Travels With Heart: Exploring Local

By Annie Bowler March 3, 2026 Volume 32

John and I took a much-needed break recently and boy, did we have grand fun! We headed

to the “Grass Valley Center for the Arts” to hear the “American Patchwork Quartet” a group that reinterprets traditional folk songs with a "masterful confluence of tradition and innovation;" they combine American folk with global influences, including West African rhythms and East Asian musical elements. We enjoyed delicious Italian at Cirino's at Main Street and explored many one-of-a-kind shops on Mill Street.

We happened upon an estate sale and literally got the deal of a lifetime; we bought a wool

and silk Iranian Nain carpet for a crazy low price. This Nain carpet has approximately 600

knots to the square inch and is one of the finest carpets made.

John was born and raised in Saudi Arabia, so he grew up around Middle Eastern carpets. In fact, our first business venture together was importing fine Middle Eastern carpets including Nains and brought them back to California to sell. The business was a flop, mostly because we didn’t have the right look; we were too young, too hippy looking, for people to trust us. People must have thought we stole the carpets! We learned a lot and it was a great adventure sipping tea and bartering with carpet merchants in Iran! Thus, though we have more rugs than we need, but we just had to buy this rug for old time’s sake!

We headed down the hill and straight to a Sacramento Kings game with Fran, Marisol, and

their kids. The Kings lost by 3 but the “Hello Kitty night” was a hit with Elena. It was fun to

hear Fran analyze the Kings strategies with Mateo and Elena, who are both playing on basketball teams. All in all, we had a fine few days!

It warmed my heart to watch the selfless monks who walked from Texas to Washington

D.C., more than 2,300 miles, for peace. Difficult weather and serious injuries did not deter them. It moved me that thousands of people came out to hear them speak on their final days of their very long and hard journey. Countless others listened or watched from far away like I did. It gives me hope for our world that perhaps we can live in peace.

I love lots of sports but I’m not too keen on football. (Sorry, but it’s too rough and tumble for

my taste.) That said, I always enjoy the Super Bowl halftime show and the great commercials because, well, I’m an American and this is arguably America’s biggest sports day of the year.

I loved this year’s Super Bowl half time show! It was a beautiful, high-energy celebration of

Puerto Rican culture. Bad Bunny artfully added elements of Puerto Rico’s challenges to his

show, specifically men working on power poles which referenced the ongoing electrical

problems that continue since Hurricane Maria struck Puerto Rico seven years ago.

America has long been considered a melting pot of cultures; after all, unless you are of

Native American heritage, you or your fore-parents were immigrant. To me, the fact that we are all immigrants is America’s strength. Just look at the wide range of delicious foods and interesting cultural events from all over the world that you can enjoy here in our region! It is high time for us to embrace the many cultures that make up the America people, including the 57 million Spanish speaking Americans. The Super Bowl halftime show gave us all a change to appreciate the wonderful Puerto Rican culture.

I just finished reading a wonderful book, The Correspondent by Virginia Evans. It’s funny,

and insightful, sad yet uplifting. The story was told through letters which sounds very dull,

but it wasn’t at all; rather it was a fascinating way to understand the main character, who in late 70s was finally willing and able to look at and communicate about the hard parts of her life. This book was very much worth reading!

As many of you know, this has been a very strange winter with crazy big storms followed by many days of dry, too warm weather. John and I live in an unusual community where we share ownership of the land behind our homes; some of the acreage is used as pastures for horses; people can walk through these pastures anytime they like. I feel especially lucky that beautiful, friendly horses spend their days behind my house, but I never have to take care of them!

One of my favorite times to walk on our trails is right after a big storm. J.T. and I had a great time exploring the common area behind our house recently. No surprise… we discovered that we had lots of water!

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Last weekend’s California Democratic organizing convention in San Francisco was fabulous. Normally I stick close to the convention site but this year, I took a field trip by MUNI to tour SF’s newest park, Sunset Dunes. The event was hosted by Scott Wiener who is running for Congress to represent the San Francisco region.

Sunset Dunes is a wonderful strand-like park that stretches south for 2 miles starting at

Golden Gate Park. This used to be the “The Great Highway,” but because of rising seas and

blowing sand, it needed to be repurposed. It is now a wonderful walkway and bikeway

that gives better access to a long stretch San Francisco beaches. There are numerous sculptures and interactive public art installations along the way. My favorite is “Ocean Calling” Having lost many dear family members and friends, this interactive installation moved me deeply. I will return!