Phila Airport Parking Vacations

Head to Northern California and on the outskirts of the Santa Clara Valley you’ll find the town of Los Gatos. Hemmed in by (do you know the way to) San Jose and the city of Campbell, Los Gatos has inherited the overflow of handsomely paid Silicon Valley executives and programmers. While Cupertino has Jobs, it’s the company with the red envelopes that has put this cozy town on the map.

The town enjoys the lion’s share of beautiful terrain in the Valley. It’s strategic location gives it nourishing water table and a series of lush parks, dense tree lines and generally more moist conditions, unlike its baked neighbors to the north. Comparisons to the verdant expanse of Marin County are not in short supply.

Settled in 1868, the town wasn’t officially incorporated until 1887. This makes it one of the oldest towns in the area. Curiously, it was named after the concentration of mountain lions in the region, referred to as La Rinconada de Los Gatos, which, in Spanish, translates to “The Cat’s Corner.”

Before 1900, the town could only boast approximately 1,500 residents. Today, the town has a population of approximately 35,000 residents. Furthermore, it is experiencing phenomenal growth thanks to the success of such entertainment and gaming giants as Netflix and Cryptic Studios. Moreover, it is absorbing a fair amount of people from the nearby Silicon Valley.

The area is not a stranger to commerce. During the early 1900′s, it was a hub for the wheat, milling, logging, and canning industries in the 19th and early 20th centuries. Today, it is an emerging high tech hub. Furthermore, the town is quickly becoming a popular tourist destination. It boasts one of the best-preserved, most picturesque downtown areas in all of California. The intersection of cafe culture and rural attractions has lured its fair share of tourists from San Francisco and San Jose.

When in Rome, make sure to book yourself into a sumptuous room in any one of the Los Gatos hotels on the market.

There are several places in Marin County where you can sit down and have dinner and drinks and hear live music. You may have to eat dinner elsewhere before going to a few other places, but get ready. Live music is truly alive and well in Marin County! Yes, its true that three towns in Marin County have more than one place thats their claim to fame. Fairfax is well known for its line up of nightclubs on Broadway, including The Sleeping Lady, Peris Silver Dollar and 19 Broadway. These places really rock most, if not all nights of the week.

For the more sedate among us, theres Sausalito, which features three places with live music. These include Saylors, which used to be Sailors Landing; the No Name Bar, which jumps with live music every night of the week; and Taste of Rome, which used to be Cafe Trieste. Both Saylors and Taste of Rome feature live music on the weekends.

The following are listings of Marin Venues with live music.

Bolinas

Smileys Schooner Saloon, 41 Wharf Road, Bolinas, Tel: (415) 868-1311. There is a full menu and bar. Bands play every night of the week, including reggae. Web: coastalpost.com.

Fairfax

The Sleeping Lady, 23 Broadway, Fairfax, Tel: (415) 485-1182. Live music nightly. Web: sleepingladyfairfax.com.

Peris Silver Dollar, 29 Broadway, Fairfax, Tel: (415) 459-9910. Varied music is offered nightly except hip hop and reggae. Monday is open mike night.

Nineteen Broadway, 19 Broadway, Fairfax, Tel: (415) 459-1091. Full bar. This place bills itself as “the hottest nightclub in the North Bay.” Live music most nights ” jazz, blues and rock.

Mill Valley

The legendary Sweetwater, New Address: 32 Miller Avenue, Mill Valley, Tel: (415) 388-2820. Music is featured nightly. Note: As of this writing, the new and improved Sweetwater is still under construction.

Nicasio

Rancho Nicasio, Town Square, Nicasio, Tel: (415) 662-2219. Well-known entertainment venue with restaurant. Music like Zydeco, blues, rock, rockabilly, jazz and more.

Point Reyes Station

Station House Cafe, full menu and bar. Music on Sunday nights. Folk, Americana. Main Street, Point Reyes Station, Tel: (415) 663-1515.

San Rafael

Fourth Street Tavern, full bar. Live music most nights. Eclectic, many kinds of music. 711 Fourth St., San Rafael, Tel: (415) 454-4044.

Panama Hotel, 4 Bayview St., San Rafael, Tel: (415) 457-3993. Live Jazz is performed Tuesday and Thursday and every other Wednesday. Bar & restaurant are featured. This place is a Bed & Breakfast in San Rafael. Full menu and bar.

Petes 881, 721 Lincoln Ave., San Rafael, Tel: (415) 453-5888. Ask for Randy. Full menu and bar. Jazz band every other Tuesday.

Sausalito

No Name Bar, there’s a small jazz combo 5 nights a week, Tuesday through Saturday and Sunday afternoon. 757 Bridgeway, Sausalito, Tel: (415) 332-1392.

Saylor’s (was Sailor’s Landing) Restaurant & Bar, Friday and Saturday – light music, including soft jazz, blues. 2009 Bridgeway, Sausalito, Tel: (415) 332- 1512.

Taste of Rome, Italian food, coffee and tea. Music Friday, Saturday and Sunday nights. Jazz and other types of music. 1000 Bridgeway, Sausalito, Tel: (415) 332- 7660.

Because these kinds of listings change over time, it’s important to telephone the venue to verify this information.

Gather around my Spanish-impaired friends and listen carefully to today’s word: sauzalito. Nice, eh? Say it a few times, slowly and revel in the Ricardo Montalban impersonation that is slowly taking you over. Once youve cycled through the soft Corinthian leather phase of Montalbans career, Id like to make clear sauzalito means the small willow grove.” So what, you say? Fair enough. But, if you ever find yourself at the northern end of the Golden Gate Bridge, you will thank me for the ten minutes of small talk this piece has bought you.

The former “Rancho del Sausalito” (hurry and get the Montalban out of your system), the city of Sausalito enjoys a distinction few cities can boast of: its partially submerged. Hows that? Well, in 1868 the city had plans to follow San Franciscos example and expand the citys perimeters with landfills (see, also, Manhattan). Well, that landfill never got filled and several streets have since ended up under the Richardson Bay.

A watery fate the Spanish could never have imagined a hundred years earlier. Though the Spanish, specifically Don Jose de Canizares, had settled the Bay Area in 1775, their emphasis was fortifying Mission Dolores and the Presidio in San Francisco. Sausalito would not enjoy ” if thats the right word ” development until the late 1800s, when its plentiful timber would make its way to the shipyards of the boom-time Bay.

William Richardson, an Englishman by way of Mexico, managed to marry into Don Ignacio Martnez’s family and was awarded the tract of land that is present-day Sausalito. Nice work if you can get it, and not a bad wedding present to be sure. During and after the Gold Rush, Sausalito managed to attract a number of artists and celebrities who appreciated the towns picturesque qualities. A few names of note are Alan Watts, the purveyor of Zen Buddhism, Shel Silverstein, the poet, Otis Redding (who composed Sitting on the Dock of the Bay whilst doing just that), and the newspaper magnate, William Randolph Hearst.

With lush Marin County sprawled to one side and the San Francisco Bay on the other, Sausalito remains a popular tourist attraction. Barring the submerged parts of the city, it is easy to see how someone could scour the Sausalito hotels, bunk down, and never decide to leave. It is a perfect counterpoint to the bustle and congestion of San Francisco and though the cost of living may be too rich for some, it is always available to vacationers and tourists eager to sit on the dock of the bay and waste the time away. Indeed, Mr. Redding. Indeed.