Boots on the Ground: The Weekend Is Getting Bigger

I've got a problem.

My phone is filling up with pictures of the Bay Area.

“The calendar can tell you where to go. The story begins when you get there.”

— Mike MacPherson

And increasingly, I didn't take them.

Friends are sending me pictures from concerts. Family members are sending me pictures from farmers markets. People are coming back from places they've discovered and telling me what they found.

One person even took something she read on SF Bay Weekend with her on vacation and used it as a guide.

I've started calling them my Boots on the Ground.

And I think they may be showing me what SF Bay Weekend can become.

Nancy Took the Playbook to Tahoe

Nancy is a very good friend, she's good friends with JM, and she also happens to cut my hair.

She and her husband, Alonzo, are on my bocce ball team.

Actually, that's not quite right.

I'm on their team.

Nancy is the capo.

So when Nancy came back from a recent weekend in Lake Tahoe with a Boots on the Ground report - after actually referencing JM's Playbook while she was there - I was listening.

One of JM's recommendations was Riva Grill on the Lake, so Nancy and Alonzo went to check it out.

And if you're going to Riva, apparently you have to talk about the Woodys.

Nancy started with Riva's world-famous Wet Woody.

Then she tried the Red Headed Woody.

Her verdict?

She loved them both, but if she had to choose, the original Wet Woody got the slightest edge.

Alonzo went in another direction and ordered the 30 Year Old Woody, made with a double shot of 15-year-aged Eldorado Rum.

But the drinks weren't really the point.

They loved the experience.

JM's Tahoe playbook also included the drive to Genoa, Nevada. Nancy and Alonzo had been there before, but they made the drive again, walked around town and enjoyed another stop from the playbook.

Then they added something to it themselves.

They stayed at the recently remodeled Caesars Republic Lake Tahoe and loved what had been done with the property.

And on Sunday night, they went to the outdoor Lake Tahoe Amphitheatre for Tedeschi Trucks Band with Lukas Nelson.

Nancy raved about the outdoor venue and the experience.

That wasn't in JM's playbook.

It was in theirs.

Think about the circle.

JM went to Tahoe.

He came home and told us what he found.

We published it.

Nancy read it.

She went.

She followed some of his recommendations.

Then she found a few things of her own.

She came home and told me about them.

Now I'm telling you.

That's more than somebody reading an article.

That's somebody actually using it, and then adding to it.

Follow the playbook. Then make it your own.

And since we're talking about Nancy, she's the proprietor of Hair's The Place in Clayton, just a couple of doors down from Ed's Mudville Grill. If you're ever in Clayton and need a haircut, stop by. Nancy is the best.

Sometimes It's Just a Cinnamon Roll

I got a smaller version of the same thing myself at the Diablo Valley Farmers' Market in Walnut Creek. I found a very long line for cinnamon rolls, had no idea why, and didn't get one. I left carrying a roasted chicken from Roadside Rotisserie instead.

On my way out I met a father and his college-age daughter, home from Pepperdine. Saturday morning at the farmers market was their tradition. And of course, they were eating the cinnamon roll.

So I asked. "How is it?"

Fabulous.

Then they noticed the chicken and told me they'd had it before. Very good. They were right.

Sometimes the best person to ask is the person standing there eating it.

Then Other People's Weekends Started Showing Up on My Phone

On Saturday, August 15, Pam - JM's wife - went to the Ferry Plaza Farmers Market in San Francisco.

The Ferry Plaza Farmers Market is one of the free events listed on SF Bay Weekend.

Then she sent me pictures.

And they're beautiful.

The produce. The market stands. The Ferry Building. The waterfront.

One gorgeous photograph looking out toward the Bay Bridge.

I found myself staring at those pictures and getting a tremendous amount of satisfaction from them.

Here was an event that sits on SF Bay Weekend as a listing.

But now I was seeing someone's actual Saturday morning there.

There's a big difference between the two.

I don't know whether Pam chose Ferry Plaza because she saw it on SF Bay Weekend. I'm going to ask her, and I don't want to make that connection unless it's true.

But even if she didn't, something important had happened.

She went.

She experienced it.

She saw something worth sharing.

And she sent it back.

Boots on the Ground.

Saturday Night Looked Completely Different

While Pam was walking through Ferry Plaza, Dolly's weekend took her somewhere completely different.

On Saturday night, August 15, she was at Toyota Pavilion at Concord for the So Glad You Made It Tour, featuring 311 and Dirty Heads with Ocean Alley and Rome.

She took pictures.

Now I want the report.

Not a professional concert review.

I want the stuff you'd tell your friends afterward.

What was the crowd like?

What surprised you?

What should somebody know before going to a show there?

What was the moment you'll remember?

Would you do it again?

Because the bands will change.

The experience of spending a summer night at Toyota Pavilion is something else.

The Story Begins When You Get There

An event listing can tell you who's playing.

It can tell you when the farmers market opens.

It can give you an address and tell you where to buy a ticket.

That's useful.

That's part of what SF Bay Weekend does.

But it can't tell you about the father and daughter eating cinnamon rolls together because going to the farmers market is their tradition.

It can't tell you that Nancy tried the Wet Woody and the Red Headed Woody and gave the original the slightest edge.

It can't show you the picture Pam took looking toward the Bay Bridge from Ferry Plaza.

And it can't tell you what Dolly noticed from where she was standing.

People tell you those things.

A picture leads to a question.

A question leads to a conversation.

Someone goes somewhere.

They come back with something new.

And the circle starts again.

I want people to take something they find on SF Bay Weekend, go experience it and come back with something of their own.

Follow the playbook.

Then make it your own.

My phone keeps filling up with pictures.

Turns out that's not a problem at all.

It's exactly what I hoped would happen.

The calendar can tell you where to go. The story begins when you get there.

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Next stop: Martinez, California.

I'm heading out to check out the Art Street Festival.

We'll see what I find.

More details to come.