The Lawrence Hall of Science is a science museum that is affiliated with UC Berkeley. It's in the hills above the main part of the campus, near the Tilden Park. Before school started up again, my daughter and I made it here one week-day for a morning outing.

Swimming at Del Valle is a great way to beat the heat during the hot summer months in the Tri-Valley.

The California Academy of Sciences consists of multiple science museums blended into one interesting building. Inside you will find a biosphere of a rain forest ecosystem, a fantastic aquarium, a planetarium, and a natural history museum. All of these different types of museums blend really beautifully into one whole, and the museum itself is topped off with a "living roof." The Academy is located in Golden Gate Park in San Francisco, which is one of my favorite things about the city of San Francisco. Click "read more" to see photos of our visit.

May Nissen Swim Center in Livermore is a really nice alternative to the more modern--but also more expensive--Robert Livermore Aquatics Center.

Chabot Space and Science Center is a really nice space museum in Oakland that sits right where Redwood Regional Park, Roberts Redwood Regional Park, and Joaquin Miller Park converge along Skyline Blvd. We went this past Sunday to check it out with some friends, and we really enjoyed it!

Last winter, I made a couple of lovely trips to Shadow Cliffs Regional Park to walk through the quiet arroyo area of the park. This morning, my daughter and I went swimming in the beach area and walked along the marina.

Today, my little daughter and I had a glorious day in Half Moon Bay with our friends, another mom who has a young son. We went to the western portion of Purisima Creek Redwoods Open Space Preserve to have a nice picnic by the creek under the redwoods. The little ones threw rocks in the water of the creek and ran or crawled under the redwoods, checking out sticks of interest and banana slugs. Then, my daughter and I went on to Half Moon Bay State Beach on our own to "say hello to the ocean" before driving back to Livermore. Redwoods and beaches? What more could anyone ask for?

The Don Edwards Environmental Education Center in Alviso, CA (a suburb of San Jose) is a beautiful, weird park. I love it there, and I always see tons and tons of birds when I go; however, there is something about that park that seems harsh. I have bad luck when I go there.

This hike is a repeat of the same one that my family did back in November of 2017 in the fantastic state park of Henry Cowell Redwood State Park. I was really glad to return because the trail was actually quite different for us this time! You never hike the same trail twice; there is always something different about your experience.

Roaring Camp is a private company that is housed right next door to Henry Cowell Redwoods State Park. The former property that became both Roaring Camp and the state park was once one large ranch called Big Trees Ranch, which San Francisco businessman Joseph Warren Welch bought in 1867 to preserve a stunning grove of old growth trees that were in danger of being logged. Big Trees Ranch was eventually sold, part to the county of Santa Cruz (the part which eventually became the state park) and part to a man named F. Norman Clark, who had a dream to "bring the romance and color of steam railroading back to America." Clark worked with the state park to plan a line that would disturb as few trees as possible, and the railroad tracks run through the state park. This was an incredible excursion: both a train ride (which is always fun) and an adventure into the heart of the redwood forest along the steep canyon banks of the San Lorenzo River.