Your guide to activities and fun things to do with your preschoolers, toddlers and kids in san jose, 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.

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. 

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: 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...

A trip to the airport: Keeping your sanity at SJC

by Shawn Burns

July 02, 2008

If you are taking any trips by air this summer, and you are flying out of Mineta (SJC), you are probably already stressing about what you are going to do with your child during your brief-but-feels-like-an-eternity stay. I've flown out of Mineta quite a few times, and even though it's fairly boring as international airports go there are still things you can do to keep your kid interested in  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...

Planes, Trains, and Automobiles

by Shawn Burns

May 23, 2008

Erin loves the train. This is a deep affection, born of many trips down to the CalTrain station in Menlo Park, bodes well for a future filled with moving parts, engines, and wheels. And although a the moment she is only excited by trains whizzing by, I can tell she is growing fascinated with cars and trucks. Soon her fascination with all things mobile will grow to envelope aerial autos: planes  Read more...