Vacations Blog

If you have been feeling the urge to get out with your girlfriends and leave the husband/boyfriend/cat at home…then I have a great suggestion for you!

Never has there been a better “ladies’ night” excuse than the release of Sex and the City–The Movie. Women across the world are giddy with delight that it is finally here–four years after the last episode aired!

If you live in the Bay Area, then I have the perfect location for this most exciting girls getaway. Gather your gaggle of gals and buy tickets to see the movie in San Francisco at Sundance Kabuki Theater on Fillmore. This is an excellent movie theater in a beautiful building. But, more importantly, there is one theater with balcony seating next to a full service bar. So, you can sit back in their large comfy seats and drink a Cosmo while you watch Carrie and the girls in New York City.

I went this week and it was a blast! Go out to dinner first and dress up….channel your inner Carrie, Samantha, Charlotte, or Miranda fashion sense. Get to the movie early though! On a Tuesday night the line at the bar was out the door, filled with enthusiastic women–no men to be seen.

I won’t spoil the movie for anyone–but, it is definitely worth seeing. So, organize your group of friends and go see it in style!

Thanks to Shereen for the great pic!

Who was your favorite character on SATC?

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After Marsha’s post from Tuesday, I got to thinking about our celebrities up north, here in the Bay Area. Pat kindly provided me a list of Hollywood-ish celebrities in San Francisco, including Robin Williams, Clint Eastwood, Linda Ronstadt, George Lucas, Stephan Jenkins (lead singer of the homegrown rock group Third Eye Blind), all the members of Green Day, Chris Isaak, Carlos Santana, Huey Lewis and the News, and Nicolas Cage (for a while anyway). But (IMHO, the geeky side of me) the real celebrities are in Silicon Valley, home of Google, the iPhone, and Sand Hill Road venture capitalists. And if I were planning a visit to the Bay Area and wanted to get in some celebrity watching, I would definitely start on the Peninsula….

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I live just across the bridge from Berkeley & Oakland and I think these two cities are often overlooked by my friends and neighbors, who usually go south into the city for entertainment. I love Berkeley’s politics, the college influenced environment and the entertainment Oakland offers for families. East bay residents will have other suggestions, but here are my favorites for kids under the age of nine:

Aquatic Park—This small park in Berkeley has a nice concrete path along the “lake” suitable for trikes, strollers and little bikes. Kids can feed the ducks and play for hours on the large play structure on the north end of the park. Best of all, real trains go by on the tracks located right near the play structure and the conductors always wave back at the kids. This is fascinating for my kids. It beats a Thomas the Train video any day.

East Bay Vivarium—This is a wonderful weird place filled with snakes, lots of snakes, especially boa constrictors. It also happens to be one of the largest reptile stores in the nation. My young son can spend an hour looking at the exotic reptiles for sale here. If you ask , you can touch the a snake or two (ummm, I don’t ask.) They also have frogs, spiders and turtles. The turtles are nice. This is a creepy, crawly place and is fun for about an hour. It is one block from Berkeley’s 4^th Street which has several good restaurants, stores and a bookstore and it is only ten minutes from Aquatic park. The vivarium, park and 4th street are a nice way to spend morning, just enough to entertain a young toddler before a nap is needed.

Chabot Space & Science Center—The space center is a nice evening for kids and adults. Winter is a good time to visit because of the night time stargazing they offer through their huge telescopes. Once summer comes, the sky is too light until after nine o’clock to see much, too late for most kids. I suggest you have dinner in one of Berkeley’s or Montclair’s many restaurants and then venture to the nearby space center. My nine year daughter, who introduced me to the planetarium through her brownie troop recommends you go to “learn about outer space and see an interesting , wonderful, and amazing dinosaur show. After walking through all the exhibits about meteors, planets, and an astronaut’s life in a rocket ship you can dash to the telescopes and look beyond the starry night and enter a universe filled with many questions.” The place is interesting to kids and adults. I love gazing at star clusters millions of miles away.

The Oakland Zoo—I have always liked this zoo and used to go almost weekly when my kids were in pre-school. It is just the right size for little legs to wander without getting tired, the children’s exhibit is entertaining, the fruit bats horrifyingly interesting and the lunch spot is in the shade next to the flamingos. Does it get any better than that? It is also much warmer than the San Francisco zoo and more accessible for young kids. A bonus is the little rides park adjacent to the zoo entrance. The rides are fun for the kids and give a break to the “zooed out” parent. This zoo is safe, comfortable and just right for the animal lover in all of us.

There is also the Lawrence Hall of Science, a UC Berkeley Science & Math center, Tilden Park, one of the oldest and most popular parks in the bay area and Berkeley Iceland, a funky ice skating rink. If you need more information on anything in the Bay Area, I recommend the Berkeley Parent’s Network, a collection of tips, advice and discussion on everything for parents and visitors in the bay area.

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After Gudrun’s post about seeing the lights in the Bay Area, I thought I would share my family’s favorites just north of the Golden Gate Bridge.

We especially like the holiday boat parades. Our favorite is the Sausalito Lighted Yacht Parade on December 8, 2007 starting at 6:00 p.m. I like it because it is near my home, not crowded and is quite spectacular. It lasts about an hour, just enough time to keep the kids entertained and to get chilled enough to justify copious amounts of hot chocolate. There is great viewing from inside the Spinnaker restaurant or you can bring your own warm beverage and see the show from the dock just to the north of the restaurant.

My friends from Petaluma have invited us to view the Petaluma Holiday Lighted Boat Parade on December 1, 2007 from their architectural office overlooking the river. As the Petaluma Post described it, “a flotilla of vessels decked in lights will glide into the Petaluma River Turning Basin beginning about 6 PM.” If you miss the parade, don’t worry, boats leave their lights on for a few hours after the parade. There are many restaurants to visit near the river if you want to make it more of an evening. see more »

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Almost as soon as the Halloween decorations come down, I get excited to see the lights displays for the winter holidays. In the Bay Area, individuals and neighborhoods build beautiful displays and driving around Thanksgiving weekend is a big tradition in our house. Here are some suggestions for not-to-be-missed light shows:
On the Peninsula, The Festival of Lights Parade in Los Altos starts off the holiday season, the Sunday after Thanksgiving. In Palo Alto, residents like to drive down Christmas Tree Lane, on Fulton Avenue off of Embarcadero. Redwood City boasts a great neighborhood display on Dewey Street, better known as Candy Cane Lane, while San Carlos welcomes visitors to Eucalyptus Street, off of Brittan, for a great display of holiday glitter.

In the East Bay, don’t miss Thompson Ave between High street and Fernside in Alameda. This community oriented street is decorated to the hilt, and you can even bring your letter to Santa to drop in the mailbox. I have heard that he might even respond! The Oakland Yacht Club will host the 31st annual Lighted Yacht Parade on December 1, with viewing locations at Wind River Park in Alameda and Jack London Square in Oakland.

In San Francisco, Union Square gets all dolled up for the holidays with a huge tree in the center. And the shops around the square decorate for the season and are worth a look. Embarcadero Center also puts on a fabulous light display, using approximately 17,000 lights!

In the South Bay, Vasona Park Fantasy of Lights in Los Gatos, part of the Santa Clara County Park system, transforms into a winter wonderland, complete with twinkling lights and animated displays. Christmas in the Park, an annual celebration in Plaza de Cesar Chavez in downtown San Jose, showcases trees decorated by non-profits in San Jose.

Don’t see something that is close to you? Check out Lights of the Valley, which lists homes in the Bay Area with light displays. Started by a mom in Livermore in 1999, the site takes nominations from members of the community and includes pictures.What is your favorite place to see lights? What is the tradition in your neighborhood? We love to hear your travel adventures!

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My pen-pal Kelly and her husband Justin visited from Australia in the spring, and as their hostess, I thought it would be nice to put together an itinerary, highlighting the best of the Bay Area (it was the least I could do, since she and her family have done the same for me!). Since their guide book covered San Francisco pretty well, I decided to put together a must-see list outside of the City:

On the day they arrived, in order to try to keep them awake, I suggested something low key and close to home, Stanford University. In addition to being one of the best universities on the West Coast, it also offers much to the local community. We started by visiting Hoover Tower and taking a ride to the top, for a panoramic view of the surrounding area. I am not a big fan of heights, so I stuck to the center area, but Kelly and Justin were excited to take pictures of the scene below. Then we walked over to the Cantor Museum, where we explored the outdoor Rodin Sculpture garden, before going inside to view the exhibits. My favorite is always the giant banana in the courtyard, and the permanent installation upstairs.

Our next adventure involved visiting a few of the 100+ Santa Cruz Mountain Wineries. Napa’s quieter, South Bay cousin, is home to some of my favorite wineries, just a 30 minute drive from our house. For Kelly and Justin, I suggested a visit to Ridge Vineyards, followed by a stop at Byington for a picnic lunch, and then finishing at Bonny Doon. Since we had time, we also visited the new Presentation Center, down the road from Byington, for a view of their new “Green” Welcoming Center.

Since I am such a foodie, I suggested our next day trip venture to the East Bay. We started in Oakland on College Avenue, with a stop at La Farine for some morning buns (who cared that it was already 11am!). For lunch, we stopped in at Oliveto at the Rockridge Market Hall, and spent time after lunch exploring the specialty food purveyors downstairs of the restaurant. Our next stop was Berkeley, for a quick tour of Scharffenberger Chocolate. I had made reservations ahead of time for the tour, and it was well worth it. Before heading home, we stocked up!

No trip to Northern California is complete without a visit to the Monterey Peninsula (IMHO), so for our final excursion we drove down to Point Lobos State Park, where, after entering the Reserve, we headed for the Sea Lion Point Trail, one of my favorite walks out to the ocean. On the way back, we stopped in Carmel for lunch at Casanova, and then headed up the coast to the Monterey Bay Aquarium. After a couple hours in the Aquarium, exploring the Kelp Forest, and my favorite, the Jellyfish exhibit, we headed home. By this time, I think I had exhausted my guests and they were ready for a vacation from their vacation!

Tell me, where do you like to take your visitors?

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So Travel-Betty has the honor of being the first one to comment on our blog! So I thought I’d highlight her point of view on camping…namely pampered camping in the Bay Area, between Santa Cruz and Half Moon Bay on the Pacific Coast, in Pescadero, CA For those of you who don’t want to sleep on the hard ground, there is a better way. Its called Costanoa with Kango reviews here.

Travel-Betty does a nice writeup and breaks down the options as follows:

• The lodge - for people who need to stay in a hotel
• Douglas fir cabins - for people who need solid walls around them at night and a bed to sleep on.
• Tent bungalows - for people who want to feel like they are going camping, hear the crickets outside, but want to sleep on a bed with electric light and an electric blanket too!
• Bring your own camping equipment - for people who want to actually camp but also want it to be less crowded and with much nicer bathrooms than typical campsites. From the Costanoa website:
  “Comfort Stations are specially designed bathroom facilities that include a central courtyard with fireplace, sauna, heated concrete floors, private indoor and outdoor showers, sinks, flush toilets, and skylights.”

I’ve stayed at Costanoa in the Lodge for a corporate offsite when I was working for a Fortune 1000 company with $s to spend (sigh…miss that). I even paid for my team’s massages at the spa (I didn’t do one myself, but they looked pretty relaxed after the massages!)

Rates vary from $140 - 365 per night for the various lodging options, depending on time of year and day of week. If you just rent a tent site or RV site, its $40 - 65 per night. This may seem expensive relative to other campgrounds, but for a family of 4 its just $10 per person per night for 4 star bathrooms and saunas included. Hey, why aren’t we going here instead of Pescadero SP?

Do they have kids activities and babysitting?

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