The Koret Children’s Quarter is located at 320 Bowling Green Drive in Golden Gate Park. Also known as the Children’s Playground, the Koret Children’s Quarter features an abundance of activities for young children, including swings, an artificial (concrete) surf with larger-than-life hermit crabs and other marine animals, a sandbox, and two climbing and play structures that include the usual ladders, tunnels and slides. The Koret Children’s Quarter also offers a two-track concrete slide where young children can ride down the concrete hill on a side of cardboard or in a cardboard box. Cardboard boxes from Costco appear to be particularly popular.
Nearby is the Golden Gate Park carousel, which is housed in the rotunda with doric columns.
A $2.00 fee buys you a ride. For children 6-12, the price of admission is only $1.00. Children 5 and under ride free when accompanied by a paying adult.
Had no idea where the brass ring was hidden, so no free ride for me. Besides the usual ponies, you can also hop aboard a lion, billy goat and rooster, if you so inclined.
Simply a great place to spend a morning or an afternoon. The only downside is that parking may be difficult to find if you arrive late and the park (and parking) fills up quickly.
If you are traveling to Lake Tahoe during the winter, be sure to check the road conditions for the major highways in the area. If you have an iPhone, add this California DOT page to your home screen to check on current conditions for 80, 89, 28 and 50. Highways 80 and 50 will cover the two routes to North Lake Tahoe and South Lake Tahoe. Highway 89 runs from 80 to Lake Tahoe, and is also the route to Squaw Valley and Alpine Meadows. Highway 28 covers the remaining loop around Lake Tahoe.
The Weather Channel application is also indispensable in that it offers a quite a bit more detailed information than the default weather app. Just be warned that the 10 Day Forecast is not entirely reliable because the situation can change. The forecast gets more accurate the closer you get to your travel date.
If you are not fortunate enough to own a vehicle with 4-Wheel Drive, buying snow chains in advance is advisable. At worst, if you don’t need or use the snow chains, you can always return them. If you may be installing snow chains or tire chains for the first time, view several of the snow chain installation videos on YouTube. Inevitably, the written instructions that accompany the tire chains will be a little unclear, so having seen someone install snow chains first will be absolutely helpful. You should be aware that different snow chains have different designs, so the installation process will not be identical across different makes. However, having some basic idea on how to install a snow chain will not hurt. Seriously, all manufacturers who sell products that require assembly or installation should upload a video to YouTube to demonstrate how easy (or hard) their product is to assemble or install.
When I first watched the above video, I could not fully appreciate all the tips it offered. For example, the Oregon DOT advises that the tire chain installer should wear a rain coat. I thought it was to shield the installer from the elements. However, when it came time to actually install the snow chains, I finally understood their advice. Reaching around the wheel to install the chain can get your jacket really dirty if you are not careful. Next time, I’ll bring a rain coat or a poncho.
I would also suggest that you bring a pair of latex gloves. I wore two pairs of gloves: latex gloves inside and leather work gloves outside. I suppose heavy duty rubbers gloves might work as well. Anyways, if it has snowed outside, the leather work gloves will get wet and soak through. That’s where the latex gloves come into play. You don’t want to be working with wet hands when the weather outside is in the 30s or lower.
Another tip is to extend your windshield wiper each night. Just pull it away from the windshield so that if snow falls overnight, your windshield wiper will not be frozen stuck to the windshield the next morning.
The Resort at Squaw Creek offers a variety of winter activities for families with children. Located in Lake Tahoe, tourists can enjoy a dog sled tour or ride a one horse open sleigh at the Resort even if they are not hotel guests. For first-time visitors, the Resort is located on Squaw Creek Road away from Squaw Valley USA and the Village at Squaw Valley. If you’ve reached the Village, you need to turn back.
Anyways, the dog sled tours are offered by Wilderness Adventures. You do need to make reservations as the dog sled tours do fill-up. However, be forewarned that the availability of the dog sled tours depends on the weather. The first day that I tried to book a tour, the dogs were not running because of adverse weather conditions. The second day I tried, the tours were all booked. Fortunately, I was in Lake Tahoe long enough and was able to fit in a dog sled tour the following day. Wilderness Adventures is located in a yurt in the back of the Resort at Squaw Creek. Their one hour dog sled tour takes you through the Squaw Valley meadow. It’s a fun and relatively unique excursion.
Adjacent to the dog sled tours is the one horse open sleigh that also travels through the Squaw Valley meadow. This adventure is a lot cheaper than the dog sled tour and even more popular for young children.
The Resort at Squaw Creek also has an ice skating rink that young children might enjoy. While it lacks the history of the Olympic Ice Pavilion, it is located in a more protected environment. Also, the food choices at the outside chuckwagon were definitely more enticing. The hearty pastrami sandwich looked like real pastrami.
Squaw Valley USA is a winter sports resort located in Lake Tahoe. For families with young children in tow, Squaw Valley offers an abundance of entertainment options. The cable car ride to High Camp is an exciting adventure for young kids. Just make sure to call in advance just in case operations are temporarily suspended due to a Wind Hold.
At High Camp, visitors can rent a pair of ice skates at the outdoor Olympic Ice Pavilion. Make sure you are dressed appropriately because the skating rink can be extremely cold and windy. However, the Olympic Ice Pavilion does offer a 360° view of the surrounding mountains, which is quite a sight to behold.
The Olympic museum was really a television and several display cases of Olympic memorabilia. You can easily see their entire exhibit in about 30 seconds. So, come to High Camp for the ice skating. Don’t make a special trip just for the museum.
I was not impressed by the fare at their food court. The pastrami in their pastrami sandwich didn’t look like any pastrami I’ve ever seen before. The Village offers more dining options if you can time your meals.
Alpine Meadows is a Lake Tahoe skiing and snowboarding resort. For kids, Alpine Meadows offer half-day and full-day classes for children as young as 3. However, at that age, the willingness of a child to participate in classes in an unfamiliar environment is a big factor to consider. For toddlers, Alpine Meadows offers an indoor play area located inside their lodge near the food court. And, speaking of food, while you can pick up cold sandwiches, Alpine Meadows also offers made-to-order salads and hot sandwiches.
The California Department of Transportation offers a fast-loading page for looking up road conditions. If you plan on making a ski run to Lake Tahoe this winter, you could select “Add to Home Screen” to create a button for that page on your iPhone. For example, I-80, which runs from San Francisco to Lake Tahoe, currently shows the following alerts:
This highway information is the latest reported as of Sunday, December 13, 2009 at 23:35 .
I 80
[IN THE SAN FRANCISCO BAY AREA]
A HIGH WIND ADVISORY IS IN EFFECT AT THE SAN FRANCISCO-OAKLAND BAY BRIDGE
/IN SAN FRANCISCO/ (SAN FRANCISCO,ALAMEDA CO) - TRAVEL IS NOT RECOMMENDED
FOR CAMPERS, TRAILERS OR PERMIT LOADS
[IN NORTHERN CALIFORNIA & THE SIERRA NEVADA]
**FOR EASTBOUND TRAFFIC:
CHAINS ARE REQUIRED ON ALL VEHICLES EXCEPT 4-WHEEL-DRIVE VEHICLES WITH SNOW
TIRES ON ALL 4 WHEELS FROM 1 MI EAST OF BAXTER (PLACER CO) TO THE
DONNER LAKE INTERCHANGE (NEVADA CO)
EASTBOUND TRUCKS ARE BEING SCREENED AT APPLEGATE (PLACER CO) - DRIVERS MUST
HAVE MINIMUM CHAINS IN THEIR POSSESSION IN ORDER TO PROCEED - PERMIT LOADS ARE
PROHIBITED
**FOR WESTBOUND TRAFFIC:
CHAINS ARE REQUIRED ON ALL VEHICLES EXCEPT 4-WHEEL-DRIVE VEHICLES WITH SNOW
TIRES ON ALL 4 WHEELS FROM TO THE DONNER LAKE INTERCHANGE (NEVADA CO) WHITMORE
(PLACER CO)
WESTBOUND TRUCKS ARE BEING SCREENED 5 MI WEST OF RENO (WASHOE CO) - DRIVERS
MUST HAVE MINIMUM CHAINS IN THEIR POSSESSION IN ORDER TO PROCEED - PERMIT LOADS
ARE PROHIBITED
Unfortunately, after you search for a particular highway, the website displays the results without changing the URL. So, how can you bookmark a particular highway?
This covers all the major routes from the San Francisco Bay Area to Lake Tahoe. You can manually enter any highway numbers into the URL string and bookmark that page. Better than typing in a bunch of highway numbers into the search field every time.
The Palo Alto Airport hosted Airport Day on September 12, 2009. During the entire visit, we witnessed the constant buzz of small planes taking off and taxiing down the run way. We could also see up close planes of all shapes and sizes, as well as helicopters and gyroplanes. Little kids could also climb aboard a brilliant red Palo Alto fire engine and enjoy the view from inside the truck. I spotted a vendor selling a cup of frozen lemonade at a price that may have been higher than I had paid at Disneyland.
Located in Anaheim, CA, Disneyland offers Southern California residents and visitors an incomparable experience. If you live in Orange County, you may not realize what a gem you have in your backyard. However, if you ever venture to Northern California or out-of-state, you will quickly discover that no place quite delivers like Disneyland. The park is absolutely immaculate, which is no small task considering the thousands of people who pass through the turnstile throughout the day. Additionally, Disneyland constantly refreshes the attractions so they do not feel tired and dated—like I have seen at other theme parks. The breadth of attractions is equally impressive. For young kids, no one caters to them like Disneyland does.
I went during the Friday before Labor Day and really lucked out. Except for the 90 degree heat, Disneyland was absolutely fantastic. For the most part, I encountered 5 minute wait times for most attractions.
If you are visiting Disneyland in the near future, I would recommend avoiding the Harbor Boulevard entrance. The Harbor Boulevard entrance is closed. Instead, signs will direct you to off-site parking at Anaheim Gardenwalk. Ugh. Not an ideal arrangement if the weather is hot and you have kids in tow.
I also attended dinner at Ariel’s Disney Princess Celebration. Located in Disney’s California Adventure, Ariel’s Grotto offers families with young girls an opportunity to dine with their favorite Disney princesses. As you enter the Grotto, you are presented with the opportunity to take a photograph with Ariel—the princess, not the mermaid. You are only permitted one photo per group, so if you are dining with friends, you cannot have your own photo with Ariel, at least initially. However, Ariel does come around to the dining tables later on with her friends, Princess Aurora (aka Sleeping Beauty), Snow White, Cinderella and Belle, for photos. Where’s Mulan for the Asian children? I found the food to be surprisingly good. I had the tri-tip, which I enjoyed. Another dining companion had the redfish, which was also well-received. In addition to the main entree, your table also receives appetizer platters and an after dinner dessert plate. All very delicious, for a price.
The Aquarium of the Pacific is a modern aquarium located in Long Beach, California. Visitors can see fishes and other marine animals from different parts of the world at the aquarium. The aquarium features both small and large fishes spread throughout its two-story structure. Besides the obligatory clownfish exhibit, the aquarium also features puffins, sea lions, and petting tanks for rays and sharks.
Be sure to check the Aquarium of the Pacific website for ongoing promotions. Currently, booking online saves $5 per adult ticket. No additional online discount for children or seniors. However, if you present your AAA card, you receive a 10% discount on up to four tickets. So, buy adult tickets online, but use the AAA discount for the children tickets at the ticket booth.
Day Out With Thomas offers a ride aboard Thomas the Tank Engine, as well as other fun activities. Our local Day Out With Thomas was hosted by Roaring Camp Railroads in Felton, California. Tickets were $18.00 per person (2 and older) with a $7.10 service fee if purchased in advance online. Add in a $7.00 parking fee and the total comes to $50.10 for a party of two.
The Thomas line ran on the beach train. However, it did not make the hour-long trip to Santa Cruz. Instead, Thomas traveled backwards for 15 minutes in one direction , and then reversed course and went forward along the same track.
In addition to the train ride, Day Out with Thomas offers photo opportunities with Thomas the Tank Engine and Sir Topham Hatt, as well as coloring stations, jumping houses, temporary tattoos, face painting, clowns, puppet shows, videos and more.
The line for Sir Topham Hatt’s meet and greet was a bit slow, so we didn’t make it all the way to the front of the line. The coloring station offered stamps, crayons and water colors for coloring and decorating the various coloring pages. At the tattoo station, children could pick from various Thomas themed tattoos to place on their arm or face.
Day Out With Thomas also offered various stations where your child could play with various Thomas toys. And, for those who want to take some of these toys home, Day Out with Thomas also has a Gift Shop for purchasing a whole range of Thomas memorabilia from shirts and pajamas to lunch boxes, flash lights and toys, toys and more toys. Although the train ride is short, Day Out with Thomas offers more than enough activities to keep the little ones busy for a few hours.
When we went to Day Out with Thomas, we booked the 8:30 AM ride aboard Thomas the Tank Engine. During our drive to Felton, Highway 17 was foggy at parts, but Roaring Camp itself was clear. The weather was in the mid 50s, but it didn’t feel cold at all. A light jacket was more than sufficient. As it turned out, 8:30 AM was the perfect time because we scored a great parking spot up front and the park was not crowded even after the conclusion of our train ride. The junior engineer was able to participate in a number of activities without having to wait in line (except for visiting Sir Topham Hatt). By around 10 AM, the clouds finally cleared, the place started to heat up, and the crowds flooded in. So, if you are looking to visit Day Out with Thomas at Roaring Camp, consider the early morning ride. The Weather Channel has an awesome hour-by-hour weather forecast, which is quite useful when deciding when to schedule your ride. Also, the ride along Highway 17 was clear in the early morning out to Felton; however, 17 slows down considerably as the day progresses. When we left around noon, we could see the traffic slow down in the westbound direction towards Santa Cruz.
