Columnists

One unusual Friday night, with no plans on our calendar, my husband and I went to Sarah’s Vineyard for their Sunset Music Series. For $60 we enjoyed some of the finest pinot noir on the Central Coast, dinner and live music amidst an amazingly beautiful, 360-degree vista.

On a recent Sunday afternoon, a group of us followed the Wine Trail of Santa Clara Valley and stopped in at Kirigin Cellars, which has been making wine on the property since 1916. There are so many things to love about Kirigin Cellars: to start with, their expansive property comprises rolling vineyards, over 1000 rose bushes and 100 sequoia redwoods.

I love living in Gilroy. We’ve got the natural beauty of open space (for now, anyway), mountains all around us, an extremely friendly community, the Premium Outlets and best of all, a dozen or so awesome wineries right in our very own backyard.

Like the rest of our countrymen we celebrate the signing of the Declaration of Independence on July 4. The difference is that we add in a huge dose of local pride and make it a patriotic event done the Morgan Hill Way—and then we invite the world to come visit us.Back in the old days it was usually the local government that put on the big Fourth of July events. We’ve defined the Fourth with the imagery of parades and fireworks, and maybe a picnic with watermelon too.Most of those sources of funding are long gone and in most communities the parades and fireworks are gone too. But not in Morgan Hill! We now have more going on in our “little” community than ever.The grandest local events surrounding July 4 are put on by the Independence Day Celebrations (IDC) nonprofit organization. They have not only shouldered the work of organizing the parade but are also solely responsible for making sure that our nighttime sky is still filled with fireworks to complete the day of memorable patriotic images.I couldn’t go to all of the events but from all reports I can tell you that on the evening of July 3, the IDC started throwing a party!Sunday’s Patriotic Sing was punctuated by remembrances of former mayor, and dear friend, Dennis Kennedy, and local attorney William Brown. Both men are known for their giving to the community and are sorely missed.I was there for the Family Street Dance and I’m telling you that bringing it back to the downtown was the right thing to do—not easy but right. The move back downtown was for the benefit of the community, but it put a huge burden on the IDC staff. They needed to break down all of the stages and tents, and clean it all up before the next day’s parade—a huge job that doubtlessly leaves many volunteers sleepless that night.The next morning everything looked great; of course, it was a little difficult to tell since the streets were buried under tens of thousands of people (maybe 50,000 I heard?).Our 140-year-old parade is officially the epicenter of Santa Clara County on July 4. By extension I think we can claim that we are Silicon Valley’s official Fourth of July Parade.  So it was an incredibly beautiful day and the parade had over 150 entries—it was the perfect day and place to sense that small town America still means a lot to everyone.I was on the Downtown Association float and I’m telling you that we had an incredibly cheerful crowd in attendance. We had decorated our float to look like the ever popular pop-up park, which everyone seemed to recognize, so it was almost a given that we would feel nothing but love. I’ll never forget that parade it was like being in an old-time movie.We missed the fireworks since we spend every Fourth of July evening with our dogs. They fear those loud explosions and stuffing them back into their skins can be mighty tough.We might have missed the fireworks but we got an opportunity to reflect on a great day and toast our community for countless reasons. Here’s a toast to Fourth of July done right.John McKay is a Morgan Hill resident, interim president of the Downtown Association, city planning commissioner and co-founder of the Morgan Hill Tourism Alliance.

The 47th TheatreWorks Silicon Valley season starts out with a strong production that fits well with current events. Confederates is set during a presidential campaign with a “snag.” The people who find it, work it, providing an example of how far the media will go get the story while staying within the law. It’s a story of how one almost innocent mistake can upset an entire future. Superbly written by playwright Suzanne Bradlbeer, three magnificent actors show how they manage the situation at hand.

The city of Gilroy Recreation Department and the Gilroy Children’s Theatre, led by director Hillary Little, have brought the Disney musical production of Beauty and the Beast Jr. to Gilroy High School Theatre. Fifty-plus kids 6 to 16 gather and have as much fun as the audience. Mothers, fathers, aunts and uncles and grandparents in the audience whoop it up and support the kids in a formative theatrical adventure.

Cordevalle deserved better than the finish it got on Sunday to close out the 2016 U.S. Women’s Open.

FOMO, or the fear of missing out, prompted my husband and I to abandon San Jose and move to Gilroy. With approximately 50 wineries between Morgan Hill and Hollister, the dizzying array of music, wine and food events throughout the summer—many of them free or at very low-cost—offers something for nearly everyone.

SAN MARTIN—So first of all, I cannot oversell just how amazing it is to walk around Cordevalle and hear the languages being spoken and the accents of those speaking.

With media credential in tow, I spent a couple of hours walking the golf course at CordeValle on Thursday for the first round of the U.S. Women’s Open. So what’s the spectator experience for a tournament like this? Pretty enjoyable—and that’s an understatement.