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A California Conservation Corps crew clearing hiking trails along the Uvas Creek Tuesday stumbled on evidence that kids who had built an illegal labyrinth of dirt bicycle jumps in the protected creek a few years ago preserve are at it again.

Downtown Gilroy was packed with people on July 8, all hungry to sample from 10 food trucks at the inaugural Moveable Feast event at Fifth Street Live.Moveable Feast is a food truck collective based in San Jose. Making the trip to Gilroy last Friday were Akita Sushi, BBQ Kalbi, Brothers Gow Chow, H. Butler’s BBQ, Ketch It Seafood, Los Jarochos Grill, Siam Loco Wraps, Treatbot, Waffle Amore, and Grilled Cheese Bandits.“We were in line for a long time for the Korean barbecue,” said Yvonne Isles, who came with her family all the way from Los Banos. She said she’d heard of the collective because she works in San Jose, and got wind of the event through Facebook.“The Facebook Event page said that about 2,500 people were interested,” said Gilroy Downtown Business Association event coordinator Melanie Corona. “I think we ended up getting about 4,000.”The long lines didn’t deter attendees from enjoying the Fifth Street Live festivities.“It was like a massive block party,” said Moveable Feast founder Ryan Sebastian. “Families brought their chairs out, enjoyed great food, great music. A real sense of community. It was the best block party I’ve ever been to.”Food trucks were parked in Gourmet Alley and on Fifth Street between Monterey Road and Eigleberry Avenue. Morgan Hill-based band the Emphatics performed live while the crowd ate, drank and danced.According to Sebastian, Gilroy is the furthest south Moveable Feast has been in Santa Clara County.“It was the perfect storm for downtown Gilroy,” Corona said. “Amaretto had their annual fashion show, which is always a well-attended event. The District had a great band playing that night, and something was going on at Old City Hall. There were lots of complementary events happening.”Sebastian met some of the local restaurateurs and business owners downtown and said everyone was excited about the event.Corona said that the GDBA is always concerned with how the downtown businesses are doing.“We don’t want to take away from their success or their Friday night, but I don’t think that was a problem at all,” she said.Moveable Feast wasn’t the only business to turn a crowd. Restaurants like Old City Hall, the Milias Restaurant, and Garlic City Cafe were full houses—maybe too full?“I think it’s a good thing for Gilroy, but it’s on the wrong day,” said The Milias restaurant owner Adam Sanchez.Sanchez said that every Friday is busy downtown, and that parking is packed as it is. The long wait times at his restaurant caused frustration for all parties.The event could have significant economic potential for downtown Gilroy. And while there’s talk of continuing Fifth Street Live and Moveable Feast after the summer, nothing has been finalized yet.“We just had our first one so, we’re going to look at the first one or two to see, ‘Is this making sense? Is this making the live music series more successful?’” Sebastian said. “The answer is absolutely yes.”Corona is happy with how the inaugural event turned out. She said that two City Council members came out to help.“Roland Velasco was pouring beer and wine for us at our beverage booth, and Dan Harney brought his family down.”Corona is also grateful for how the community embraced the event.“People want downtown Gilroy to thrive,” she said. “That means we have a thriving and successful community.”If you missed it, you have another chance. The Feast returns Friday, July 15, starting at 5 p.m.

Windows to nowhere, fireplaces without flues and pullout bookcases that reveal deep wall cavities are among the intriguing features of one of this year’s winners of the Gilroy Historical Society’s Architectural Awards. But the Gilroy Historical Society is not the only admirer of this building. Barbara and Jeffrey Orth admired the Holloway House for years, its charm and striking beauty hidden beneath a dilapidated exterior.

Roxanne Vinciguerra says she never thought she’d start her own artisanal biscotti business.

Maintaining a healthy weight isn’t easy, but it’s certainly possible. It comes down to focus, discipline, patience and making smart decisions. Simply put, there are no shortcuts. Unless you’re establishing healthy eating and exercise habits, it will be impossible to stay at a healthy weight, let alone lose some unwanted pounds.

When I’m out and about going to events and meetings I tend to get a lot of useful information. This column will be dedicated to report back to the community on what’s up in our area. This past weekend I attended “Lend me a Tenor” at Limelight Actors Theater with my brother, sister-in-law and my friends Jaime & Evelia Rosso. It was a wonderful show with much laughter from the audience. They hold a raffle every show to raise funds for the Michael J. Fox,TEAM FOX which raises money for Parkinson’s research. This year is their 6th show with Steve Spencer & Kae Jenny-Spencer. If you go what not to miss: Rocky Road Ahead candy, which you can only purchase at the theater, made in Gilroy by Rosalind Ferrotte. On Monday July 4, I volunteered doing security for my friend and fellow Rotarian Chief Denise Turner at the, 71st U.S. Women’s Open at CordeValle in San Martin. I was stationed for nine hours on the path next to a bridge where the players were dropped off from the 6th hole to walk to the 7th hole. Each player that practiced that day walked by me with their caddy and entourage. At the beginning of my shift I worked with Cynthia Iwanaga who was also a volunteer and works for the city of Morgan Hill. It was exciting but the most nerve-racking part of my duty was to watch out for a resident feral momma kitty and her four kittens. Didn’t want one of those kittens run over by the golf carts whizzing by! It was a beautiful day and the weather was perfect in the mid 80’s. There were players from all over the world and a really big deal for our area. Every year Gilroy Rotary sends students to leadership camp and they come back with life-changing experiences. This year’s campers were Estaban Rubio CHS, Kassandra Avery CHS, Collet Howard CHS, Michael Vu CHS, Andres Stebbins GECCA, Emily Boykin GHS. The theme was Be a Gift to the World. Besides leadership activities they assembled care packages for the homeless for the Sunrise Homeless Shelter and wrote letters hoping to brighten their days. They also assembled care packages and letters for a class of first grade students at Longfellow Elementary School in San Francisco. The packages contained pens, pencils, notebooks and other basic school supplies along with individualized cards for each of the students.

Just imagine a child’s look of amazement as they stare in wonder at incredible structures, some up to six feet tall: playful panda bears, Chinese dragons, giant poppies and intricate Chinese lanterns, each illuminated with tens of thousands of bright lights.That’s what visitors will see at a Chinese art installation that will put Gilroy Gardens on the international map for the next four months, attracting tourists from near and far to experience a historic art show that has only appeared in a handful of venues around the world.Called “Lumination: Chinese Culture Celebrated in a Whole New Light,” it’s an extraordinary light display representing more than 2,000 years of Chinese history and culture, shown with brightly lit sculptures of iconic structures such as the Great Wall, the Temple of Heaven, and Terracotta Warriors, each artistically woven into the park’s 26 acres of natural beauty.“You have the lanterns, incredible displays of Chinese mythology, and architecture, spectacular enormous displays illuminated at night, and then you have Chinese acrobats performing every night,” says Glenn Dobbin, managing partner for Toronto-based DDM Entertainment & Events, Inc., who helped bring the program here.“And you have traditional Chinese craftsman, so you’ll see these arts and crafts that you’ve likely never seen.”Intricate, handmade objects composed of countless individual pieces, including traditional handcrafted silk lanterns, porcelain china plates and tiny glass bottles filled with colored water, are a commanding vision by day.But at night, they are simply breathtaking, as literally millions of LED bulbs illuminate over 30 displays of Chinese culture, including the mythical qilin, an icon of the Qin and Qing dynasties that resembles the Western unicorn.The Chinese theme extends throughout the lushly landscaped 536-acre park, featuring an authentic Chinese marketplace. There will be acrobats, performers, and, yes, Chinese food.Gilroy Gardens was originally a commercial plant nursery and a vacation spot for employees of Nob Hill Foods markets. It was founded by Nob Hill owners Michael and Claudia Bonfante, who built it after selling the chain. It opened to the public in 2001 with 19 rides and six gardens.In 2008 the city of Gilroy took it over. It now has a water park and playgrounds, but its main attraction is the luxurious verdant gardens, forests and walking trails, making it especially well suited for the night events. Its Christmas lights festival began in 2004.Fifty Chinese artisans have worked seven days a week for six weeks to assemble “Lumination.” They are staying in homes and empty offices at the park, with comforts of home including Internet connections, a laundromat and a giant kitchen.“They cook their own food, they take care of themselves,” says Thomas Kuo, a translator.“They all are enjoying their stay. Sometimes they work three hours a day, and sometimes they have to work eight hours a day, but they make sure that the workers get their rest.”The materials come in huge shipping containers.Among those who participated in the show’s assembly phase, Hou Ping Lu, 68, has worked in 10 different countries as an artist. His focus is on lanterns, which he has crafted for 50 years. His favorite piece, the Nine Heaven Pagoda, is a structure that appears to stretch into the sky.This display can’t be missed, since it’s the first one seen on entering the park.Hou has been traveling for his art since 1995 and heads to Singapore next. It’s his way of life, he says.“My wife doesn’t travel with me,” he says. “Earning money is a man’s thing. I will send money back home and my wife will relax.”He’s visited San Francisco, seen the Golden Gate Bridge, Chinatown and Stanford University, but the other workers haven’t been there, says Hou.These artisans have added a level of culture to Gilroy that should bring in more visitors from San Francisco, says Barb Granter, general manager of Gilroy Gardens. While the park does draw people from 100 miles away, it has far more visitors from Los Gatos than the north parts of the Bay Area. She thinks “Lumination” will change that.“It’s about a special event that’s a Chinese festival, coming to view the sculptures, and be immersed in Chinese culture,” says Granter.“Lumination” began its journey to Gilroy Gardens more than two years ago when the park was looking for a way to extend its number of operating days and reach a new audience.“We had been actively looking for something that would allow us to do an evening event,” says Granter. “We would need a good 2,000-3,000 people to keep it open at night.”When Toronto-based Dobbin first visited Bonfante Gardens back in 2006, he realized he’d discovered the perfect venue for an authentic Chinese lantern festival.“I’m the governor of the Chinese Cultural Center in Toronto,” he says. “This is the biggest Chinese cultural center in the West, so Chinese culture became a part of my life.”In other venues, including Tampa’s Lowry Park Zoo, City Park in New Orleans and Fair Park in Dallas, the exhibit has brought as many as 250,000 visitors.“This is the most beautiful natural setting we’ve ever worked in, the setting, the background, it’s almost like this park was built for a lantern festival. I think it’s gorgeous,” says Dobbin.Brad Kava contributed to this article. ‘Lumination’ runs July 16-Nov. 27, 6 p.m.-10 p.m. Tickets are $30, or $20 when buying four or more. Parking is $14. Save $5 by buying online. Daytime park admission is $34 online. For additional information go to luminationgilroy.org/index.

Gilroy insurance executive Annie Palmer was startled out of a deep sleep at 1:30 a.m. recently when she heard something outside her Hannah Street window that sounded like a thousand bumble bees.It was a hot night and she had the window open.“I was really frightened,” she said. “I had no idea what it was.” She went outside with a flashlight and saw that it was a drone. She tried following it, but lost it.The same day—but at 10:30 p.m.—it was outside her window again. This time she called the Gilroy Police Department, where an officer first told her there was nothing they could do about it, but then, realizing it was so late at night that it was disturbing the peace, told her they’d look into it.She never heard back, but the following afternoon, while she was gardening, the drone was back again.This time, she took action.“I felt violated,” Palmer, 58, said. “It was really creepy. I felt like I had to hide in my house. It was definitely a violation of my privacy.”So, she followed the drone and found its owner on a street with a laptop computer piloting the device. He told her the drone had no camera, so she shouldn’t feel bothered.But she was. So were plenty of her neighbors who felt they were violated by this drone pilot.They filed complaints with the police and with Mayor Perry Woodward, who brought it up at the last City Council meeting and asked city staff to research what laws they can pass to protect the rights of residents, while possibly allowing drones to still fly.“They are fun to fly,” said Woodward in an interview. He is also a commercial pilot and an attorney and has long considered the problem of what he calls a technology in its “Wild West” phase. “I’ve flown them. But I don’t want to see someone flying one outside my daughter’s window. There has to be a balance.”Santa Clara County’s Open Space Authority has banned piloting drones from its parks. Los Angeles has classified drones with model airplanes, limited their use to daylight hours and forbidden them from flying more than 400 feet high, which is beyond the pilot’s ability to see them, making them dangerous to people on the ground. It also requires drones to stay away from hospitals and schools.In a proposed ordinance, Phoenix has asked for drones to be illegal if they are filming in a way that violates privacy.Hermosa Beach has passed legislation to require drone operators to have permits and stay 25 feet away from people.Woodward asked city staff to look into what’s being done in other cities and come up with a report for the council. Then, it would go to public hearings so they can hear from drone supporters and opponents and come up with city laws that will represent residents’ needs.He said he’s received many complaints about violations of privacy and concerns for safety of people on the ground.Police spokesman Sgt. Jason Smith said the department has its hands tied because there aren’t yet laws about drone use.“So in essence, we have to weigh the circumstances of a call involving a drone to see if it violates any of the laws that are currently in place,” he said. “For instance, under the right circumstances, the penal code sections for being a public nuisance or a peace disturbance might apply.”He added that “the department  would have to determine if the act of flying the drone met the criteria for a law violation (and there is not yet a drone-specific law); the person would have to be willing to sign a citizen’s arrest; and we would have to identify the pilot of the drone and further investigate his/her intentions.”

Like the movie Groundhog Day, every morning some 60 percent of Gilroy residents take the same trip over and over to their jobs in San Jose and Silicon Valley and they have to figure out the best, fastest and cheapest way to get there.