The Dipsea Beer Booth, a time-honored tradition at the annual Mill Valley Fall Arts Festival, is getting an upscale, adults-only neighbor for the event's 59th edition, set for Sept. 19-20 (10am-5pm) in Old Mill Park.

The Finish Line Bar and Café, a shaded and secluded seating area featuring a bartender crafting cocktails, premium wines by-the-glass and tastings from local wineries plus a chef serving a limited small-plate food menu of lettuce wraps, shrimp and salads, will debut at the MVFAF next to the Dipsea Beer Booth. Both will be located under the redwood trees creekside in OId Mill Park.

Much like the beer booth, which has historically raised funds for the Dipsea Race Foundation's community programs, the Finish Line Cafe & Bar will be staffed by foundation volunteers, who will take food and drink orders from seated patrons at tables in the adult-only Finish Line Bar and Café. Proceeds from the Finish Line Bar and Café will also go to benefit the community programs of the Dipsea Race.

The Dipsea Race has a long-running relationship with the Mill Valley Falls Arts Festival dating back to the 1970s when Dipsea Face Foundation Director Emeritus Jerry Hauke was a member of the MVFAF committee and created the Dipsea Beer Booth. The booth, designed then to recruit race volunteers and serve beverages to MVFAF patrons, is expanding this year “in an effort to provide a more relaxing and enjoyable experience for Fall Arts Festival visitors while continuing the Dipsea’s long-established commitment to community outreach,” said Merv Regan, president of the Dipsea Race Board and Dipsea Race Foundation.

Sonoma County wine maker and artist Willow LaLand Yeilding will be showing her paintings and offering wine tastings as well. See one of Yeilding's paintings, below right.

The 411: The 59th annual Mill Valley Fall Arts Festival is Sept. 19-20 (10am-5pm) in Old Mill Park. Tickets are $10, $5 for seniors/students and free for kids under 12. More info and to buy tickets.

The daughter of renowned nuclear physicist Jack Rosengren and raised in the shadows of the famed Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory, mixed-media artist Margot R. Graham brings a distinctly mathematical and abstract voice to her work.

Her latest series, “Landscapes in Space” – on display throughout the month of September at the Mill Valley Chamber of Commerce & Visitor Center (85 Throckmorton Avenue, Tuesday–Saturday, 10am–4pm), including at the Mill Valley Arts Commission's First Tuesday Artwalk on September 1, 6–8pm – is proof positive of that.

The First Tuesday Artwalk, Mill Valley's monthly celebration of local art features a host of venues, including the O’Hanlon Center for the Arts, Seager Gray Gallery, the Mill Valley Public Library, Zener Schon Contemporary Art, Julie Tuton Boutique, the Depot Bookstore & Café, City Hall, Famous4, the Mill Valley Community Center and the Throckmorton Theatre. Receptions at each venue are Tuesday from 6–8pm. First Tuesday Artwalk Guide with venues and a map.

“Landscapes in Space” sees Graham, who has exhibited her work at galleries and museums in both the New York and San Francisco metropolitan areas, breaking into new mediums and methods of composition.

“This collection includes a range of small and large works that illustrate abstracted landscapes amid semi-celestial color fields,” she says, noting that she “builds up and extracts layers of paint and other mixed media elements for the work, including pencil, spray paint, collage, oil sticks, and oil pastels.”

Graham says personal connections influence many of her choices for each piece, guided by a specific palette and a strong sense of visual harmony.

“I like to allow the influence of chance and risk-taking to contribute and to lead to the final development,” she says.

The 411: Margot R. Graham’s "Landscapes in Space" mixed media series is on display throughout the month of September at the Mill Valley Chamber of Commerce & Visitor Center (85 Throckmorton Avenue, Tuesday–Saturday, 10am–4pm), including at the First Tuesday Artwalk on September 1, 6–8pm.

The free Movies in the Park series, which kicked off in Old Mill Park in 2014 with screenings of the blockbuster Lego Movie and the classic 1941 animated film  Hoppity Goes to Town, returns with an expanded lineup in 2015.

The event, a collaboration between the Mill Valley Chamber of Commerce, City of Mill Valley’s Recreation Department and the California Film Institute, begins this Friday, August 28, with a screening of Maleficent, the 2014 live-action re-imagining of Walt Disney's 1959 animated film Sleeping Beauty, from the perspective of the antagonist played by Angelina Jolie. Maleficent was fourth highest-grossing film of 2014 and received an Academy Award nomination for Best Costume Design at  the 87th Academy Awards.

The Movies in the Park series continues Friday, September 25 with Big Hero 6, the 2014 3D animated superhero comedy that tells the story of a young robotics prodigy named Hiro Hamada who forms a superhero team to combat a masked villain. The film won a Academy Award and Golden Globe Award for Best Animated Feature.

The series concludes on Friday, October 16 with a screening of the legendary classic Wizard of Oz.

The free film screenings are set in the redwood grove adjacent to the playground in Old Mill Park. Seating is general admission, and attendees are encouraged to bring a blanket and/or low beach chair. The main feature begins at sunset.

“We’re delighted to continue our partnership with our friends at the City and CFI on what is be a fantastic series in a truly spectacular setting,” Mill Valley Chamber of Commerce Co-Director Paula Reynolds says. “Events like this bring our community together, stimulate our local economy and deepen the Mill Valley Film Festival’s ties to the town from which it derives its name.”

Jenny Rogers, the City’s Recreation Director, says "We look forward to partnering with the Chamber of Commerce and the California Institute in bringing more outdoor free movie events to the community in the years to come.”

John Morrison, the California Film Institute’s Education Director and MVFF’s Children’s FilmFest Programmer, says the venue “amidst the redwoods in Mill Valley has always been a favorite spot of mine, so working with the Recreation department, the City of Mill Valley and the Chamber to produce a film event there has been such a pleasure all around.”

Two years after he created Mount Tam Jam, a day-long music festival to benefit Mount Tamalpais State Park, Mill Valley resident Michael Nash is back with a similar event under a different name but the same premise: put on a raucous, exciting concert and raise money and awareness for Mount Tam.

Sound Summit – Nash's double entendre moniker for the festival – is set for Saturday, Sept. 19 (11am–7pm) in the 3,750-seat Cushing Memorial Amphitheater, home to the Mountain Play.

"Our ultimate aim is to make Sound Summit an annual, sustainable revenue source, a festive event that honors the spirit of the mountain, its legacy, and its many gifts," Nash says.

He's lined up a fantastic roster of bands to achieve those goal, including the celebrated Tedeschi Trucks Band, Dr. John & the Nite Trippers, Marin favorites the Mother Hips, the Portland Cello Project and the Mother Truckers.

Although Mount Tam Jam was a success by many measures, with bands like Galactic and Cake drawing a sell-out crowd and raising $25,000 for the park and garnering the approval of state park officials, it did not continue, as event sponsor Tamalpais Conservation Club decided to both not be involved in any future rock shows on the mountain and to keep the rights to the name Tam Jam, even though they had no plans to use it.

Nash kept at it, creating the nonprofit organization Roots & Branches Conservancy to sponsor the festival, which is the second (after Mount Tam Jam) major rock show to occur on Mount Tam since the Summer of Love in 1967. 

The 411: Tickets for Sound Summit are on sale now. Adults are $90, children 12 and younger are $45 and kids under 2 are free. More info.

Over the course of her 23-year career, Sarah Silverman has drawn widespread acclaim as a stand-up comedian and as an actress in both TV (The Simpsons, Bob's Burgers) and film (The Aristocrats, School of Rock), largely on her ease – and willingness – to make the uncomfortable funny.

But in the intense addiction drama I Smile Back, Silverman looks to make the uncomfortable simply discomfiting, playing attractive, intelligent suburban wife and devoted mother of two Laney Brooks, whose seemingly picture-perfect life belies the fact that beneath the façade she's ridden with depression and disillusionment that send her careening into a secret world of reckless compulsion.

Ih her portrayal of Brooks, Silverman displayed such dramatic chops that she'll be honored with the Mill Valley Award during a Spotlight event at the 38th Mill Valley Film Festival, which runs Oct. 8-18.

After I Smile Back debuted at Sundance Film Festival in January, Silverman drew rave reviews, with Variety's Scott Foundas declaring, "Rarely has a performer striven so concertedly to shed any trace of his/her comedy roots as Sarah Silverman does over the course of I Smile Back, an addiction drama in which the acerbic comedienne gives the kind of warts-and-all, let-it-all-hang-out (body parts, fluids, etc) turn that awards' consultants dreams are made of..."

The Mill Valley Film Festival screening of I Smile Back, a film adaption of a novel by Amy Koppelman, will be followed by a line on-stage Q&A with Silverman and a presentation of the MVFF Award.

Raised in New Hampshire before attending New York University, Silverman joined comedy juggernaut Saturday Night Live in 1993 as a writer and feature performer. She's garnered two Emmy Awards and a Grammy nomination.

The California Film Institute will unveil the complete schedule for the 38th Mill Valley Film Festival on September 15.

Watch Sarah Silverman and the filmmakers of I Smile Back discuss the film at the Variety Studio at Sundance:

Want to know what's happening around town? Click here to subscribe to the Enjoy Mill Valley Blog by Email!

Three-day event features more than 55 new documentaries about biking, climbing, surfing, kayaking, environmental activism, eco-awareness, conservationism and humanitarianism.

Adrenaline junkies, outdoor lovers and documentary film buffs have three thrill-seeking days headed their way Sept. 18-20 in the form of the Throckmorton Theatre's 4rd Annual MountainFilm adventure and environmental documentary festival.

The event features more than 55 films plus guest speakers and discussion panels. The event kicks off with a screening of Meru, which chronicles three men's attempt to ascend Meru (also known as Shark's Fin), a formidably jagged peak in India (see trailer below), and concludes with a screening of Unbranded (see trailer below), which documents a young Texas horseman's plan to prove the worth of wild horses and raise awareness about their plight by adopting, training and riding wild horses 3,000 miles from the Mexican border to Canada through some of the American West’s wildest terrain.

Click here for the full festival schedule. Single event tickets go on sale August 26. Three-day festival passes are on sale now.

As Henrybuilt founder Scott Hudson sees it, the American kitchen has been playing catch-up as industrial design savvy has made huge imprints across our lives, from phones and cars to clothing and bikes.

In the 14 years since he created Henrybuilt in a shed on Vashon Island, Washington, Hudson and his team have made significant strides to that end, melding the flexibility, creativity and warm modernist aesthetic of high-end American custom kitchens with Europe's integrated approach to kitchen design. Henrybuilt is named after Hudson’s grandfather Henry Spurgeon Hudson, a cabinetmaker, carpenter, stone mason and farmer in rural North Carolina.

Now Henrybuilt is ready to show off its work at its first-ever California showroom, which opened earlier this summer in the former Mill Valley Auto Service space at 356 Miller Avenue.

“The last place we wanted to be is on kitchen system row or near a design center in the traditional sense,” Hudson says of the Miller Avenue showroom. “Working with Henrybuilt is not about ‘shopping’ for a kitchen. Here we were able to establish a destination in an amazing space in a community with a great history and feel with which we share a lot of values. Coming to Mill Valley to see Henrybuilt sounds like a pretty nice day, doesn’t it? “

Though the 4,000-square-foot space is the firm’s first in California, Henrybuilt has been working on projects in the state for years, with more than 500 projects in the Golden State to date, include several in the 94941. And the Mill Valley space plays a major role in the company’s plans: it’s the only showroom outside of Manhattan or Seattle, the latter of which is the company’s headquarters and home to its 40,000 square foot engineering and manufacturing facility, where the lion’s share of Henrybuilt’s 50 employees work.

“We love Mill Valley,” says Lisa Day, Henrybuilt’s director of marketing. “It’s got a great vibe, it really fits with us and it’s a great destination for people on the way to Napa or Sonoma.”

The Miller Avenue showroom is designed “to highlight Henrybuilt’s focus on what it feels like to live with its products as well as its ability to create tailored design solutions for every room in the home.”

While Henrybuilt also builds furniture and storage systems, the kitchen is its primary focus.

So what exactly is a kitchen system? Henrybuilt says it’s the only American company that has managed to strike a balance between the two predominant ways high-end kitchens are made – similar to the famous Mac-PC divide.

In the U.S., most high-end kitchens are completely customized, one-off projects that see a homeowner or architect directing multiple manufacturers on each component, from backsplash and cabinets to countertops. That frequently ends up being a costly and time-consuming venture and lacks a unified design, Day says.

In Europe, it’s quite the opposite, with all of those components designed to work together – “the kitchen almost as a car” without the flexibility of a custom kitchen.

Hudson saw that both approaches had merit but wondered, “why can’t I get the industrial design sophistication of a system but with the quality of a real high-end mill worker and that focus on user experience?”

Day says that Henrybuilt’s combination of system engineering and holistic design solutions has done just that. 

The 411: Henrybuilt’s Mill Valley showroom at 356 Miller Ave. is open Monday–Friday, 10am–5pm and by appointment. 415.360.2915. More info.

The arrival of the 2015-2016 school years means that the Mill Valley-Sausalito Multi-Use Path is about to get a surge in users. 

To make sure that the path remains safe despite the uptick in foot and bike traffic, the City of Mill Valley and the County of Marin are re-energizing the Share the Path campaign to improve functionality of the paved path, highlight the recent physical upgrades, educate about a new 10 mph slow zone adjacent to Bayfront Park, and bring heightened awareness to the top priorities of safety and enjoyment.

The renewed Share the Path campaign, which initially kicked off in early May and was prompted by an outcry of concerns after a cyclist collided with two boys on the path in September 2014, injuring all three, is in coordination with local Back to School Day on August 26 and International Walk & Roll to School Day on October 7.

County officials have re-installed signs to coincide with various back-to-school promotions. Classroom education will start in October in partnership with Safe Routes to School. Permanent pathway graphics along the path and at intersections will be implemented by the end of 2015.

Take the "Share the Path" survey to share your thoughts about the campaign.

"The health and safety of our residents is one of our primary Core Values," Mayor Kenneth R. Wachtel said. "This campaign will make everyone safer by reminding all users to be courteous, know the rules and be responsible." 

Share the Path was initiated by a partnership comprised of the County of Marin, the City of Mill Valley and the Marin County Bicycle Coalition. In September 2014, an accident occurred on the path between a cyclist and two pedestrian youths. After the accident, the City of Mill Valley took immediate action to improve safety on the pathway by placing enhanced signage and directing public safety personnel to have a regular presence to enforce safety rules on the path. Member agencies have worked together over the past 6 months to improve safety and to create this public information campaign.

Share the Path includes:

• Tables with public education materials at several coming events.
• Targeted outreach to local schools, bikers, dog walkers, and other path user groups.
• An “I share” pledge for path users to promote courteous use.
• Colorful temporary signs along the pathway with simple, positive messages enticing people to “look and listen,” “use safe speeds,” and “keep right, pass left.” 
• Permanent signs reminding visitors that they are sharing the path with others.
• The launch of www.sharethepathmarin.org.  
• Promotion of a #sharethepath hashtag for social media sharing.
• Additional speed enforcement, with speeders facing a $158 ticket

The Share the Path campaign is funded by Measure A, a quarter-cent tax officially named the Marin Parks, Open Space and Farmland Preservation Transactions and Use Tax Ordinance of 2012. The campaign will be evaluated periodically for its effectiveness.

What do you think of the Share the Path campaign so far? Has it been effective and made the path safer? Tell us in the Comments below.

Local legend will celebrate the 45th anniversary of her landmark ditty with an August 23rd musical and multimedia performance at the Throckmorton Theatre – catch a sneak preview at Mill Valley Chamber Mixer at the Depot Bokstore & Café on August 19.

For Rita Abrams, the annual anniversaries of her “Mill Valley” song with the Strawberry Point Third Grade Class remind her of her deep ties to the 94941 and her moment of mini-stardom, when her song about a town that “looks as pretty in the rain as in the sun” briefly brought the 94941 into the national consciousness.

But while each of those anniversaries has brought back fond memories and reunions with her (now-middle-aged) former students, Abrams admits that the song’s stunning success – it spent three weeks on the Billboard Hot 100 and became a radio staple – had remained a bit of a blur.

“It all just happened so fast back then,” she says with a laugh.

To add clarity to that blur, and as a new way to celebrate the song, Abrams and Terry McGovern, the KSFO disc jockey who played the song on the radio for the first time in June 1970, have built an entire show around the song itself.

“We’ve had lots of great fun over the years celebrating the song’s anniversaries,” Abrams says. “But this is the first time that we’ve done an actual show built around it. It’s very gratifying and a lot of fun.”

They’ve created an audio-visual component about the song and its history – photos and interviews with the likes of Sammy Hagar, former Rolling Stone editor Ben Fong-Torres and many of the Strawberry Point students who sang on the song. It also includes short films, particularly the original “Mill Valley” video, shot by a young filmmaker named Francis Ford Coppola before he became Hollywood royalty, as well as “Mill Valley Redux,” the 2014 recreation of the song by local filmmaker Tiffany Shlain.

The multimedia piece will be a major part of the 45th Anniversary Celebration at the Throckmorton Theatre on August 23. Catch a sneak preview of that show at the Mill Valley Chamber of Commerce’s August 19th (5:30pm) Mixer at the Depot Bookstore & Café.

“It’s like opening up my amazing scrapbook to my whole community and friends,” Abrams says of the multimedia component. “The things I’m finding are remarkable.”

The Throckmorton show will feature also feature plenty of remembrances, including McGovern and Bay Area TV personality and Marin resident Celeste Perry reading some of the more dramatic and touching fan mails Abrams has received over the years.

“I still get them!” she says.

Abrams says she’ll also open up the remembrances to the audience itself, asking attendees to share their own “Mill Valley” song-related stories.

“I want people in the audience to feel free to tell those stories,” she says. “It will be a very full night,” with a party in the Throckmorton lobby to follow.

Abrams wistfully mentions that she moved to San Anselmo nearly a year ago. “I still feel very rooted in Mill Valley though. And it gives me an excuse to come back now!”

Two weeks after her Throckmorton show, Abrams will be back at the downtown venue on September 6 with New Wrinkles, the “hilarious and heartfelt” musical she co-wrote with Gerald Nachman and Morris Bobrow that “serves up the pains, perils, and poignancy of aging in heartfelt and comedic sketches and songs.”

The 411: The "Mill Valley" Song 45th Anniversary Celebration at the Throckmorton Theatre (142 Throckmorton Avenue) is August 23 at 7pm. Tickets and more info. Abrams will preview the show at the Mill Valley Chamber's Mixer at the Depot Bookstore & Cafe on August 19 at 5:30pm.

Want to know what's happening around town? Click here to subscribe to the Enjoy Mill Valley Blog by Email!

The Mill Valley Arts Commission's annual Concerts in the Plaza series – now in its 30th year – always serves up a mix of vaunted veterans and emerging upstarts – giving Mill Valley a soundtrack to the summer in the process. At the August 9th edition of the concert series on the Depot Plaza, attendees were in the presence of some local rock royalty.

The afternoon kicked off with Loris Rowan and Caribbean Bleu, the latest project from the multi-instrumentalist, founding member of Marin County rock-reggae band The Edge and a member of the legendary Rowan Brothers musical family. The band's set featured a fusion of Americana meets Latin and Caribbean influences, a sound they described as "Jimmy Buffet-meets-Paul Simon-meets-Sting-meets-Bob Marley."

The Linda Imperial Band followed with a set of hard driving rock 'n' roll blues that likely gave many longtime locals a trip in the way-back machine. Fronted by the powerful pipes of singer Linda Imperial, the band features David Freiberg, the multi-instrumentalist who  holds the singular distinction of having been associated with more of the original San Francisco bands than any individual, boasting membership in Quicksilver Messenger Service, Jefferson Airplane (briefly) and Jefferson Starship. It also features Steve Valverde, Peter Harris, Doug Freedman and David Kaffinetti. 

Concerts on the Plaza begin at 2 pm Sunday, with each band playing for 45 minutes. The series continues this Sunday with a lineup featuring `Til Dawn, the Youth in Arts A Cappella ensemble, and Swing Fever, a staple in the Bay Area's jazz scene since 1978. Short bios for each are below. 

Bring your lawn chairs and dancing shoes!

Til Dawn – 2–2:45pm
`Til Dawn, the Youth in Arts A Cappella ensemble, is an advanced vocal music program for motivated young artists. `Til Dawn celebrates the value of the arts, encourages positive messages about meaningful social issues, and inspires children of all ages. The group performs a mix of rock, pop, blues, jazz and soul standards and contemporary hits, in addition to original songs by group members. The group rehearses twice a week at Youth in Arts and participates in three weekend retreats throughout the year. They maintain an extensive year-round performance schedule, singing at schools, community events and charitable benefits. On May 31, `Til Dawn has a full length concert at San Domenico School in San Anselmo to highlight each of the individual students and celebrate the seniors.

Swing Fever – 3–3:45pm
Since 1978, Swing Fever has been a swinging staple in the Bay Area, California and across the western United States. The band spent 14 years on the California Arts Council’s touring roster, doing several hundred concerts around the state. They have played two Monterey Jazz Festivals and countless others as well as four San Francisco Black & White Balls, too many prestigious performances to list. They are lucky enough to have Denise Perrier, who is one of the best jazz vocalists anywhere. Rhythmic, romantic, torrid and witty…this is our music and we’re crazy for it. Watch out, you may catch Swing Fever too.

Go here for the full slate of 2014 Concerts in the Plaza performers.

From being named one of America's 20 best small towns by Smithsonian Magazine to more recent love from Conde Nast Traveler, Mill Valley has been on the receiving end of plenty of compliments over the years. But the latest attention to come our way – the Super Bowl 50 Host Committee's "50 Perfect Hours in Mill Valley" – might just make us blush.

Here's the lowdown: The 50th edition of the Super Bowl, the National Football League's championship game and the biggest sporting event in America, is set for February 7, 2016 at Levi's Stadium in Santa Clara. The Super Bowl 50 Host Committee, which is raising the money to put on the Super Bowl and managing all of its planning and production, is celebrating some of the top destination towns and cities in the Bay Area, hoping to get attendees of the big game to spend extra time here before and after.

The committee tasked San Francisco writer Katie Morell with creating digests for a series called "50 Perfect Hours." To date, she's highlighted places like Palo Alto, Pebble Beach, Napa Valley and Walnut Creek. In her story, which has since been picked up 7x7 Magazine, Morell describes Mill Valley as "an idyllic town of 14,000 residents with tons of green spaces and leafy downtown streets filled with one-of-a-kind shops, art galleries and restaurants perfect for strolling at any time of day.... Mill Valley is a magnet for tourists from around the world, many of whom want to move immediately following a visit."

Morell's "perfect way to spend a 50-hour getaway in Mill Valley" begins at the Mill Valley Inn downtown, waking to its delicious complimentary breakfast before heading to the Depot Bookstore & Café before browsing shops like OSKA and and Summer House.

A bike ride around the lower slopes of Mount Tam follows, before a respite and dinner at El Paseo – A Marin Chophouse and some live music at Sweetwater Music Hall. The following day begins with grabbing a picnic lunch at Mill Valley Market and heading off to Muir Woods National Monument and Mount Tam State Park. Morell recommends moving over to the Mountain Home Inn – "a secluded hideaway perched within Mt. Tam" – for the next night. End your Perfect 50 Hours in Mill Valley by rising early to see the sunrise from the balcony before dashing off.

What do you think of "50 Perfect Hours in Mill Valley"? What would you have added? Tell us in the Comments below!

A Romanian artist who lives in San Anselmo won the Mill Valley Fall Arts Festival's annual image contest.

"Tree Spirit," originally an acrylic painting from Boglarka Pataki-Barothi, was chosen by festival organizers to represent the 2015 edition of the landmark Mill Valley event, set for September 19-20 in Old Mill Park.

Boglarka Pataki-Barothi is currently showing the painting, dubbed "Tree Spirit" – appropriately so given the festival's home in a grove of redwood trees – in a juried exhibition at San Luis Obispo Museum of Art's "Brushstrokes 2015."

"All the beautiful and very precious trees that surround us, are alive," Pataki-Barothi says of her painting. "It seems like they all have a shy little fragile spirit living in them peeking out to look down on us with motherly love and care for our well being. We should respect them as real living beings. I hope my painting will carry on this message."

Boglarka Pataki-Barothi was born in Transylvania, Romania. With an artist father, art and creativity were part of her everyday life. She studied traditional art for more than nine years and received her BFA with a major in Textile Arts from “Ioan Andreescu” Academy of Visual Arts, Cluj Napoca, Romania. She finds inspiration and beauty all around – in people, nature and living. Tribal arts, the Art Nouveau period, fairy tales and children books have also had a great influence on her artworks. The media she mostly enjoys working with, are watercolors, colored pencils, graphite pencils, markers and acrylics on paper or canvas. Her paint style is decorative with simplified shapes, lines, dots and other details.

We all know how fantastic our little town is, but it's always nice to get a compliment from afar.

Conde Nast Traveler is the latest global travel magazine to shine its light on the 94941 and the rest of Marin. In a road trip-themed digest titled "Marin County: More Than Napa's Opening Act," writer Krisanne Fordham says that Marin in recent years has "evolved from being wine country’s opening act into a true travel destination in its own right: In recent years, the county has established itself as a destination in its own right, with new hotels, bars, and restaurants so alluring, you may get 'lost' on the way to Napa and Sonoma."

In making that case, Fordham cites the arrival of "an unprecedented number of new establishments" in recent years, including "the upscale Molina in Mill Valley, with its wine-paired small plates like halibut crudo and sage-roasted quail," San Rafael's Terrapin Crossroads, owned by the Grateful Dead’s Phil Lesh; even a Kickstarter-funded bakery in Fairfax, Taste Kitchen & Table, specializing in seasonal, organic fare—think hearty salads and sandwiches made with fresh-baked bread and local veggies." 

"Now, Sausalito and Mill Valley aren't unknowns by any stretch of the imagination. Locals have considered them well touristed for years. But to develop a food scene that even they eye with curiosity? That's the barometer of success," Fordham continues.

A recent report released by the Marin Convention and Visitors Bureau (MCVB) found that Marin saw approximately 13 million tourists last year—a 15 percent increase since 2013. “Interest and tourism has definitely grown in Marin County, mostly because it had never been branded as a visitor destination [until recent years],” Gina Marr, vice president of the MCVB, told Conde Nast Traveler. “The music scene and culinary scene are thriving." 

Check out the full story here, including some gorgeous photos of destinations like Muir Woods National Monument.

The cast of Shrek the Musical, the Throckmorton Theatre’s six-show production that kicks off Friday, doesn’t have to worry about getting the usual bevy of tickets for family members.

That’s because many of those family members are in the production themselves. Shrek the Musical, based on the global smash 2001 film that is “part romance, part twisted fairy tale, and irreverent fun for everyone,” is most certainly a family affair.

The familial cast starts with Shrek himself, played by Throckmorton Youth Program Director Steven Hess. Though he has an extensive acting background, including roles as Stanford White in the Shotgun Players’ production of Harry Thaw Hates Everybody in 2012 and as the narrator in the Ray of Light Theatre’s upcoming production of Rocky Horror Picture Show, Hess hasn’t acted in a Throckmorton production in his four years at the downtown Mill Valley landmark.

After Hess and the Throckmorton team decided to tackle Shrek as the perfect balance for both young and adult audiences, Hess gave in to peer pressure to play the lovable green ogre. In a perfect twist, his son Monterey Hess makes a cameo as Young Shrek, and his wife Bidalia Albanese, an instructor at the Throckmorton and an accomplished performer and director in her own right, is playing Gingy.

The cast also includes Marty Dunn as Farquaad and his daughter Meghan Dunn as the hilarious Donkey, and Lily Bogas as Pinocchio and her mother Desiree Goyette as the Dragon.

“It’s pretty crazy," Hess says. “They all came to the auditions – it just ended up working out that way.”

The 411: Shrek The Musical is based on the Oscar-winning DreamWorks film. Its six-show run kicks off Friday, August 7 at the Throckmorton Theatre, 142 Throckmorton Avenue, and runs through August 16. More info and tickets.