lorri Hart left the Pacific Northwest in search of sun and a fresh start.

Her decision to live in the Bay Area started with a visit to San Francisco at age 18. Through subsequent moves to Eugene, Portland, Seattle and then Bainbridge Island, Lorri kept her sights set on California. Newly single and an empty-nester, Lorri dropped her youngest off at college in Portland in 20XX, “and just kept driving south.”

Staying with a friend in Benicia while deciding where to settle, Lorri was drawn to Napa.

“One day, I just stopped the car and walked into a vineyard,” she said. “The rolling hills and smell of the earth, the beautiful light and quality of the air. It did something to me. I knew I had to be here.”

A landscape designer since 1993, Lorri moved in the direction “as if it’s already happened,” and began to seek out area groups and activities to connect with people. She became certified by ReScape California in local principles, and updated her business name, Clear the Way Landscape Design, to reflect her expanded training by adding the tagline, “a holistic and regenerative approach to your outdoor spaces.”

Never a fan of computer-aided design (CAD), Lorri’s creative process “needs to involve a pencil in my hand” at her drafting table.

Through word-of-mouth her business grew quickly, and today, Lorri’s clients include both homeowners and wineries, including fire rebuilds near Silverado Trail.

“One project usually leads to another,” she says.

Lorri is not only an advocate for her clients, but is passionate about preserving and planting as many trees as possible.

“Mature trees are the most valuable component of most landscapes, particularly our native oaks,” she said. “Hundreds of species of native insects rely on oaks, which support many native bird populations.”

Lorri has plans to find a partner and then build her own “eco-sustainable, modern, pre-fab” family compound in Napa.

“What I love most about the area – everyone has been so warm and welcoming. I love all the great wineries and restaurants. People are happy when they’re here. I’ve definitely found home.”

Jill Wallace-Cooper