There’s a nice payoff for music fans willing to explore outside the city of Sacramento — and it doesn’t have to be a long trek. Photojournalist Steve Martarano takes us inside suburban entertainment gems in the Capital Region.

For a typical day trip to Nevada County, a tourist might visit a few wineries, do some window shopping and then call it a day. But when Robert X Trent launched Outlandish Experiences in August, he wanted to use unique, unforgettable experiences to help visitors fall in love with the area he’s called home for 20 years.

Rancho Cordova’s identity as one of the region’s best-kept secrets frustrates Marc Sapoznik. As executive director of Rancho Cordova Travel & Tourism, his job is to promote the city’s assets tor both out-of-towners and locals alike.

In the wine industry, families must often handle the unique dynamics of their arrangement while running several operations at once — growing grapes, producing wine, and marketing and selling the final product. It’s not always easy. But these four wine-industry families wouldn’t have it any other way.

As the sun rises on Mill Street in Grass Valley, Erica Henderson starts the opening routine in her new store Gather & Mill. She rolls out a decorative bicycle and sets up sandwich boards indicating to customers that they are welcome. The sounds of Amos Lee drift through the space as she slips kaftan-style dresses on hangers. When everything is perfectly in place, she opens the coral-colored French doors.

It’s time to really pay attention to the Central Coast, a region that spans roughly 250 miles, from Santa Barbara up to Monterey Bay, including the Santa Ynez Valley and San Luis Obispo County, among other regions.

Gaming facilities across the capital region are booming with expansions and new construction. Here’s a look at four new developments tied to local casino operations. 

At Miyazaki Bathhouse in Walnut Grove, guests first wash themselves with soap using a bowl of water and a ladle, while sitting on a stool, before entering the tubs. “The tubs are not for cleaning,” Phillips says. “They’re for soaking.” 

Andy Stone, head mechanic for Team Novo Nordisk, prepares a bike during training camp for the Amgen Tour of California’s Sacramento stage in May. A Sacramento native, Stone attended Encina High School where he took a Regional Occupation Program bicycle mechanic class. He worked at bike shops for several years before getting into race mechanics.

The housing crunch is a problem affecting both the working class and the professional class. Workers move to the area lured by lucrative resort jobs, then find themselves stuck when the cost of housing nearly outstrips their pay.