This was my second Salute to the Arts and now I know how to navigate this two-day extravaganza better. For example, look over all the food possibilities first: this year's winners so far were the lamb slider and curried cole slaw from Preferred Sonoma Caterers for 3 tickets, the pork taco from Maya for two, and the California roll and ginger noodles from Shiso for four. While I had several other great noshes during the day, those stand out. Among the drinks, the big refreshing mojito from EDK and the great Bear republic Racer 5 IPA were standouts. No, it's not just about wine, even though your $35 gets you a glass and a handful of drink and food tickets. The Valley of the Moon Rosato di Sangiovese was a new blush wine treat for me, as was the Trentadue Chocolate Amore! Kaz vineyard & winery had some great tastes from "the smallest winery open to the public in the Sonoma Valley--only 1000 cases." Kunde had some great sips again, and seek out newcomer Sunce for their great Russian River pinot noir! Hey! What about the other arts? Well, musically on the small stage first-timer Djinn and retuning David Correa and Cascada knocked me out--and they're on for Sunday as well! The paintings and sculpture are varied and plentiful, much of it note worthy. I liked especially the collage works of Rona Weintraub, the steel and stone works by Nerio Festa, and the digital finer art by Jerrie Jerne. Talking with authors is always fun: I especially enjoyed chatting with the author and photographer of the new exquisite "Sonoma, California: Portrait of a town," Wayne F. Smith with his two quirky little books, "Lightnin'" a fictional book based on the diaries of a great uncle from a century ago in Alpine county, and "Pursued" a non-fiction book about stalkers and the stalked; and Leslie Polit's "Paraiso" about two brothers and three women in an Ecuadorian tale of love and intrigue. And...I'm going back for more today!