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

Pint-Sized History Lessons: The USS Hornet

by bonggamom

March 23, 2009

Like most little boys (and many little girls), my sons often dream of soaring up in the skies in a jet plane.  They let their imaginations take flight with nothing but a plastic airplane and visions of dogfights, 360-degree loop-the-loops, and landing their planes on a huge aircraft carrier at sea. 

Fortunately for them, and for all other pint-sized fighter pilots in Silicon Valley, we've got a real aircraft carrier moored just a hop, skip and a jump away:  the USS Hornet.   It was once a working vessel and participated in World War II, the Vietnam War, and the first manned space mission, Apollo 11.  A national treasure, it's now peacefully moored at historic Alameda Point on the San Francisco Bay, and is a museum open to the public.

Last weekend we took our three kids there and they had a blast.  From the moment we drove up beside the gigantic vessel and boarded her gangplank, their jaws dropped and stayed that way for the next three hours.   The huge aircraft hangar is filled with various warplanes, helicopters and exhibits related to the Apollo 11 mission.  There's also a flight simulator where, for an extra $6, you can hop into a flight simulator and pretend you're flying an F-15 over land and sea.

Much of the ship is open to visitors; some areas require joining a guided tour.  It's free with admission, but it's a 45-minute tour and it does get techinical, so it may be difficult for preschoolers to follow.   Popular explore-on-your-own areas include the rooms where officers and crew ate, played, worked and slept.  Our kids were delighted at the sight of rows and rows of uncomfortable-looking bunk beds in the crew's quarters; they didn't like the small jail cells in the brig quite so much!  The whole place is run by volunteers who know the history of the vessel inside out.  Many served on similar aircraft carriers -- and all of them are more than happy to regale you with tales of life at sea. 

Unfortunately, we got there too late to experience one of the highlights of the museum: the "fighter jet elevator".  Every 3rd Saturday of the month is Living Ship Day, when visitors get to experience the aircraft carrier "in action":  meet former crew, participate in "mission briefings", and sit in the cockpit of a fighter jet.   Best of all, visitors get to stand on alongside a fighter jet and hitch a ride on their "aircraft elevator", as it is lifted from the lower hangar decks onto the flight deck and placed into launch position.  We arrived just as the elevator was making its last trip, so if you want to avoid looks of disappointment on your little ones' faces, make sure you get there before 2PM .  Then again, the whole experience is extremely noisy, so if your little one is sensitive to noise, you may want to avoid it altogether.  No worries -- whether you catch that elevator or not, there's certainly enough to experience at the USS Hornet to feed your child's sense of history, and fuel his imagination, for many fantasies to come.

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...

LEGO comes to Silicon Valley: MOAH's Living LEGO-cy

by Bonggamom

January 09, 2009

Train lovers -- and parents of little train lovers -- take note: there are only a few more days left to enjoy the Museum of American Heritage (MOAH) 's annual holiday train display. Living LEGO-cy: Legendary LEGOs and Terrific Trains, a joint project of the museum, the Bay Area LEGO® User Group (BayLUG) and Bay Area LEGO Train Club (BayLTC), is a must-see. MOAH is a small museum tucked  Read more...

List Day: Consumable Gifts

by Shawn Burns

December 16, 2008

Today on Savvy Source we're talking about "consumable" gifts. Not "gifts you can eat" but gifts that you use up, like gift certificates and memberships. My favorite gifts as a kid were always bookstore gift certificates, and I think my post-Christmas Certificate-Shopping-Spree kept the local bookstores in business through March. But not everyone is like the nerdy kid I was (am?), so  Read more...

Weekend Outlook: December 5th-7th

by Shawn Burns

December 03, 2008

Even if you aren't going to be participating in or enjoying any of the activities and events I talked about yesterday you can still have a great time with your kid(s) this weekend around the Peninsula. And for the sake of variety this will be a concert/theater-free Weekend Outlook. I know you must be played out (that's kind of a pun). This Friday from 3-4pm is the first in Hidden  Read more...

List Day: Holiday Traditions

by Shawn Burns

December 02, 2008

I'm a new-ish Holiday Dad, and this year marks my first real opportunity to immerse my daughter in the local holiday celebrations and know that she'll get something out of it. Of course there are holiday events all up and down the Peninsula and in the Silicon Valley this month, but for today's List Day at Savvy Source we are charged with presenting a list of local traditions, and not  Read more...

List Day: Holiday Traditions

by Shawn Burns

December 02, 2008

I'm a new-ish Holiday Dad, and this year marks my first real opportunity to immerse my daughter in the local holiday celebrations and know that she'll get something out of it. Of course there are holiday events all up and down the Peninsula and in the Silicon Valley this month, but for today's List Day at Savvy Source we are charged with presenting a list of local traditions, and not  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...

Park Day: Discovery Meadow

by Shawn Burns

November 10, 2008

This weekend we took our little girl down to San Jose to the Children's Discovery Museum . But this post isn't about the CDM . While we were waiting for the doors to open (because we were there an hour early because we were stupid and were fooled by Daylight Savings Time) we took full advantage of what lies right outside the CDM: Guadalupe River Park's Discovery Meadow . It's not a  Read more...

Weekend Outlook: October 24th-26th

by Shawn Burns

October 22, 2008

We're heading into the end of October here on the Peninsula, and that means more and more Halloween-themed events coming up. But even though there are plenty of family fairs and haunted houses in the area in the coming weeks, there are also more unique opportunities for enjoying the Halloween season. Come walk the trail at Hidden Villa on Friday at 6:30pm. Dress up and hunt the trail for  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...

Park Day: Playtown

by Shawn Burns

August 25, 2008

Today's Park Day Post is about an indoor park, Playtown at Valley Fair. Playtown is an enclosed (one entryway), rubber-floored obstacle course and playground distraction down by the Lego Store and Build-a-Bear Factory. Within the walls of the lot there are soft row-benches for parents and nannies to sit on while their charges engage in all kinds of running and jumping and sliding and tunnel  Read more...

Rubber ducky...you're the one....

by Shawn Burns

August 04, 2008

Let's begin our splish splash month with a little discussion about the smallest splash zone: the bathtub. Erin knows when it's bathtime, and she asks for it by name. She has a great time brushing her teeth and pouring a full cup of water over head (the best bath toys are the simplest ones). But I have to think that at least in part the great allure of the bathtub is the ample presence of her  Read more...

The Car Wash

by Shawn Burns

July 28, 2008

For the first time in, oh, an embarassing long time I brought the family car in for a wash and wax. Because Erin is completely insane for ducks and exclaims "duck!!" every time we drive by the place, we went to our local Ducky's car wash in Menlo Park. You wouldn't normally think of an errand-destination as a "teaching opportunity", but I had forgotten what an interesting place the car wash  Read more...

List Day: Coming Home From Vacation

by Shawn Burns

July 08, 2008

Here's a list you can take home with you: The Best Parts About Coming Home From Vacation. This is pretty timely for us, since we just returned from a week in San Diego where, for the first time, we tried to find things to do in a strange city with a pre-schooler. It was fun, but tiring, and we're glad to be home. Here's why: 1. Our beds. Of course it's nice to sleep away from home sometimes, but  Read more...

Summer Camps

by Shawn Burns

June 27, 2008

When I was a kid I would spend part of my summer away from home at my aunt's home in Montreal. Because she was a little past her "wanting to have kids underfoot 24/7" time, some summers she would take me to a day camp. Back then day camps were pretty unimaginative: Sports Camps and Wilderness Camp were about as "thematic" as they came. But with time, and consumer dollars, things have changed.  Read more...