Danville (California)

A showpiece museum in the Blackhawk Plaza area.

By reservation only:. After you make a reservation a bus will pick you up and shuttle you to the Tao House. Nestled in the hills of Danville and overlooking a vast expanse of , Tao House was the home of American playwright Eugene O'Neill. O'Neill, who is the only American playwright to receive the Nobel Prize, is best known for his startling use of dramatic realism, which is mostly associated with the Russian and Scandinavian stage. Most of O'Neill's work focuses on people on the fringes of society or on his own unhappy life. Interesting for visitors to Tao House, O'Neill employed feng shui (decades before it was trendy) in the design of the house, where he lived from 1937 until 1944. His intention was to write a cycle of eleven plays based on one American family while at the house. Instead, his chronic depression and alcoholism worsened and he was unable to complete the cycle. Still, three of his best-known and more personal plays, The Iceman Cometh, Long Day's Journey into Night, and A Moon for the Misbegotten, were written at Tao House.

A local history museum with rotating exhibitions is housed in the old train depot in the downtown area. The museum is small (really just two rooms) but surprisingly interesting for its size. Expect to spend less than half an hour.

Several residential streets in west Danville provide direct access to Las Trampas Regional Wilderness, a 5,342-acre (2,162-hectare) regional park that spans Contra Costa and Alameda counties.

The site of many youth soccer and baseball games, Osage is home to a running track, memorial rose garden, playground and fountains, and expansive views of Mt. Diablo.

The park has 3 lanes to play boche ball, a playground, and artificial turf fields, as well as access to hiking trails.