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The season is winding down for those wonderful outdoor festivals. We only have a few events left, and then we’ll have to nourish our adventurous souls on memories or become more pack-like and venture out in small groups of friends and families over the winter.I realize that going out to these festivals is not for everyone, but I think they do hold something for just about everyone.There’s usually some food and some form of adult beverages, most likely music, shopping and nice people. Often, you get the owners of the businesses and brewery or winery right there serving and talking to you.What’s not to like?This weekend you get a double dose of fun. Both the Morgan Hill Downtown Association and the Wineries of Santa Clara Valley have events planned.Weather alert! It’s going to be in the 70s—perfect outdoor event weather, special ordered.Saturday afternoon, Oct. 14, the Downtown Association hosts the Brew Crawl. This event will bring in 19 breweries and a specialty drink (think selzer) to pour samples at various businesses in Morgan Hill’s downtown.The focus of the Brew Crawl is to bring in as many small craft breweries as possible to make the event special. Craft brews are taking the adult beverage world by storm and some of the finest will be here.This year there will be two check-in points to complement the two biggest sponsors of the event: The Trail Dust restaurant and Running Shop & Hops store and tap room.This event starts at 1pm and ends at 5pm, so enjoy those beverages and consider sticking around for dinner and shopping afterwards. Tickets are $35 in advance and $40 day of event (if there are any left…).The big weekend actually gets started a day earlier with the Wineries of Santa Clara Valley’s Passport Friday Night event. This is a private event, but you can find out how to be a part of it by purchasing tickets to the weekend of tasting for $40—that’s an entire weekend of tasting with over 25 wineries participating.Friday night, 19 wineries will be serving tasting pours all in one location—The Morgan Hill Community and Cultural Center. This two-hour evening event (6 to 8pm) usually sees more of the winemakers themselves pouring their wines since it is a smaller crowd and shorter event. Don’t miss this intimate private event.If you got that Wine Passport you’ll have a pass to the over 25 wineries that will have all kinds of special treats in store all weekend for wine tasters on the prowl.The wineries really put on their best face for the weekend of tasting. Besides pouring samples of their fine wines, many will have entertainment and food. Some of the wineries are getting to be known for their special food offerings.  We should all be proud of our local wineries; their wines are just getting better and better, and tasting these wines in their festive settings just seems to make them even tastier.So get plenty of rest, eat well and get out starting Friday night to have a great time as you can only do right here in the South Valley.Brew Crawl info:morganhilldowntown.orgPassport Weekend info: santaclarawines.comJohn McKay is president of the Morgan Hill Downtown Association, city planning commissioner and co-founder of the Morgan Hill Tourism Alliance. He can be reached at [email protected].

A couple columns ago, I wrote about the Aquila Loop Trail, a short loop near the Sierra Vista Open Space Preserve parking area. In that column, I promised to return to walk the longer loop that reaches deeper into the preserve.

Last week was a big week in the world of planning for our community. The Morgan Hill Chamber of Commerce, Morgan Hill Downtown Association and the Morgan Hill City Council all held their annual planning retreats.Every year, most organizations will spend an extended period of time really focusing and digging into understanding what it is they do and how they are going to do more of it and do it better.Looking to both the past and the future are all part of creating a meaningful and attainable vision.We spend time looking at the past to see how we did; most of what I’ve seen has been pretty good in my opinion. 2017 was a pretty good year if you believe in constant planned improvement in how we operate as a community. I mean this in the broadest sense with things like seeing public art going up, the Friday Night Music Series blowing up, the increased popularity of the downtown, expanded industrial activity, fundraising events reaching new levels in quality and effectiveness, our Fourth of July and Holiday Lights parades growing and adding definition to who we are, public parks with private partnerships opening downtown; the list goes on and on…We will spend a lot of time gazing into a future that is incredibly bright. That bright future could look different to each person in an organization, and must be distilled to ones they can agree to champion as an organization. Courses to a vision must be charted by mere people, often volunteers that practice a level of good common sense that is not so common these days. I would even call our city councilmembers elected volunteers with their level of compensation.Advice from professionals in the different fields of interest is usually available in Morgan Hill, but ultimately it is really up to the dedicated amateurs to make decisions and chart courses to the visions of the future.So I guess what I am working toward is giving recognition to all of those people that work so hard to make this community what it is in so many ways.Thank you to the city council for the countless hours of work that so often go un-thanked. Thank you to the Board of Directors of the Chamber of Commerce, Downtown Association, Independence Day Celebrations, Kiwanis, Historical Society, AAUW and more…Thank you for paying attention to the past and seeing a vision for the future of Morgan Hill.Thank you for having the courage to make decisions that might ultimately prove to be wrong because no one makes all of the right decisions except for the one who makes none, and then they already made one bad one to begin with…Thank you to the professionals who help guide us amateurs. Thank you for putting community ahead of self. As far as I know, not one of you has made a fortune from all of your hard work, contrary to what some may say.Thank you to all of you who are considering joining the ranks of our volunteer community.Thank you to all of the volunteers of all types that make Morgan Hill truly community driven.John McKay is president of the Morgan Hill Downtown Association, a city planning commissioner and co-founder of the Morgan Hill Tourism Alliance. He can be reached at  [email protected].