While we LOVE this place, I need to have a little rant after our visit yesterday. Why does every exhibit in the aquarium need it’s own ipad thingy on the wall next to it? It’s so distracting for kids. They were all crowded round the screens, pressing at them, and not looking at the wonderful, live animals in the tanks. I’m not sure the kids got any useful information from these screens. Even when used properly, they just have snippets of disjointed information that flash up and down almost too quickly to read. It was a perfect example of how technology can actually undermine education. I think the experience would be far better if they replaced these touch screens with more old-fashioned, and more informative, displays that don’t become the main attractions.
Archive for the ‘local outdoors outings’ Category
Academy of Sciences: Curmudgeon Watch
Posted in local outdoors outings, tagged Academy of Sciences, technology and education, technology and kids, technology and preschoolers on March 19, 2012| Leave a Comment »
Alum Rock Park, San Jose
Posted in hiking with toddlers, local outdoors outings, Short Hikes, Uncategorized, tagged Alum Rock Park, hiking with preschoolers, Hiking with toddlers, Mineral Springs Loop Trail on March 16, 2012| Leave a Comment »
Not knowing anything about this park other than that it’s reported to be quite beautiful, we took the opportunity one sunny spring afternoon to check it out. We were totally surprised by what we found: not by the scenery which was stunning, but by the park’s history. Did you know that Alum Rock Park used to be one of the most famous health spas in America? We didn’t. Between 1890 and 1932 it was operated commercially as a spa retreat and thousands of visitors rode the Alum Rock Steam Railroad to reach its mineral baths, indoor swimming pool, tea rooms, restaurants, and dance pavilion. It actually became so popular after the Second World War that the commercial enterprise started to damage the preserve and the health spa had to be shut down. What’s left now is a beautiful natural preserve with paths that wind in and out of abandoned mineral baths. It has a strange sort of Romanesque beauty and is most interesting to poke around.
Appian Way, San Jose
Alum Rock Park is basically a canyon in the Diablo Range foothills. It’s long and narrow with trails winding through the canyon connecting various picnic areas, abandoned spas and interpretive centers, and more isolated trails on the steep hill sides above. While appealing to grown ups, the wild, narrow, steep trails on the gorge sides are not suitable for toddlers and we gave them a pass for now, preferring to explore the shady canyon floor.
Signs within the park are scarce and park maps are hard to come by on a busy day and not terribly helpful if you do find one (very small scale with few land marks indicated). One immediate word of warning–if you have small kids, ignore the suggestion you’ll find in many other park reviews to use the free parking outside the preserve. It’s a very long walk from that lot to the more interesting parts of Alum Rock. I recommend paying the $6 day use fee for more convenient access.
Toddler Trekking
Once in the park, I suggest continuing to the Visitor Center along the Penitencia Creek Road. This is off the road and a little hard to spot. Don’t stop at the first sign indicating the trail to the Visitor Center, it’s a long trail and you’re better off parking about a quarter of a mile up the road in the lot that’s actually by the center itself. The area around the Visitor Center itself is fun to explore: there are two nice playgrounds for preschoolers, one with giant animal shapes to climb. We then suggest walking left (as you face the center) and checking out the Youth Science Institute (entrance fee $1 adults and 50 cents for kids). This has a small but fun display about local flora and fauna. There are live snakes and spiders, a stuffed fox for stroking, and stuffed bobcats and mountain lions to show the kids. The YSI also inherited a strange, but intriguing, Victorian Collection of stuffed birds and it’s nice to be able to show children all the hawks and owls that they might see while hiking locally. I also liked their little curiosity table with bones and nests and preserved frogs that children are encouraged to explore and touch. The YSI has an attached aviary which houses injured “local” birds which the rangers sometimes bring out to show visitors. When we were there we were lucky enough to see a Western Screech Owl outside the building with its ranger minder. The kids, especially The Puppy Dog, thought this was pretty neat.
Owl, owl, owl!
To see the slightly surreal ruins of the health spa, continue along the path in the same direction. It’s a fairly short trail, only a few hundred yards, and is perfect for little children to walk–just watch them near the creek edge. Both out boys really enjoyed seeing the springs emerging from the rocks, touching the mineral deposits and climbing into the (now empty) old stone spas. There are two or three bridges, depending how far you walk, and you can cross backwards and forwards across the creek to see the ruins on each side. Midway round the ‘Mineral Springs Loop’ (as the extremely unhelpful park map calls it) you’ll come to the Sycamore Grove which is perfect for snack time.
Taking the waters
What’s on this weekend?
Posted in local outdoors outings, Uncategorized, tagged Bay Area outdoors activities, Bay Area outdoors activities for preschoolers, Bay Area outdoors events, Bay Area outdoors events for toddlers on March 15, 2012| Leave a Comment »
Some suggestions (although I’d check before you head out if the weather is bad – there may be cancellations):-
March 17th
Family Day at Elkus Ranch. See here for details. Registration required.
Wingding Family Fest at Skyline Ridge Open Space Preserve, 10am-3pm. It’s a bird themed celebration of spring. Find the flyer here. CANCELLED.
Enjoy a tour of Deer Hollow Farm in the Rancho San Antonio County Park, 10am-1pm, admission $5. The flyer is here.
Family Bird Walk at the Don Edwards Bay Wildlife Refuge, 2.30-4.30pm. Recommended for kids aged 5-10, reservations required.
Sharon Park
Posted in local outdoors outings, Short Hikes, Uncategorized, tagged hiking with preschoolers, Hiking with toddlers, Menlo Park preschooler activities, Menlo Park toddler activities, Sharon Park, Sharon Park duck pond on March 10, 2012| Leave a Comment »
Last week we had a great hike at Sharon Park. This tranquil spot is a great toddler destination: there’s a grassy area for kids to run around, a great (but short) hike through the woods, a pond to explore, a little play structure for climbing and sliding, picnic tables and plentiful parking.
Looking for the fish
To do the hike, head left from the car park past the climbing frame and pick up the trail going into the wood. The trail veers round to the right and runs parallel to the pond through the woods. This is a great area for kids to explore off trail and enjoy some unstructured play and fort building. After a few hundred yards the trail re-emerges onto the grass at the far side of the pond and from there you can explore the path around the water. There’s lots to see in the pond including insects, large koi and ducks. Most toddlers really get a kick out of the big, colourful fish–mine could have watched them for hours.
San Juan Bautista State Historic Park and Old Mission San Juan Bautista
Posted in local outdoors outings, tagged California missions, Old Mission San Juan Bautista, San Juan Bautista State Historic Park on March 5, 2012| Leave a Comment »
We made it down to beautiful San Juan Bautista this weekend to check out the state park’s ‘living history’ day (first saturday of every month) and to explore the mission. It’s a real gem and makes a wonderful family trip with plenty to keep adults and kids busy.
The mission
Mission with bells
The mission and the state park buildings both border the central plaza-a large grassy area perfect for running off toddler energy and enjoying a picnic. The appearance of the plaza is pretty much as it was a hundred years ago, although it has a deceptively tranquil feel. In the nineteenth century the plaza was an important stopping point on the original El Camino Real which ran north and south along the coast connecting the missions, and was bustling with activity, travellers and traders. Just six years after the mission was founded, well over 1,000 people lived there. More arrived during the gold rush and for many years it was one of the largest towns in California. The ‘living history’ day events try to capture some of this and to offer visitors a sense of the varied people who came through the town over the years. It’s a laudable effort although the mixed up period dresses all thrown in together is just the tiniest bit odd, and I think they could do more to show how important native americans were to the functioning of the town from its very earliest days. There were mountain men, trappers and traders, civil war veterans and the occasional lady in Victorian attire wandering around. The ‘actors’ are all super friendly and encouraged the kids to touch the furs and tents and antique rifles and were eager to share their stories.
Standing on the original El Camino Real
Making Mommy a bit nervous
To the right of the plaza are the buildings of the state historic park. There is the old Plaza Hotel, a Castro-Breen Adobe which now contains museum displays, a small settler cabin, stables and the Zanetta house. The boys really enjoyed checking out the stables which house numerous historic wagons and, which they thought was best of all, a late nineteenth-century fire wagon called the San Juan Eagle. They loved seeing how it used buckets to carry water rather than hoses. The Zanetta House is also worth a visit. It was especially interesting for the little ones to see what a late nineteenth-century children’s playroom looked like and I enjoyed the heavy duty children’s play kitchen. Made all our plastic ones look rather insubstantial.
On the other side of the Plaza is the old mission. It was founded in 1797 by the Franciscans. The church itself was built gradually between 1803 and 1817 and retains most of its original features. It’s worth a poke around the mission gardens (the kids loved the bells and cacti) and a look into the church. It always amazes me, coming from an English protestant background, just how colourful these old Spanish Catholic churches were. The wooden panelling housing the saints behind the altar was especially interesting–it’s exactly what many English churches contained before the reformation and it really gives the building a different feel. My other favourite thing about the church? It has a cat flap.
The San Juan Eagle, 1869-1909
Check out that play stove
We spent a happy few hours here and will definitely be returning. There’s a small charge for each part of the plaza: $3 for the state park and $4 for the mission.
It was only as we prepared to leave that we finally realised why it all looked so familiar–it was the setting for the climax of Hitchcock’s Vertigo.
Quail Hollow Ranch
Posted in hiking with toddlers, local outdoors outings, Short Hikes, tagged Bay Area hikes for preschoolers, Bay Area hikes for toddlers, Bay Area outdoors activities, Quail Hollow Ranch, Santa cruz hikes, Santa Cruz preschooler activties, Santa Cruz preschooler hikes, Santa Cruz toddler activities, Santa Cruz toddler hikes on March 4, 2012| Leave a Comment »
I’d never heard of this little gem up in the Santa Cruz mountains near Felton until this weekend, but it sounded so intriguing that we had to check it out. Quail Hollow Ranch is a 300 acre historic horse ranch and nature preserve boasting a plethora of rare Californian plants and animals and no less than 15 natural habitats. According to the on site museum, it’s also where the owners of Sunset magazine enjoyed the robust, outdoorsy life that kept them young at heart.
No preserve is complete without a dirt pile
After visiting today, I’d say it’s also a great destination for little boys. It has everything they need: large animals (horses), ducks, woodpeckers, eagles, logs to climb on, mud to squelch near the pond, and a flat but varied trail system to run along and explore. There was also a man in the car park wearing a snake (I think he’s there the first sunday afternoon of every month).
Quail Hollow Ranch has a couple of trails but they’re all fairly short and easy for little ones to hike. We, or rather The Monkey, selected the Discovery Trail for our hike. It was actually a useful introduction to the preserve as it took us around the ranch, a little way up the hill, through the valley and round to the duck pond and picnic area. There are a couple of other trails we plan to check out on future visits. The preserve also has a cute little museum with some interesting natural history exhibits. As usual, we didn’t meet any other families when we were there, which was a shame as this is a great spot to take toddlers to let them roam free (no traffic, no glaring natural dangers etc). And it’s free.
neat trees.
Not sure it’s worth a day trip from Silicon Valley, but if you’re heading out that way it’s a great spot to check out.
Perfect Rainy Day
Posted in Boys Activities, local outdoors outings, Short Hikes, tagged preschoolers and puddles, puddle jumping, toddler play in the rain, toddlers and puddles on February 29, 2012| 1 Comment »
We really need rain at the moment and, if it must rain, today was the best sort of rainy day for toddlers. It was wet overnight and in the morning, but temperatures remained mild and the skies brightened in the afternoon. This meant it was perfect weather for puddles which, for toddlers, is what rainy days are all about.
I really don’t like taking the boys to indoors play areas at any time–they just have too much energy for those places–but I really hate taking them to indoors play spaces on wet winter days when they are crowded with frustrated and often sickly kids. It always ends in tantrums or fevers. Plus, the boys love the wet. So now when it rains I just take the kids outside. What is it the Scandinavians say? There’s no such thing as bad weather, just bad clothes?
tracking the run-off
Sometimes we do a Serious Wet Weather Hike on the weekends. Stevens Creek is one of our favorite and super muddy destinations as the rain really brings the wildlife out. Hidden Villa also has awesome puddles after a storm. Other times we just do a rain walk down the street which is what we did today. It’s a little disappointing that the City of Palo Alto put storm drains in our road last year as this has had a deleterious effect on our street’s puddles, but the little ones had fun following the run-off down the street and working out where it fed into the creek. And the local park still had puddles galore. In the end, we spent just about the whole day outside as usual.
When do boys grow out of this?
Where do you like to take your kids to enjoy some outdoors rain time? I’m always looking for inspiration on this one. And the more puddles the better.
[as a side note, I often find the weather forecasts exaggerate the chance of rain round here and I’ve come to relay on this radar program to let me know what storms are actually in the area. It’s pretty good at forecasting the following 6 hours – perfect for planning toddler outings].
Memorial Park
Posted in hiking with toddlers, learning through play, local outdoors outings, Short Hikes, tagged hiking with preschoolers, Hiking with toddlers, Memorial Park, Memorial Park San Mateo, Mt Ellen Nature Traill, Toddler treks on February 26, 2012| Leave a Comment »
This weekend we headed up to Memorial Park to check out the old growth redwood forest. As usual, we were the only family on the trails (although one hardy family with older children was actually camping out there for the weekend-kuodos to them!). We fairly flew along the path as it had two key attractions for our children: The Monkey was fascinated to discover the alphabet amongst the trees and the Puppy Dog was delighted by the banana slugs all over the trail. Slugs really are magical to eighteen-month old boys.
If you feel like venturing into the forest, it’s a great park. Just note the $6 day use fee and be warned that there is a distinct lack of parking near the trailheads!
Getting some learning on the trails
Nothing beats an Outdoors Tree Fort
Posted in Boys Activities, hiking with toddlers, learning through play, local outdoors outings, Short Hikes, Unstructured Play, tagged Hiking with toddlers, Memorial Park, Memorial Park San Mateo, natural forts, outdoors play with toddlers, tree forts on February 26, 2012| Leave a Comment »
We found this one in Memorial Park. The boys played here for the longest time. I’m finding many of our most successful hikes are those on which we stop and make time for unstructured play if that’s what the boys want to do.
Clambering around their forest stronghold
It's all mine!
Really tall ships
Posted in local outdoors outings, Short Hikes, tagged Hawaiian Chieftan, Hikes with toddlers, Port of Redwood City, preschooler activities in Redwood City, preschooler outings in the bay area, the Lady Washington on February 24, 2012| Leave a Comment »
Today we checked out the two replica eighteenth-century tall ships, the Lady Washington and the Hawaiian Chieftain, that are currently moored in the Port of Redwood City. It was a pretty impressive sight which the kids enjoyed more than I’d expected. I was also surprised by how fun the port was for little ones to explore. There’s a trail along the water front from where kids can look into the water, watch the ducks and geese, and enjoy the many sail boats out in the Bay. The Monkey had many questions about how sail boats worked and why all the boats looked so different. It was a new experience for him. The Puppy Dog really enjoyed chasing the ducks. We’ll no doubt come again on a windy day and bring a picnic lunch. As long as you’re happy to have your little ones near water, the port makes for an interesting outing.
Boat watching
Big ship, little guy
The Outdoors Parent 