12 PUNCHMAGAZINE.COM for a fun day out. (Page 44) If you’re reading our August issue indoors while daydreaming of the coast, meet Brighton Denevan, a Santa Cruz artist who creates beautifully intricate large-scale works on local beaches with basic gardening tools. If you aren’t in the right place at the right time to see them, no problem. He preserves them in mesmerizing photos and videos before the tides sweep them away. (Page 90) Fine art painter Laura Hughes grew up on the East Coast, and while she’s made her home in Palo Alto for years, she finds endless artistic inspiration from summers on the Jersey Shore. (Page 72) When Greg Stern realized his job was making him miserable, he took a leap. Hear about the rewards and challenges of taking over the Dutch Goose, the beloved West Menlo Park joint known for its addictive deviled eggs and the initials engraved into the woodwork by generations of diners. (Page 23) We also talk to the two chefs behind lively Macarena in downtown Palo Alto. The restaurant is serving up Spanish classics with some innovative twists, like patatas bravas transformed into churros. (Page 51) Baffled by bread-making? Redwood City’s Deb Lemos is on a one-woman mission to help everyone become a successful sourdough baker. She fills her wildly popular Instagram account (@everything. sourdough) with recipes, tutorials and tips. (Page 60) Ease into August with all these stories and so much more. Enjoy! Andrea Gemmet andrea@punchmonthly.com {editor’s note} badges, standing in line for swag and navigating a cavernous convention center while hopping around on their flippers. Thankfully, it was not that kind of convention. The annual event, held in the Sacramento suburb’s Hagan Park since 2019, felt more like a family reunion at a swimming pool. The joyful, all-ages gathering was filled with people in seashells and scales, plus a handful of friendly pirates. In the kiddie pool, a performer with a fabulously fishy tail basked and chatted with a gaggle of little girls in makeshift costumes while they hung on her every word. When the mermaid’s shift was done, she was loaded onto a dolly and wheeled over to the main pool, where she could really stretch her fins. Seeing those starstruck kids hit a nerve. When I was a kid, I was fascinated by mermaid lore—all that dramatic tension from straddling two worlds without fully belonging in either one—a fact that I apparently never mentioned to my husband. Jeff and I have been nearly inseparable since the age of 18 and at this point, there’s not a whole lot that we don’t already know about each other. Somehow, it didn’t come up until we found ourselves at Mermaid Con. With a packed itinerary, our four-day trip to Gold Country was full of many other happy surprises. The beautiful scenery and amazing outdoor recreation in Placer and Nevada counties are a given, but the thriving art scene, great dining and charmingly laid-back wine region were sources of ongoing delight. (Page 37) Not up for a road trip? Enjoy the great outdoors right here on the Peninsula by planning a picnic. Check out our sampling of great places to spread your blanket (or fire up a barbecue) I’d never attended a convention quite like this one. On the very day I arrived in Rancho Cordova to report on this month’s travel story about Gold Country, the California Mermaid Convention was in full swing. I was picturing mermaids on dry land, wearing name MERMAID PHOTOGRAPHY COURTESY OF: VISIT RANCHO CORDOVA
RkJQdWJsaXNoZXIy MTcxMjMwNg==