As usual I'm a bit late. I'm in San Francisco.

Technically speaking the Bay Area is the nine counties surrounding San Francisco Bay. Sacramento, however, because it has a number of good musicians living there, is an honorary member of the Bay Area.

There are lots of Irish sessions around here. Many of them are around for a while and then die a natural death. The two ongoing mainstream Irish sessions are the Starry Plough in the East Bay and The Plough & Stars in San Francisco, both of which meet Saturday evenings. The Plough and Stars also has a smaller Tuesday evening session.