Your guide to activities and fun things to do with your preschoolers, toddlers and kids in silicon valley, CA

99 things you must do with your child in Silicon Valley before they grow up

by bonggamom

February 24, 2009

It seems like only yesterday that The Pea was just a little pea.  Now she's 7 and there are still so many things we haven't done together.  I really have to hurry, because some of the best experiences in the Valley have use-by dates:  I want my kids to first experience them while they're young, before the magic fades and they retreat into the solitude of their bedroms and their iPods.

With that in mind, here's a list of must-do activities for parents and kids around Silicon Valley:

Good Eats
 1) Taste garlic ice cream at the Gilroy Garlic Festival.
 2) Chew on saltwater taffy at the Santa Cruz Beach Boardwalk.
 3) Pick berries at a local farm.
 4) Eat fish and chips at Princeton-by-the-Sea.
 5) Get a sugar high at the Jelly Belly Factory.
 6) Have a pancake breakfast at Hobees.
 7) Slurp clam chowder from a sourdough bread bowl at Fisherman's Wharf.
 8) Have an ice cream sundae at Ghirardelli Square.
 9) Burn your tongue at Palo Alto's annual Chili Cook-off.
10) Enjoy berrylicious treats at Watsonville's Strawberry Festival.
11) Go on a tasting tour -- cheese tasting, that is -- around Napa and Sonoma Valley.

The Animal Kingdom
12) Pat a llama at the Happy Hollow Zoo.
13) Join the Los Altos Pet Parade.
14) Milk a cow and feed chickens at Hidden Villa.
15) Watch for whales at the Point Sur Lighthouse.
16) Feed the ducks at Shoreline Park.
17) Spend the day at the Monterey Bay Aquarium.
18) See the Monarch Butterflies in Pacifica.
19) Listen to the sea lions barking at Pier 39.
20) Ride an elephant at Six Flags Discovery Kingdom.
21) Go on safari at Santa Rosa's Safari West.
22) Visit the elephant seals at Ano Nuevo State Reserve.

Events
23) Do the Dragon Dance at San Francisco's Chinese New Year Parade.
24) Welcome springtime at Cupertino's Cherry Blossom Festival.
25) Celebrate Cinco de Mayo at San Jose's annual parade.
26) Watch 4th of July Fireworks from Shoreline Ampitheater.
27) See the Tall Ships and Blue Angels at San Francisco's Fleet Week.
28) See the world's biggest pumpkins at the Half Moon Bay Pumpkin Festival.
29) Go trick or treating at Santana Row.
30) Watch the San Francisco Ballet's Nutcracker.
31) Drive through the Vasona Fantasy of Lights display.
32) Meet Santa Claus at a train station during Caltrains Holiday Train.
33) Enjoy holiday scenes at San Jose's Christmas at the Park.

Sporty Stuff
34) Watch a baseball game at San Francisco's AT&T park.
35) Sail a boat on Shoreline lake.
36) Surf (ok, boogie-board) the waves at San Gregorio State beach.
37) Go rafting on the American River.
38) Ice skate under the stars at Palo Alto's Winter Lodge.
39) Run Bay to Breakers with the little ones in a stroller.
40) Bike the Los Gatos Creek trail.
41) Sink a mini-hole-in-one at Golfland.
42) Take your child for a spin at Redwood City's Malibu Grand Prix.
43) Row, row, row your boat at Vasona Lake County Park.
44) Catch some fish at Ed Levin County Park.

Museums
45) Explore and learn at the Children's Discovery Museum.
46) Scare yourself at the Winchester Mystery House.
47) Play tag amongst the artwork at Stanford University's Rodin Sculpture Garden.
48) Marvel at the California Academy of Science's Living Roof.
49) Count the Pez dispensers at Burlingame's Pez Museum.
50) Walk like an Egyptian at San Jose's Rosicrucian Egyptian Museum.
51) Geek out at the Tech Museum.
52) Take a class at the Palo Alto Junior Museum and Zoo.
53) Play and pretend at Oakland's Habitot Children's Museum.
54) Let your imagination take flight at the Hillier Aviation Museum.
55) Follow the toy trains at the Edward Peterman Museum of Railroad History.

Seein' the Sights
56) Watch an IMAX film at The Tech Museum.
57) See the circus trees at Gilroy Gardens.
58) Enjoy the view from the top of Stanford's Hoover Tower.
59) Watch a space shuttle launch at the NASA Ames Visitor Center.
60) See the stars up close at Lick Observatory.
61) Drive across the Golden Gate Bridge.
62) Check out the local bikers at Alice's Cafe in Woodside.
63) Watch a play, for kids and by kids, at Palo Alto's Hotdog Suppertime Shows.
64) Watch the airplanes bound for San Francisco airport take off and land, from Coyote Point park.
65) See where the San Francisco Bay ends at Palo Alto's Baylands Park.
66) Count as many of the Livermore windmills as you can while driving through Altamont Pass on Highway 580.

Nature
67) Hike through the redwoods at Henry Cowell State Park.
68) Hike up to The Dish at Stanford University.
69) Build a sandcastle at Santa Cruz beach.
70) Find serenity at San Jose's Japanese Friendship Garden.
71) Paint the roses red at San Jose's Heritage Rose Garden.
72) Wade in the creek at Los Altos' Shoup Park.
73) Save the earth on California Coastal Cleanup Day.
74) Pick apples at Gizdich Ranch.
75) Explore the tidepools at the Natural Bridges State Beach.
76) Say hello to the wild turkeys at Deer Hollow Farm.
77) Camp overnight at the Big Basin State Park.

Spend the weekend (or week!) at....
78) ...Yosemite National Park...
79) ...Sequoia National Park...
80) ...Lake Tahoe...
81) ...Napa Valley...
82) ...Sacramento...
83) ...Strawberry...
84) ...Gold Country...
85) ...Carmel-by-the-Sea...
86) ...Big Sur...
87) ...Solvang, or...
88) ...LA

Just Plain Fun
89) Ride the Caltrain up and down the Peninsula.
90) Ride the Billy Jones Wildcat Railroad.
91) Chug through the redwoods on the Roaring Camp Railroad.
92) Catch a cable car on the hills of San Francisco.
93) Hop on the Bill Mason carousel at Oak Meadow Park.
94) Enjoy the rides at Santa Cruz Beach Boardwalk.
95) Get stuck on stickers at the Mrs. Grossman's sticker factory.
96) Splash around at the Morgan Hill Aquatics Park.
97) Meet storybook characters at Oakland's Fairyland.
98) Splash through the fountains at the Plaza de Cesar Chavez.
99) Watch a movie at the San Jose's Capitol Drive-In Movie Theater.

My family has done quite a few of these items, but we're nowhere near done.  We (and you) had better get cracking on the rest of this list before the kids grow up!

If you have other activities that simply must be on this list, email us at beingsavvysiliconvalley@savvysource.com. 

One Last Weekend Outlook: January 30th-February 1st

by Shawn Burns

January 28, 2009

This is Resolution month at Savvy Source, and it's become obvious in the past couple of weeks that I need to make one myself, and follow-through on it. I need to step back from the site and spend time working on my "About Me" page. See where it says "is in the middle of his PhD"? Yeah, turns out the middle is a churning mess and I need to dog-paddle a little bit. So this is a  Read more...

Before Kindergarten....

by Shawn Burns

January 27, 2009

I have three and a half years. Three and a half years until my daughter starts kindergarten. In days that's over 1300. Minus the weekends that leaves about 950. 950 weekdays until there are no more weekdays. Until all of what used to be our days become school days, days apart. So. Time to start planning. What shall we do with our precious time? What ought we do? What can we not  Read more...

Celebrating the Lunar New Year

by Bonggamom

January 15, 2009

It's going to be a bullish year -- the year of the Ox, that is. The Chinese New Year begins on January 26, and the Bay Area is all set to celebrate. Get in on the fun at these local venues: 1) The Cupertino Flint Center hosts the Divine Performing Arts dance company's Chinese New Year Spectacular on January 13-15, 2009. Classical Chinese dance and music showcases the best of Chinese culture;  Read more...

Weekend Outlook: January 2nd-4th

by Shawn Burns

December 31, 2008

Happy New Year to All! 2009 is already shaping up to be a great year and it hasn't even started yet. "How can that be?" you ask. And I'm glad you asked, because it gives me a segue into the first Weekend Outlook of 2009 (or the last one of 2008, depending on your point of view). On Friday how about taking the under-3 tot to KidzArt for their "Squiggles to Grins" art class from 10am  Read more...

Weekend Outlook: November 28th-30th

by Shawn Burns

November 26, 2008

Many families are traveling this weekend, meeting up with relatives and friends to celebrate the holidays, to give thanks, and to get a jump on National Shopping Month. But there are reasons to stay close to home this year, and I'm not talking about the negative reasons like the economy or the hassle of travel. I mean that there are, as always, things a-happenin' right here in the  Read more...

Weekend Outlook: November 21-23

by Shawn Burns

November 19, 2008

This weekend, like last weekend, seems to be full of stage productions geared toward kids. I didn't really want to list a bunch of plays again but I just can't help it because the ones I came across look too cute/fantastic/strange to just ignore. Also, this month at Savvy Source our focus is on Books and Stories, and although storytimes are great to go to (and I include a unique one  Read more...

The ABCs of Silicon Valley

by Shawn Burns

November 04, 2008

Today at Savvy Source we're doing the ABCs of Silicon Valley. Do you have the song in your head? Good. A is for Armadillo Willy's Barbecue . B is for the Baby Loves Disco . C is for the Cinco de Mayo Festival. D is for ducks . E is for environmentalism. F is for farmer's markets . G is for the Gilroy Garlic Festival . H is for Hobee's . I is for Ice Skating  Read more...

Frightfully fun events around Silicon Valley

by Bonggamom

October 21, 2008

Alfie groaned when he came home one day and saw skeletons lining the fireplace mantel. "It's only September 28, and you're decorating for Halloween already". "I know it's early, dear, but October is my hands-down favorite month of the year, and I like to get into the spirit of things as soon as possible". As I patiently explained to him, when else will I find the time to glue all those litle  Read more...

Weekend Outlook: October 17th-19th

by Shawn Burns

October 15, 2008

Looking back at my Weekend Outlook entries for the past few months I notice that we are really and truly privileged in this area to have almost weekly street fairs of some kind or another. I keep highlighting them because I love to walk them, to experience my town, or my neighbor's town, in full spectacle. But perhaps you aren't the street fair type. Perhaps you've been crying out for me to  Read more...

Weekend Outlook: October 3rd-5th

by Shawn Burns

October 01, 2008

No matter how quickly the leaves turn in September (which, around here, really isn't that quickly at all now is it?) it isn't until October that I really feel as though Autumn has begun. The world turns brown and gold and I have visions of crunching leaves in piles and driving up to the mountains to visit the apple orchards. So, with those autumnal thoughts in mind, let me turn your  Read more...

The Children's Discovery Museum: The Wonder Cabinet

by Shawn Burns

July 09, 2008

I took Erin to the Children's Discovery Museum in San Jose on Tuesday. We've been before, but I wanted to bring her back now that she's a toddling walker instead of a mostly-stationary crawler. We explored both the downstairs area and the Wonder Cabinet, the special area for children under 4 upstairs. This post will be about the Wonder Cabinet. We happened to get there just as the art studio in  Read more...

Where are the Dads? #1 Increasing your geek factor

by Shawn Burns

June 26, 2008

If you are an at-home dad what activities can you do with your kid that will be great for him, but also allow you to interact with other dads out there in the Silicon Valley? From time to time I'll be writing about these secret locales and what you can do, either as a dad or as a mom with a partner who is looking for some ideas. This week the theme is "Increasing your geek  Read more...

Looking at portraits on the cheap

by Shawn Burns

June 13, 2008

Erin has reached the age when she really notices other kids. Her favorite word now is 'baby', and whenever she sees another child she exclaims Ba- by ! piercingly loudly. It doesn't matter if the kid is one or eleven, he is still just a 'ba- by ' to her. So I say to myself, "Self, it's time to take her someplace where she can see lots of different faces; let's build those little axonal  Read more...

The Littlest Picasso

by Shawn Burns

June 11, 2008

On those rare occasions that we have to take advantage of a day care center near Emily's office we are sent home with a day sheet that details things like how much she ate and when, diaper changes, and naps. It also includes a small picture that shows Erin playing or participating in some activity. And more often than not these activities are little art projects. Just before  Read more...

Just down the road

by Shawn Burns

June 02, 2008

Living on the Peninsula means that there is always something to do. Like mowing the lawn, or attending a neighborhood don't build a reservoir in my park meeting, or figuring out new and exciting ways to give money to Stanford University. Luckily, whoever invented the Peninsula also invented places like Half Moon Bay, San Francisco, Monterey, Santa Cruz, and Fairfield. What you  Read more...

Turning her into an art snob

by Shawn Burns

May 29, 2008

We are very lucky here on the Peninsula. We are just steps away from one of the few collections of Rodin's best-known sculptures. On the Stanford campus there is a very nice museum, the Cantor Arts Center , and located just outside the west entrance is a Rodin Sculpture Garden. Many of the pieces in the garden are larger versions of sculptures that are carved into the huge Gates of Hell,  Read more...