California Dreamin' - A Tourist in My Home State

Since our major plane traveling for the summer is done, I thought I’d start a series on touring California with small children. We are lucky enough to live in the San Francisco Bay Area, and the region is rich with activities for the little ones. Whether going to one of the many beaches, playing at one of the Children’s Discovery Museums, visiting a zoo, or riding a train the Bay Area has it all, and some of it fairly cheap or free if you know what you’re doing.

The economy hit me close to home, and I now have the luxury of four-day weekends with my boys. My husband and I are not ones to sit around the house, so we have tons of day and weekend trips planned all summer… big and small.

Last weekend we took the boys for a beach day in Santa Cruz (I’ll write about that on Thursday), and if it is warm this weekend we’ll probably explore another beach in the area.

This summer I will also write about our home away from home… Los Gatos. At least once a weekend we ride the Billy Jones Wildcat Railroad at Oak Meadow Park and we eat breakfast at the Farmers Market there on Sundays. Xander especially likes playing in the fountain in the Los Gatos Town Plaza.

We also have our tickets for a Day Out with Thomas at Roaring Camp Railroads in Felton at the end of the month. We haven’t been to Roaring Camp before, so I’ll be sure to write a review of our experience.

We have a family membership to the San Francisco Zoo (a very thoughtful gift from a good friend of ours) and we intend to take full advantage of it. A day in San Francisco also means a trip to the Farmer’s Market in the Ferry Building, and takeout from Out the Back Door, part of San Francisco’s amazing Vietnamese restaurant the Slanted Door.

I also want to take the boys camping. This will require shopping for a bigger tent, but it should be fun. We’ll either head North to Lassen Volcanic National Park, or South to El Capitan State Park in Santa Barbara – we are still figuring that out.

I may have also talked some of my mommy friends into writing about their summer and fall trips too.

So for me, staying close to home doesn't mean an end to our travel adventures.