Vacations Blog

Here is my Thursday Thirteen list of items I always pack when traveling with my kids, things I have found useful when taking my kids on the road. My two are 6 and 7, so our packing list has certainly evolved from when they were babies. And as they grow older, we look forward to even more changes. The list skews a little more towards airplane trips, but I think the list is also valid for car adventures too. Our most exciting packing achievement? For our trip in March to London and Paris, we took only carry on luggage – each of us had a roll-on suitcase and backpack!

In Letterman style, I will do my list backwards, saving the best for last:

13. Travel backpack with games, books and toys to keep them busy (check out the $1 bin at Michaels)
12. Refillable water bottles
11. Small first aid kit with band aids
10. Digital Camera (one for the adults and one for the kids)
9. Flip video recorder (so small it fits in my pocket) Read More »

UpTake blogger Gudrun Enger, was born and raised in Palo Alto. After living in other parts of the world, she has returned to raise her family in her home town. And while not professing to be an expert on Palo Alto, she offers this perspective….

Give 5 adjectives that you would use to describe the “feel” of Palo Alto and its residents:

Educated, mindful, adventurous, youthful, eclectic.

What is your favorite neighborhood of Palo Alto:

I am partial to the College Terrace area of Palo Alto, located just south of Stanford University. All the streets are named after famous colleges and universities, the homes are a mix of sweet bungalows and artfully designed family homes, and the proximity to Stanford ensures a good mix of college types, young professionals and families.

Which cuisine do you think Palo Alto does best? What is the runner-up?

Palo Alto is chock-a-block of restaurants for every taste – On California Ave, don’t miss La Bodeguita del Medio for Cuban-inspired cuisine, Bistro Elan for classic French, and the Counter, for classic American burgers, your way. On University Ave, Three Seasons for Vietnamese, Mediterranean at Evvia, Junoon for Indo-fusion, La Strada for Italian, and scads of hip places such as Pluto’s, Pasta?, and Miyake’s. Why limit ourselves to one cuisine, let’s embrace them all!

What is the best free thing to do?

I love the 10-week evening jazz series at Stanford Shopping Center on Thursdays during the summer. Bring a picnic dinner, a beach chair and enjoy the lovely music.

What is your favorite type of entertainment?

Anything outdoors. Window shopping on California Avenue, walking “The Dish” in the Stanford Foothills, roller blading through the neighborhoods.

List the best family friendly activity:

The myriad of parks in Palo Alto are enough to keep the average family busy for weeks. Our favorite is Johnson Park on Everett, between Kipling and Cowper, with a mini-rock wall, cement slide (bring your cardboard box) and slide and sand for everyone. The community garden in the back corner gives it a comfortable, neighborly feel.

What spot would you send a couple, looking for a romantic weekend?

Ok, romance for us means eating lots of great food, exploring places on foot and finding the hidden gems of a city. I recommend booking a room at the centrally-located Garden Court Hotel and heading to Vino Locale for Friday night dinner, with local wines and slow food, before the Friday-night Art Walk. Quick Saturday breakfast at Coupa Cafe (spicy hot chocolate and pastries), before heading out to explore the Farmer’s Market behind the post office. Take a break in the afternoon with a couple’s massage and soaking tub at Watercourse Way Bathhouse Spa. Dinner at Tamarine (sit in the bar and people watch), a movie at the Stanford Theater, end with dessert at Gelato Classico. Go back to hotel, collapse. Order breakfast in….

Describe a perfect day…one that captures what your area/city is all about. In 3 sentences or less.

I would start with a family bike ride over to Stanford University, stopping for a free visit to Cantor Museum and a picnic lunch on the Oval, with the required frisbee-throwing and people watching. My kids might throw in a visit to Hoover Tower or a splash in the Claw Fountain at White Plaza. And finish with a casual dinner at the Palo Alto Creamery before heading back home.

Tell us about a place that you love to go, whether it is in the guidebooks or not.

I love to take our kids to the Palo Alto Junior Museum and Zoo, where I used to go as a youngster. Wonderful hands on activities and a small zoo with a bobcat!

Just because it is the start of summer here in California, and because we are insatiably curious about our readers, let’s make this into a meme. First up and tagged are Claude from Les Explorers , Erica from Blissful Travel, and Guido from Happy Hotelier . You can tell a European vacation is on our minds!

Want to share, brag, or tell about your town? If so, send an e-mail or comment on this post–then you can be our next local expert!

Thank you to E.M.B. for the Palo Alto Egg picture!

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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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!

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?

If you have not yet heard, Al gore won the Nobel Peace Prize today!

Well, he happened to be in the SF Bay area at the time and decided to hold a press conference only 5 blocks from the Kango Offices

After receiving the Tip from a friend the Kango Blogger news crew (3 people and one Digital SLR camera) traveled the 5 blocks to see if the tip was real (Alex von Oech got the tip).

With ~ 30+ news crews we figured that the former Vice President would soon be arriving. People from the community came out to catch a glimpse of Gore including some young children with signs.

For a few minutes we went down a hall labeled “Press” and were politely asked to leave;

But we heard a tip that he would be arriving on the other side of the building; this tip also proved true and we were able to catch a glimpse of Gore as we stepped out of his Mercedes sedan “Eco 10” (powered by bio-diesel)

The Vice President was very polite to the press, and to the locals who had come out to support him; he stayed briefly outside the Alliance for Climate Protection offices and shook the hands of the children and their parents and thanked them for their support.

The place was buzzing after Gore arrived; and we went down the hall to the press room, going to the back door entrance we were welcomed inside by the “Alliance for Climate Protection” staff (despite our lack of press badges), climbing some steps in the back of the room already crowded by 10-15 journalists) we waited for Al Gore to deliver his speech.

His spokesperson entered the room first saying that Mr. Gore would be coming in 2 minutes to give a short speech and that he would not be answering questions; when he arrived he was hailed by the sound of 60+ cameras snapping photo’s (which failed to cease throughout the five minute speech) and the glare of the lights.

First the former vice president acknowledged the Nobel Prize committee for selecting him the (shared) winner and announced that he would be donating the prize to combat the climate crisis; he also said that he would travel to accept the prize in person.

Then he spoke briefly about the continuing effects of global warming on the polar ice caps “polar scientists are now warning that at current rates the polar ice caps will be completely gone within 23 years” (or language very similar, this humble blogger is relying only on memory)

He then spoke from a place of his own passion delivering a call in the form of an African proverb

Gore said:

“There is an old African proverb, If you want to go fast; go alone, if you want to go far; go together we need to act both quickly and together if we are going to put an end to the climate crisis” (Again I quote from memory)

With that, he concluded the press conference and thanked everyone for coming.

As he walked out of the room he was met with shouts from the press “Mr. Vice President Do you plan to run for president after winning this award?… Mr Vice president!”

With that; he left the room and he went to a private meeting with members of the Alliance for Climate Protection.

His message was loud and clear it sends a strong message that this years’ Nobel Prize is awarded to Al Gore. The world’s most important institutions are recognizing the urgency of the problem that we all face, for my part; I hope that we are able to make the simple green choices that will make that difference.

All photographs in this story may be republished under the creative commons attribution license, if you would like to republish any of the photo’s please link each one to this blog post and http://www.kango.com from any web-page using them. Thank you.

Hello world! We’re working on some very exciting ideas about how to make travel planning (all the stuff you do before you actually get to go on vacation) significantly better. What you see on Kango.com today is a pale shadow of what we are working on in our proverbial Silicon Valley garage.

Well, HP’s garage is pretty expensive Palo Alto real estate today…more than we can afford! So we’ll be starting Kango, Inc. in some rental space not too far away.

Anyway, until we’re ready to give birth to our beta baby, we’ed like to find other fellow travelers who are passionate about travel, and have a specific focus around their travel. It could be around activities or hobbies that they really care about: surfing, skiing, water-sports, etc. Your focus might be around a specific lifestyle, cause or reason for travel: ecotourism, adventure travel, family-oriented vacations. The only prerequisite is that you really care about doing something (even if that’s just relaxing) that results in a great travel experience. If you’re one of these people, we’ed love to enroll you in our project–to create a great travel website that helps you get the most out of your vacation time.

I’m Elliott Ng, the first official Kango at Kango, Inc. I’ll write a post to introduce myself (actually is anyone reading this post not someone I already know?) and share about some of my travel passions. Hope you’ll be interested in what we are doing and helping out!

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