- Gold Panning/Silting
http://redtri.com/san-francisco/panning-for-gold-in-northern-ca/ - McWay cove in the Pfeiffer State park
- Big Sur, CNatural Bridges State Beach, Santa Cruz
- Glass Beach, Fort Brag, Mendocino
- Gray Whale Cove Beach, Half moon bay
- Lighthousein Point Reyes, Bolinas
- Whale watching in Monterey
- Exploratorium
- Angel Island
- Safari West
- Angels Camp
Angels Camp in Central California, just 2 ½ hours from the Bay Area, is a historic mountain town filled with antique shops, restaurants, art galleries, and small-town hospitality. Located in Calaveras County along Highway 49, it is in the region of the Stanislaus National Forest, where you can test your pans and shovels along the Stanislaus River. Adults can also brave touring the depths of Moaning Cavern, while kids delight in the image of leaping frogs, seen throughout the town. (The frogs pay homage to Mark Twain’s story, “The Celebrated Jumping Frog of Calaveras County,” based in Angels Camp and inspired by the time Twain spent there.)
Jamestown
Chances are you’ve heard of this famous small town before. Located in Toulumne County at the base of the Sierra Nevada Mountains, this town boasts Railtown 1897 State Historic Park, where the kids can see historic locomotives that’ve been filmed in movies like Back to the Future 3. Jamestown Gold Panning is one great spot to learn the art of panning and sluicing. Located on Woods Creek, it’s where school kids love to go on their field trips and where your family can go on yours. Closed Wednesdays and Thursdays.
Amador City
With a population of just over 200, Amador City is truly a small town, well worthy of a visit on the Highway 49 Gold Country strip. Located in Amador County, it’s a place where you can visit an old-fashioned soda fountain, tour underground gold mines with the fam, visit museums full of mining and Gold Rush memorabilia, and walk along the creek. Ride a buggy into Sutter Gold Mine, where you can pan for gold or gemstones and start the kids on a beautiful rock collection. Open everyday.
Sonora
This small Toulumne County town in the Sierra Nevada foothills bustles with a slightly bigger population at 4,280. Before your quest for pay dirt, travel up into the high Sierras to let the kids see waterfalls, rivers, and lakes. Or stay among the many museums, shops, and parks closer to the village, where the kids can take a ride on a horse and carriage. Try your hand at gold panning at nearby Columbia State Park or the Toulumne or Stanislaus Rivers, with plenty of local guidance available to cheer you on.
Chinese New Year special event at Orpheum Theatre, SF, Jan 23-26. Absolutely extraordinary experiences for 5000 years Chinese culture on stage, feature brilliant dances, songs, and symphony in English and Chinese. My parents love it very much. Check SF website: http://www.sfshow.net. Global site: http://www.bestchineseshows.
Clam Chowder Cook-off at the Boardwalk in Santa Cruz it’s coming up on Feb 23rd. You can check it out atwww.beachboardwalk.com/
Exploratorium in San Francisco
Cable Car Museum in San Francisco
The Tech Museum in San Jose
The Children’s Discovery Museum in San Jose
Chabot Space and Science Center in Oakland
Lawrence Hall of Science in Berkeley
Hiller Aviation Museum in San Carlos
Bay Model in Sausalito (including a ferry trip to Sausalito) - Working scale hydraulic model of the bay and its tides.
Dinner show at Teatro Zinzanni
The California Missions (there are 2 that are within a reasonable distance of the Bay Area)
Intel Museum (in Santa Clara, admission and parking free!) http://www.intel.com/museum/
There are several terrific train-related activities that are day trips from the Bay Area.
You can drive or take Amtrak from Emeryville to Sacramento and visit the California State Railroad Museum (http://www.csrmf.org/default.
The Western Railway Museum (http://www.wrm.org/) is between Fairfield and Rio Vista, and includes lots of electric railway cars, including old Key System cars from the Bay Area. This is a lower-budget affair than the CSRM, and mostly outdoors or walking through cars (up and down their steps to get in and out) in the shed.
On the way the WRM (and on the way to the CSRM, too) you can stop for a walk-along tour of the Budweiser plant in Fairfield (http://www.budweisertours.
The Jelly Belly tour (http://jellybelly.com/
There's also the Golden State Model Railroad Museum (http://www.gsmrm.org/index.
USS Hornet in Alameda (http://www.uss-hornet.org/) is pretty interesting, though you may want to double-check how much is accessible without having to climb ladders.
Monterey historical museum, maritime museum and historical houses – walking tour, not strenuous, nice docents explain the history. Very interesting history of Monterey, our first state capital.
Just behind Natural Bridges state park in Santa Cruz and north of it - Seymour discovery center, Longs Marine Lab. Info about what marine scientists are doing, a few marine animals, whale skeleton etc. http://www2.ucsc.edu/
Drive a couple miles north of Natural Bridges, on Highway 1 – Wilder Ranch State Park – historical farm buildings, museum, docent tours. Bit of a walk to get to the coastal walks but mostly level. Farm buildings are down a steepish hill, but you can drive down and drop dad if it’s an issue, then go back to the parking.
San Jose Historical Museum – wonderful collection of old buildings, knowledgeable docents, small soda fountain for sandwich and coffee, indoor museum as well as the houses and other buildings to look at. Look for “Living History Days” in summer. Lots to see here. Great place for July 4.
Kelly Park - Japanese Friendship Garden – lovely in spring.
In Saratoga – Another Japanese garden, and also Villa Montalvo – interesting to see in a low key way. You could sneak in a bit of art there as they have an artists in residence program and occasional things to see.
Filoli – big historical mansion – and must-see gardens in Spring. Just a note on Filoli - they do a lot of science there as well as gardening - they have some of the largest collections of heirloom fruits and vegetables that I've seen. Took a tour through their orchard, where they have about 80 different varieties of apples, 30 or so grapes. Pears, etc. Very few of which are commercial varieties and so don't exist in many places.
San Juan Bautista is a destination I enjoy – wonderful mission to see (or awful, depending on your perspective - Many thousands of native Americans buried there who suffered under the mission system). It’s just a nice historical small town to grab lunch. Lovely gardens in the mission, nice in summer.
Santa Clara mission
Stanford Linear Accelerator.
Hakone garden in Saratoga! http://www.hakone.com/
Historic Steam Engines in Santa Cruz Mountains - http://www.roaringcamp.com/
Monterey Bay Aquarium
Napa or Sonoma Wine Country – particularly taking the on-site tours. Learn a lot about region history and science of winemaking. Many, many options – check out. http://www.napavalley.com/. There’s also theNapa Wine Train.
Wilder Ranch just north of Santa Cruz is quiet historic.
Lick Observatory at Mt. Hamilton (when they don’t have snow).
National Steinbeck Center in Salinas.
Tour the Nummi plant: http://www.nummi.com/tours.php
On the maritime theme, there’s lots to see (various museums) and do (level walks to beautiful places) at Point Lobos: http://pt-lobos.parks.state.
Berkeley Botanical Gardens
Oakland Bonsai Gardens, they have a demo once a month which may be interesting to watch: http://web.mac.com/ltferzoco/
Maker Faire (http://makerfaire.com/)
The next RoboGames (http://www.robogames.net/)
NASA Ames has a visitor center (http://www.nasa.gov/centers/
Computer History Museum in Mountain View: http://www.computerhistory.
Chinese New Year special event at Orpheum Theatre, SF, Jan 23-26. Absolutely extraordinary experiences for 5000 years Chinese culture on stage, feature brilliant dances, songs, and symphony in English and Chinese. My parents love it very much. Check SF website: http://www.sfshow.net. Global site: http://www.bestchineseshows.
BlackHawk museum in Danville :
http://www.blackhawkmuseum.
Sharffen-Berger Chocolate factory tour, Oakland (I think).
DeYoung Museum observation tower, SF. Even though he’s not into art, the new DeYoung is a cool building (clad in copper panels), and the view from the tower is magnificent (and free).
Ride the restored historic trolley cars on Market Street MUNI, SF.
Civil war era fort, Angel Island. Might require walking some distance, all on paved paths.
Embarcadero Center, SF. Archeological history of SF in a redeveloped post office building.http://www.embarcaderocenter.
Various lighthouses along the coast.
Camera Obscura, SF. Simple mechanics and cool optics project a live, rotating, 360-degree, periscopic view of the ocean, the beach, the neighborhood near Cliff House into a parabolic dish.
Monterey County Agricultural and Rural Life Museum, King City. This one’s a long drive, but fascinating. Antique farm equipment and other artifacts. Something like Laura Ingalls Wilder, but after the gold rush (yet before the great depression). http://www.kingcity.com/index.
Niles Canyon Railroad, Sunol. Ride on antique trains.
Ano Nuevo State Park. The life of elephant seals.
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