TRADITIONAL CAROLS PLAYED IN AN UNTRADITIONAL LOCATION flutes of fancy violin and recorder duo play a FREE Christmas concert in a former munitions magazine
December 12, 2009, 9am to 5pm is Second Saturday Access Day at the Mare Island Shoreline Heritage Preserve hosted by Mare Island Heritage Trust. A morning hike to the Historic Southshore led by Sierra Club hike leader Kenn Browne starts from the Visitors Center at 9:30am. Beginning at 2pm in the Visitors Center, flutes of fancy, a violin and recorder duo will perform a concert of traditional Christmas carols. A classically trained duo based in Vallejo, Dorothy and Bertram Barth provide music throughout northern California for traditional weddings, theme weddings, and other special events. According to Preserve volunteer manager and Second Saturday Access Day co-host, Myrna Hayes, “Visitors to our free concert can expect to hear traditional music played in a most untraditional place...a historic bomb storage magazine. Listeners will be rewarded by a rich acoustical sound much like that of music played in wine caves.”
Bert and Dorothy Barth have played as a duo since 1996, performing first in San Diego and later in Central California. In April 2003 they relocated to northern California and now perform in Solano, Napa, Sonoma, and Marin counties as well as the San Francisco Bay and Sacramento areas. Dorothy began playing violin during childhood. She discovered early music after graduating from Stanford University with a degree in music. Bert comes to early music with a background in modern woodwinds and concert management for station WBUR FM in Boston.
Preserve volunteers will serve complementary refreshments including hot drinks following the concert in the Visitors Center which will be decorated for the holidays. Mare Island themed gift items will be available for sale to benefit the programs of the Mare Island Heritage Trust. The event is free. However, donations help to keep the Preserve open regularly on the Second Saturday of each month, the only day that the Preserve is currently open except for special events. Donations will also make possible the Preserve volunteer’s ability to increase the number of open days in the future. During the Access Day the public can walk or ride bicycles on a self-guided trail with 14 interpretive stops along the 2-mile round-trip route to the top of the hill and beyond. The hike to the Historic Southshore is scheduled from 9:30am to 11:30am. Snacks and drinks will be available for sale. The Preserve is open rain or shine. Dress in layers. A picnic area is available next to the historic Naval Cemetery. Dogs are allowed on leash.
Key features of the Mare Island Shoreline Heritage Preserve are spectacular scenic vistas encompassing seven Bay Area counties, Mt. Diablo, Mt. Tamalpais and Mt. St. Helena, the Carquinez Strait and Sonoma and Napa valleys and the U.S. Navy’s first cemetery in the Pacific, founded 151 years ago. Visitors may also view interpretive displays and an art show by members of the Benicia Plein Air Group portraying the Preserve at the Visitors Center in a former munitions storage magazine, Building A-167. Visit www.mareislandpreserve.org for directions to the Preserve.
The first parcels of the property in which the Access Day takes place, were transferred to the City of Vallejo in a grant from the legislature through the California State Lands Commission in 2002 for public trust uses such as a park, for all Californians. The remainder of the 215-acre site is still undergoing environmental clean-up by the U.S. Navy. Both areas are not normally open to the public. Arc Ecology, the fiscal sponsor of the Heritage Trust has hosted free public access on the second Saturday of each month for the past 22 months through a use agreement with the City of Vallejo.
January 9, 2010 is the next Second Saturday Access Day. Winter hours are 9am-5pm.
For more information, call 707-649-9464 or 707-557-9816.
Visit: www.mareislandpreserve.org
The California Travel Insider drives