Page 81 - 2014 Travel Guide to California

Outlets and Stoneridge Shopping Center,
near where Dublin meets Pleasanton, offer
retail therapy.
Pleasanton also hosts the popular
Alameda County Fair every summer, when
contemporary music acts, prize-winning
livestock, rodeo daredevils and traditional
snacks and games open a window onto
America’s past. The boutique Rose Hotel,
owned by the family of NFL legend John
Madden, brightens Main Street downtown.
Also on Pleasanton’s Main Street is Blue
Agave Club, a spacious indoor and outdoor
venue for contemporary Mexican food and
a wide range of tequilas. The Wine
Steward, just down the block, sells wines
from the Livermore Valley and far beyond
in a two-level space.
San Ramon’s multiuse Central Park is an
attractive expanse festooned with softball
and soccer fields, a mushroom shower and
wading pool, children’s play area and
courts for pick-up basketball. Be ready if
you want to play some hoops here; the
local players got game. The 12-mile Iron
Horse Trail for walkers and bicyclists fol-
lows a long-vanished rail line through San
Ramon, Dublin and Danville.
»WINE, DINE,
GOLF, SHOP!
visittrivalley.com
Danville expands outward from a man-
icured historic core. The running shoe and
gear shop Forward Motion Sports and the
delectable Danville Chocolates store
cluster along and near the main drag, Hartz
Avenue. Also on Hartz, Sideboard restau-
rant serves buttery, French-accented fare in
the former Danville Hotel, while 1950s-era
Vally Medlyn’s dishes up winsome coffee
shop breakfasts and lunches; the Cali-
fornia omelet with avocado, mushrooms,
cheese and hash browns is classic. The
Peet’s Coffee & Tea store nearby keeps the
community fully caffeinated.
In the hills west of I-680, above down-
town Danville, Tao House, the restored
1940s home of Eugene O’Neill, provides
rewarding glimpses of the Nobel Prize-
winning playwright’s life and work. Hikers
can wander for miles on the trails above
Tao House in Las Trampas Regional
Wilderness, with its panoramic views.
FAST & FURIOUS FESTIVAL, left;
Livermore Rodeo, below.
2014 T R AV E L G U I D E T O C A L I F O R N I A 79