Taking family vacations with our daughter, Olivia, gets more and more fun as she grows up. The last time we came to Northern California, she couldn’t walk. This time, she’s running, and in most ways, it’s easier to have her along.
At two, she is starting to engage with the world around her, and it’s fun to see her interact and enjoy our various activities. What’s easier: she can walk, talk, and feed herself. What’s harder: she gets willful and cranky, as a typical two year old.
We chose some activities purely for her (that’ll be obvious to you when you read on about what we did), and some that we wanted to do, but she was able to tag along (gardens, skydiving, Alcatraz).
The only disappointment was that we couldn’t choose any activities purely for our pleasure (Napa comes to mind!), but that’s just the tradeoff when you have kids, right? That day will come again.
ALCATRAZ ISLANDOur first activity of the trip was a visit to Alcatraz Island, also known as The Rock. It's in the San Francisco Bay, 1.5 miles offshore from San Francisco. Though it's had many roles over the decades, it's best known for its service as a Federal Bureau of Prisons federal prison.
Alcatraz has also hosted a lighthouse, a military fortification, and a military prison. From 1934-1963 it was a federal prison, housing infamous criminals including Al Capone, Robert Franklin Stroud (the Birdman of Alcatraz), George "Machine Gun" Kelly, James "Whitey" Bulger, Bumpy Johnson, Mickey Cohen, Arthur R. "Doc" Barker and Alvin Karpis.
In 1972, Alcatraz became a national recreation area. It is a historic site operated by the National Park Service as part of the Golden Gate National Recreation Area. Tours are free, but you have to pay for the ferry ride from Pier 33, near Fisherman's Wharf. There is only one tour operator that contracts with the Park Service to provide this ferry service, and that is Hornblower Cruises.
It's $26 per adult and $16 per child ages 5 - 11, so if you have a family, your cheapest option is to get the Family Ticket, which includes two adults and two kids for a $5 savings. However, it's not available online. You should definitely call and buy tickets at least a week ahead of time, because cruises sell out. The day we showed up there were "Sold Out" signs and we were one of the morning sails!
The ferry ride is very comfortable, and it's a half hour sail. When you get off, you crowd around the main square and hear one of the rangers giving some general directions on a bullhorn. He basically tells you where you can go, and where to pick up the free audio tour. You walk up the hill and go into the first building, where there's a pretty good ten minute film on the history of the island.
After that, you walk to the prison, pick up your audio tour, and walk the building for about an hour. You're herded in like cattle, and the first sight that greets you is the same thing the prisoners saw: the showers. No hot water, by the way.
You'll see not only the cells decorated as they were when prisoners were living in them, but solitary confinement, the recreation yard, the library, and the scene of the most notorious escape attempt, complete with bomb marks on the floor.
There's also a memorial to the officer who died in that incident. The audio tour is well done and really brings the history of the prison to life.
After wandering the prison, you're fed into the gift shop, where by some good luck, we got to meet a former prisoner. Darwin Coon authored a book, Alcatraz: The End of the Line, and goes five days a month for a book signing.
My wife bought the book for the novelty of having him sign it. She then asked him some questions, which seemed to annoy him.
He served time for bank robbery, and she asked him if he had any advice for juvenile delinquents headed down the same path. "Don't do it," he stated. "There is nothing fun about prison."
After that, we left. There's a bit more to see, including a tour of the bird life and the inmates' flower garden, but it was a cold day, and we had seen the most interesting parts.
My advice to you if you are going, and/or going with kids:
- Bring a stroller. The walk from the boat to the prison is up a long, winding hill. The walk inside the prison is long, too.
- Bring food. I used it to keep Olivia quiet during the tour, and then we all ate on the ferry back.
- Wear layers, but pack a jacket! Better if waterproof. It was definitely chilly.
- Handicapped: We saw a tram for people with mobility issues. Once inside the prison, there is a fair amount of walking and some stairs. If you have a wheelchair, that would work. There is an elevator.
You could probably spend the better part of a day there, because you can walk around the whole island. If you go at night, I have read that they give you a more guided tour, but we thought we'd see more (literally) by day, plus it's so darn cold when the sun is up, why would I want to freeze more at night? At the least, allow for two to three hours.
EXPLORATORIUMThe Exploratorium is a museum in San Francisco full of hundreds of hands-on exhibits with a scientific bent. It's an interactive museum that functions as an informal education center.
Physicist and educator Dr. Frank Oppenheimer founded the Exploratorium in 1969 as a way to help people - big and small - explore and understand the world around them. It has more than 700 Exploratorium exhibits in the building, with 400 currently on view.
"It provides access to, and information about, science, nature, art and technology," according to the website. "Since the Exploratorium’s inception, the museum’s exhibits and programs have focused on human perception: how do we see, hear, smell, feel and otherwise experience the world around us?"
I just thought it was awesome. If I lived there, I'd definitely buy a membership. Olivia was endlessly fascinated with the exhibits, and had to be pried off one station to go check out another. It's not huge, but it's so well designed, one could go there over and over and not tire of it.
Make sure you go upstairs. That's where the living exhibits are, including my favorite - the LIVING chick embryo that is growing in a petri dish. You could see it under a magnifying class, heart beating and all! There are several dishes with chicks at various life stages. Here's a shot of a five to seven day old embryo. It's wicked cool.
FILOLI GARDENSOne of the finest remaining country estates of the early 20th century was the setting for our next activity. We went to Filoli Gardens in Woodside, which is very near Menlo Park.
Because it's not an Italian name, like everyone thinks, it's pronounced FIE-lo-li, the FI rhyming with lie. Like the fi of Wi-fi. Or the first part of fight.
People go to tour not only the gardens, but the mansion as well. "Opened to the public in 1976 as a site of the National Trust for Historic Preservation, Filoli features a 36,000 sq. ft. home and a 16–acre English Renaissance garden. In addition, Filoli's property includes a 6.8 acre Gentlemen's Heritage Orchard and a trail system that transverses five different ecosystems for docent-guided nature hikes and visits to the Sally MacBride Nature Center," describes its website.
"Filoli was built for Mr. and Mrs. William Bowers Bourn, prominent San Franciscans whose chief source of wealth was the Empire Mine, a hard-rock gold mine in Grass Valley, California. Mr. Bourn arrived at the unusual name Filoli by combining the first two letters from the key words of his credo: 'Fight for a just cause; Love your fellow man; Live a good life.'"
We have, however, its next owners to thank, for letting us get a look inside. Mr. and Mrs. William P. Roth bought the estate in 1937, and there's a Hawaii tie-in here! The Roths owned the Matson Navigation Company! In the house, there are some Hawaii-insipred artifacts.
Mrs. Roth lived there until 1975. She donated 125 acres, which included the House and formal garden, to the National Trust for Historic Preservation for the enjoyment and inspiration of future generations. The remaining acreage was given to Filoli Center, the non-profit that manages the estate.
After paying your admission, you are encouraged to watch a 15 minute video about the estate, before taking a self-guided tour of the property. Allow for about an hour to wander through a dozen differently themed gardens (rose garden, fruit garden, etc).
At this point, we chose to break for lunch in the wonderful cafe. The line was long but it moved fairly decently. We got to sit outside and eat on the patio to further enjoy the beautiful environs.
Then, we strolled through the mansion. It's so humbly referred to as a house in all the brochures, but come on. My front yard is smaller than the entryway.
You can only see the first floor, in which there are 14 rooms, including the quaint idea of a ship room, a kitchen with a large intercom system, and a ballroom with 22.5' high ceilings. Now that's living the good life. It was neat to see how the Other Half lives.
The girls liked it, though I had to keep reminding Olivia to stay on the path, not pick the flowers, and not jump in the pool. They seemed to enjoy all the flowers, plus running in circles around the tennis court.
If you can make it there, you should. Allow for at least half a day to really enjoy yourself. And I'd be curious to see which landscape you like!
INDOOR SKYDIVINGThe sensation of “real” skydiving, combined with the safety of indoor skydiving, appealed to me, so we went indoor skydiving at i Fly SF Bay- including Olivia!
Basically, you're getting the feeling of skydiving, for half the cost and none of the risk. You're doing it in an indoor tunnel in which a large fan is sucking you up. General manager Travis Richards assures, “There have been no deaths with tunnel jumping since 1998, and no injuries for first time fliers.”
It's where professionals go to practice and perfect their sky moves. It's where the military trains its air rescue team. It's where amateurs get hooked on the sport. Or as Richards puts it, “We joke that this is a crack pipe for skydivers. They keep coming back for more.”
Make sure you book reservations because they fill up fast. You are told to show up an hour before your flight time so you can have a quick briefing and get suited up.
The briefing, in the Jump Room, consists of learning proper body position and some hand signals the teacher might give you to correct your body position. It's very noisy in the tunnel.
Our group consisted of ten customers- five of us, a party of three teenaged girls, and a father/son duo. Our instructor was Adam.
Suiting up is actually not super fast. You have to put your jewelry and loose objects in a safe, remove your shoes, get into a jumpsuit, and put on earplugs, goggles and helmet. Remember to wear sneakers or you have to rent some for $3. They MUST be lace up.
If you are hoping to take your camera into the tunnel, don't. It can become a dangerous projectile in 125 miles per hour winds.
If you have friends who aren't doing it, have them sit outside on the bleacher stands (the Observation Deck) and snap your picture while you do it.
Better yet, there are cameras on auto timers built into the tunnel Plexiglass, and they snap at regular intervals so you get still and moving pictures of yourself in flight. You can buy photos and a DVD after your session.
So you go into the loud and windy tunnel, which is really a tunnel within a tunnel. There's the interior part where you skydive, and an exterior ring in which the rest of the customers wait their turn. Each person gets a minute of flight per rotation. There are two rotations.
The first time you go around, you're just getting the hang of it. The teacher corrects your body position and tosses you around the air a few times to give you the sensation of flight. It was neat.
The second time it's your turn, he advances your experience just a little. He goes tandem with you, lets you soar higher up in the air (maybe 12 feet), lets you float for longer periods on your own.
"Most beginning flyers will begin to tire after 2 to 4 minutes of flight time. Physically speaking, it is a workout similar to swimming," says the website.
If people really like it, they can join a Tunnel League. Two hundred dollars buys you five minutes of flight time per week. The coach volunteers his or her time for free.
Richards explains, “Newcomers can learn how to skydive this way. Veteran skydivers can come to break their bad habits while in the tunnel. You can better control your body because you have reference points – something that’s much harder to find while in the sky.”
CALIFORNIA ACADEMY OF SCIENCESThe California Academy of Sciences in Golden Gate Park is the place that's been getting a lot of ink for its green features, since re-opening in 2008.
It's one of the ten largest natural history museums in the world, and due to the renovation, one of the newest. "It's as if the new Academy brings the whole universe under one roof - an aquarium, a planetarium, a natural history museum and more! The 412,000 square foot structure is not only physically impressive, but it just may be the greenest museum on the planet, with a 2 ½ acre Living Roof, an expansive solar canopy, an extensive water reclamation system, and walls insultated with recycled blue jeans," describes the website.
We avoided the planetarium because we didn't think Olivia would enjoy it, and we had only a few hours. We saw just about everything else, though.
There was an eye catching Rainforests of the World exhibit that we enjoyed a great deal. Housed in a large plastic globe, it spans four floors. There are rainforest critters like bats, giant cockroaches, and frogs in cages, but flying free are 600 birds and butterflies.
I liked Steinhart Aquarium, with its 38,000 live animals from around the world, representing more than 900 separate species. There were penguins, sharks, stingrays, and a SCUBA diver who was able to talk to us while feeding the fish.
There's also the Kimball Natural History Museum, which looks at the evolution of life on Earth. There are some exhibits of stuffed mammals.
For lunch, there are two cafes that serve pretty good food. I mean, I'm pretty impressed they had a beet and goat cheese salad.
If I had to do this again, I'd book the entire day for the park. After all, if you get tired of this museum, you can always walk the park. If you go early, you can find on street parking for free, good for four hours.
If not, there's a new underground parking garage for $2.50/ hour. It funnels you directly to the front door of the museum, which was very handy for us, as we showed up on a rainy day.
Every Thursday night, the museum also turns into a dance club, with DJs and everything. I was amused that the press release says you can encounter "provocative science" (among other things) from 6 - 10 p.m. Provocative science? Is that what they call it nowdays? Joking aside, it sounds like the coolest dance club I've ever heard of!
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