Lifestyle

The first major event that comes our way in 2025 is the annual Lake Sonoma Steelhead Festival, on Saturday, Feb. 8. This one-day science fair of all things steelhead (and their allies, anadromous and otherwise), draws about 10,000 people on its single day of exhibitions and activities to the Milt Brandt Visitors Center, Lake Sonoma.

Enter the rail trail. The concept developed in the 1980s as railroads across the country were decommissioned and a growing population sought new trails to travel. Thus the Rails to Trails Conservancy was formed out of timely necessity. Nearly 2,500 rail trails nationally now span 25,000 miles, as practical a reuse of a transportation corridor as one could conceive...

Dustin Valette is a true Wine Country chef. His roots run deep in Sonoma County, and growing up here imparted a genuine appreciation for great food and wine upon him. He took time to explore the globe, but then returned to where it all began and to where his family ties were tethered....

Adel’s Restaurant, opened 34 years ago and as such perhaps the oldest continuously operated restaurant in Healdsburg, closed its doors for the last time on Wednesday afternoon, Nov. 29. The diner on Dry Creek Road just off the Highway 101 off-ramp has been a popular...

Sharp-eyed motorists have noticed a name change on a long white office building on Healdsburg Avenue, just a quick stroll away from the Quail and Condor bakery. The colors are still blue and white but the Bright Event Rentals sign is gone, and in its place the bold letters proclaim Russian Riverkeeper, now in its umpteenth home in Healdsburg, and still ready to Save the River.

“I think one of the things that people don’t think about is how long the produce lasts,” said Janet Ciel, Healdsburg Farmers Market manager. “So you buy from a farmer’s market that was picked that morning or the night before, but when you buy from a grocery store, that same head of lettuce, it’s three or four or five days in a freaking truck before you ever get it to your home!”

In what Superintendent Chris Vanden Heuvel openly said was a first, the Healdsburg Unified District School Board’s trustees voted to give a newly remodeled gym a new name: Drew Esquivel Hall, in honor of the late 2013 graduate.

Now, the core crew of 200 or so Edge Esmeralda participants who walked, biked and boarded around town this month—plus hundreds of others who dropped in for shorter stints—are preparing to vacate their Healdsburg hotel rooms, or wherever else they found to crash. And plenty of locals are left wondering what just happened, if anything at all...

t goes without saying that the first Thanksgiving was nothing like the holiday dinner we celebrate today. Right? Truthfully, it wasn’t all that different. Except we've got wine.

New Year's Eve offers a variety of fine dining options, parties, and kid-friendly activities in the Healdsburg area, as well as transportation options for those without designated drivers.