My well-bred Siberian Husky, Newt, and I have shown many times throughout the years at the Yolo…read moreCounty Fairgrounds. We have always had a positive experience at the fairgrounds. Parking is $10 per day of a dog show weekend. Some dog show weekends are 3 days and some are 4. The grass is always nicely groomed and the main exhibit hall is spacious. It does get hot in the summer of course, but what can you do. The clubs bring in massive fans but with a bunch of dogs and people, it still gets stuffy. Depending on the dog show, there can be only a few rings spread throughout the grounds (both indoors and out) or many. There are ample areas to potty and groom my dog, and I've never seen parking fill up completely. We usually park on the side lot to avoid parking next to others, plus it's quieter there as well. I've also run Newt in FastCAT here, since there is plenty of space for that event. Additionally, I've seen AKC Fetch trials hosted, although I have yet to participate in one. Even though the dog shows boast a good number of entries, the layout of the fairgrounds means I can still find a quiet spot to myself to decompress and let Newt relax as well. This place is also extra special to me since Newt earned his AKC Grand Championship here back in September! Many clubs are now booking the Yolo County Fairgrounds these days compared to other fairgrounds and honestly, I'm pretty happy about it. It's one of the better fairgrounds we have here in NorCal for dog shows and I will definitely continue to attend shows at the Yolo County Fairgrounds as we very casually play towards Newt's Grand Championship Bronze title.

I've been once for the Yolo County Fair, but most recently as an participating exhibitor for the…read moreFarm Connection Day put on by Yolo County 4-H and Yolo County Farm Bureau. Every spring students in grades K-6 are invited to spend the day at the Yolo County Fairgrounds where they learn about Yolo County's agriculture. This year's event attracted approximately 1,500 students! The event had several educational displays, presentations and hands-on activities on the topics like STEM, agriculture, natural resources, science, engineering, livestock and arts and crafts. Livestock areas had demonstrations on showmanship and animal handling (goats, sheep) and the Small Animal Barn had demonstrations (rabbits, chickens) and display boards, plus outdoor games, interactive gameshows, etc. I volunteered with my company Nuseed to work a booth at the Main Expo building from 9:00AM-1:00PM and it was bustling! Kids got to learn about what we do, and get some free swag. During breaks, I got to visit some of the other booths such as HM Clause, UCANR, UCD Bohart Museum, Mariani, Tauzer Bees, Air Quality Management, etc. and outside they had a big tractor on display, horseback sheriffs, a fire truck, and a dairy cow. There were also food vendors with soft serve ice cream, food trucks, etc. to feed the bus loads of kids and grownups. Arriving early, their entrance on East Gum had the gates closed, but the East Gibson entrance was open. They did have some volunteers directing traffic. Vendors had to bring their own lunch but they did provide bottled water and restrooms were okay.

Totally impressed that this theater group is run entirely by students. They put on plays as well as…read moremusicals complete with a band. Not only are all the actors students, but the artistic staff are also comprised of students and recent alumni. I have seen their productions of the play 'Spring Awakening' as well as the rock opera musical 'Rent'. I was impressed by the caliber of acting talent in 'Spring Awakening' -- their performance evoked a lot of emotion in a very challenging play. Before seeing 'Rent' I was dubious that a student group would be able to pull off an intense rock musical, but they did a great job. The theater itself is very unique -- Wyatt Pavillion used to be a barn -- so the director has to be particularly creative with the space. The front half of the stage is surrounded by the audience, and there is a tall platform that actors can access from backstage or by employing a ladder. The blocking (staging, in actor speak) was well-done, especially in 'Rent', which demands several different spaces for all the stories going on in the show at once. The student group takes on the challenges of each show and owns them. Mad props! They will all be fantastic when they move beyond college theater into the world of professional theater. TIP: Good theater always makes for an awesome date night.

Studio 301 Productions is an incredibly talented, student-run theatre group on the UC Davis campus…read more In the past couple of years they have put on several big name plays and musicals, including The 25th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee, Urinetown, The Pillowman, and Spring Awakening. It's definitely worth a visit to Davis to check them out. Their productions are top notch, with quality that far surpasses most other local theatres in the Sacramento area.

Full disclosure - I'm a recent addition to the Dynamic Dancing staff, and by March 2018 we will…read morehave a total of 4 instructors to lead classes and perform administrative duties. I've only been on staff for 1 year, and my philosophy is that we must always strive to improve - thus my 4-star rating. The Dynamic Dancing class offerings are expanding this year to include more classes for all ages. Our programs for Adults and Seniors include: Stretch & Strength, Creative Movement, Ballet Basics, Belly Dancing, Jazz and a Dance Aerobic program called "Get UP and Dance!" With our 4-person staff we're also offering more of the fundamental classes for children and teens (Ballet, Tap, Jazz, Hip Hop), as well as Dance Exploration and Creative Movement. All of our classes are held at the Woodland Community Center which is responsible for registering and collecting payments. We're working hard with WCC staff to improve and simplify these processes. We hope you'll consider joining our community of families - we're anxious to meet you and work with your children.

PROS: Cares about the kids. CONS: Incredibly unorganized,…read morecompletely scattered. Classes rarely begin or end on time. Two years after paying for a recital DVD, we're still waiting to receive it. RECOMMENDATION: Find another dance school.

The DMTC is a super cool little theater tucked away in east Davis! I had never been before and…read moreshowed up for an evening production of Little Shop of Horrors. Something that sets it apart from other community theaters is the setup of the stage and audience, which feels more intimate than most theaters do. I really enjoyed that they also have a live orchestra. The staff are all super friendly and helpful and the performances and drinks are affordable. I'll definitely be back!

Came to see Into the Woods for our first time attending a DMTC production. It was well done with…read moresome solid talent. Ticket prices can't be beat and the theater is cute! Not a bad seat in the house. Only complaint was the orchestra/pit. It's under the stage and the actors have to rely on a camera broadcasting to a TV behind the audience to keep an eye on the conductor. For a show with such a technically tricky score as Into the Woods, it proved difficult to keep the cast on key and tempo. Also, I think the musicians made some frequent errors whixh pulled me out of the magic and pushed me into "come on, you can do it" anxious mode. That was the only bummer, though.

After living in Woodland for over 10 years, I finally made it to the Scottish Games!…read more Had fun-favorites were the ceremony/parade, watching the Wicked Tinkers, seeing the highland cows/birds of prey, and watching the caber (log) toss. Knocked it down a star because of things not being quite on time and we really only needed a couple of hours to see everything, and that included some waiting around time for events to start. My advice is to check out the schedule online and plan your arrival time based on what you're most interested in seeing so you can keep yourself busy. All in all, probably won't be something we'll go back to due to the admission price($17), but glad we went. If you have Scottish heritage, it's a must-see event!

I was reminded this weekend that festivals are actually a celebration of lines. Lines at the…read moreentrance, lines for bathrooms, lines for beer, lines for food, lines for the ATM, rinse and repeat. Overall, I felt the festival was organized and well run. Things were going on throughout the entire Fairgrounds and I can see why it's a two day event! We spent most our day watching the Games and then the other part watching the live music. The Wicked Tinkers were really fun, they kept running around in the crowd and it added a lot to the atmosphere! Bring cash because naturally half of the places only take cash, including the beer tent area. You must buy tickets to get beer which was annoying at first but the line went faster because of it. Also, we ran out of cash half way through and the ATM machines went down, so that was fun. We spent five hours at the Festival, and that was plenty for me. They shut everything down promptly at 5pm to begin the dinner service and you have to pay extra. Go, eat, drink, be merry. It's a good time!

The Gibson House is a Historical Museum in Woodland that used to be a rather large and impressive…read morefarm in the early days of Yolo County. No open to the public a few days a month, the Gibson House consists of 11 rooms, a root cellar, a dairy room, a barn a blacksmith shop and more. I entered house and joined a tour led by a very knowledgable docent. The house boasted a very nice interior decorated in the late 19th/early 20th century style. As earlier mentioned, no picture were allowed inside the house, which is always disappointing (I had no idea that I had such a thing for ceiling sconces until I wasn't allowed to share them). I did get a nice informational packet that covered that basics of the house and it's timeline. The Gibson House is a nice enough little house with some decent history, but with both the interesting out buildings being closed up and not being allowed to take pictures inside, my visit was somewhat disappointing. It does get an extra half point for my very knowledgable docent who gave a very nice tour.

I booked the Gibson House as a wedding venue for my wedding (that was a couple weeks ago) and they…read morewere VERY helpful and friendly. They made me feel like the entire grounds were mine and were pretty relaxed with what I had in mind. The groundskeeper was very friendly as well. The day before my wedding my husband and I stopped by to do a quick "once over" and mini rehearsal when I found a bridal party taking pictures on the lawn. I quickly looked at their website via my smart phone to see if we were encroaching on a wedding to find that there wasn't supposed to be anyone there. The groundskeeper said they barged onto the property while they were trying to prep for our wedding the next day. He was frustrated because it was the photographer's idea to swing by and take pictures while they were trying to set up for my wedding. Dave handled it with grace after telling them that they were supposed to make arrangements beforehand. The photographer and the rest of the party gave my wedding party and me some pretty dirty looks while we were walking around the grounds taking notes. It's not my fault you can't follow the rules. Dave told us that the grounds were ours and we could walk around anywhere we needed so that we could get an idea of what we were doing for the wedding. I figure it's good to be nice to the people who are providing you a service. And these folks are beyond friendly, approachable and awesome to deal with. The grounds are gorgeous and really affordable. What's better than helping a local museum?!