Things to Do in Antelope

ReCREATE's approach to conservation unleashes the inner outsider artist in all who enter the center's cheery, well-organized studio. The guerrilla-crafting cooperative rescues unwanted office supplies, retail detritus, and industrial byproducts from a destiny of landfill lining, in the process building a vast repository of reusable craft materials. Drop-in sessions ($5 each) allow developing da Vincis to create milk-jug masks and packing-foam puppets to their hearts' content. Conservational crafters purchase bulk supplies from the studio's bins of cast-off designer-fabric samples, cigar boxes, paper, tile chips, cardboard, and more, while reCREATE supplies scissors, glue, and any other necessary equipment. Amateur artists of all ages can spontaneously generate boats, figurines, and dioramas in-studio, or shop for materials to build a man-sized version of Mouse Trap at home.

At various points throughout its history, the cavernous interior of Hermann Sons' Hall has served as a schoolhouse, a roller rink, and a music hall. Today, the echoes of those past incarnations can hardly be heard over the whizzing of paintballs as players take cover from multicolored crossfire behind manmade barriers. Shooters All-Season Paintball’s owners have certainly put their mark on the building, which now joins five outdoor battlefields as part of their sprawling paintball complex.

When they aren’t crouching behind the indoor field’s obstacles, players test their luck against the trees and thickets outside on more than 23 acres, enlisting woodland creatures as scouts and greeting opponents with a barrage of paintballs as they emerge from their leafy hiding places. Shooters is also redesigning their attach & defend field to go along with the newly redesigned and enlarged hyperball field. Showing respect and gratitude to Mother Nature for allowing them to play in her backyard, the company equips players with eco-friendly, nontoxic paintballs and biodegradable BBs. Shaded picnic areas allow visitors a chance to rest and relax after working up an appetite on the fields.

Six-year-old Tammy McDonald fearlessly hops into the saddle for her first horseback lesson, excited to finally follow in her family’s equestrian footsteps with this foray into riding. Fast-forward to 1988, as Tammy––by now an experienced competitive rider and horse trainer–– takes over Willow Lake Ranch from her family and converts it into a horse-training facility of her own. Intent on fully transforming the facility, Tammy has since dappled the rolling ranch’s lush pastures and clusters of evergreens with horse-centric amenities including a covered riding arena, tack rooms, and a wash rack replete with pony-sized shower caps. Over the course of any given week, Tammy and her crew of instructors can be found imparting their sizeable know-how to pupils of all ages and abilities during riding lessons or helping experienced riders hone their skills via intensive clinics held periodically throughout the year. As summer unfurls, full-day riding camps introduce young steed riders to horses via activities such as basic tacking skills and games of MASH with the stallion of their choice.

Art teacher Kimberly Godinho sees her studio as a haven for students who might be otherwise afraid of exploring their artistic sides. Her background includes earning her bachelor degree in fine arts, and her current work as a professional artist underscores her expertise. Heartened by friends and wine, visitors of all experience levels follow Kimberly’s instructions to brush up the chosen project, which may include wine glass tableaus, pastoral landscapes, and the inky insides of a camera’s lens cap. All materials are included with each class, including canvas, paints, and smocks.

The Little Miss Strawberry contestants excitedly primp their pink dresses and adjust their sparkling tiaras in anticipation of the pageant’s beginning. The lighthearted event—in which girls compete in five different age groupings—is one of many novel attractions at BerryFest. A Mother's Day–weekend tradition, the 2012 festival marks the year's harvest by bringing together local farmers with a host of vendors, sponsors, entertainment acts, and conciliatory deer families at the Placer County Fairgrounds.

Daytime revelers can indulge in a surplus of diverse, certified-organic berries, which can be purchased whole or in the form of inventive, strawberry-based eats such as strawberry pizza, strawberry barbecue sauce, or strawberry-flavored strawberries. The festival’s lineup of booths also includes a beer garden where Lost Coast Brewery whets patrons’ whistles with strawberry drafts. A no-hands shortcake-eating contest crowns the winner with a commemorative trophy and proceeds benefit the Boy Scouts of America. During a live cooking demonstration, TV star Michael Marks of Your Produce Man shares recipe tips as well as tips for catching runaway piecrusts. On Sunday, festival-goers can take in a car show with a gathering of shiny, classic wheels, and all weekend long, kids can kick it on the Fun Zone’s Berry-Go-Round or drop by the event’s on-site petting zoo.

Since breaking ground for Viña Castellano in 1999, the Mendez family has built an empire of Spanish wines complete with a treasure trove of gold and silver medals. Along with winery foreman Derek Irwin, the family specializes in the complex flavors of Tempranillo, Syrah, and Verdejo grapes. In the tasting room, visitors can sip new pressings and old favorites, and pick up a fine cigar to hilariously slip into a packet of exploding cigars.