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David Licht Our Favorite Things WHAT IS THIS PLACE we call wine country? To the many visitors, it's fine restaurants, afternoons spent sipping liquid bouquets, and languorous trips down the Russian River in rented boats. For those of us lucky enough to live here, it's all those things and more. It's catching a spirulina buzz at the Health & Harmony Festival. It's enjoying the golden drop of vineyard leaves in the fall after all the tourists have gone home. It's dressing a child up as a chick for Petaluma's Butter & Eggs Day parade. It's swinging a basket of fresh produce at the Thursday Night Market. It's the cool splash at Memorial Beach at the end of May. It's the entire town of Penngrove, with its sweetly curious frontier feel and the Palace of Fruit roadside attraction. It's standing in a candle-lit mission during the Christmas season, eating gingersnaps and singing sacred songs with strangers. It's being buzzed by an owl while sitting in the cheap seats at the Sonoma County Fair rodeo. It's picking up rubbish at the beach; the old-fashioned circus calliope on the Petaluma Queen; free summer concerts in Healdsburg Plaza; and sunset at Goat Rock. It's the place we call home. Best of Your Town Best Town Picks for Kicks New College of California Best of Life Staff Picks Flamingo Resort Hotel Ann Woodhead The Sitting Room Best of R&R Staff Picks Johnson's Beach Rasta Sharks Best of Love Staff Picks Ferguson Observatory John Ash & Co. Best of Eats Staff Picks The Sonoma Hotel The Belvedere Korbel Champagne Cellars Best of Kids Staff Picks Toyworks Best of Everyday Stuff Staff Picks Monkey Wrench The Last Record Store 'Best of' staff picks by: Jon Asturias, Dylan Bennett, Greg Cahill, Gretchen Giles, Paula Harris, Liesel Hofmann, Daedalus Howell, Bob Johnson, Sara Peyton, B. L. Prando, Bruce Robinson, David Templeton, and Marina Wolf. [ Sonoma County | MetroActive Central | Archives ]