It’s that time of the year: May is Bike Month

Get your kid riding

Put your helmet on and let’s ride! The East Bay Bicycle Coalition is offering family safety bike clinics, rodeos, helmet fittings, and street parties in addition to the usual Bike to Work and School rides. Find some more events on the EBBC website calendar. I requested their help in deciphering which rides and parties might [...]

Bites off Broadway returns to Oakland

oakland-food-trucks

Bites Off Broadway — a rotation of 15 food trucks in Oakland — will again bring the vibe of a neighborhood block party and picnic to the front of Studio One, at 465 45th St. between Lawton and Broadway on Friday nights, beginning May 10. Trucks will include Tina Tamale, Doc’s of the Bay, Fist [...]

Crab Cove in Alameda for little explorers

Get your hands dirty at Crab Cove in Alameda

I was a lucky chaperone on a field trip to Alameda’s Crab Cove with a class of curious kindergartners.  I learned about marine mammals (native critters), estuaries (fresh water + ocean water), and how often snacks and hugs are required to keep our energy up (lots!). What’s so special about Crab Cove? The Crab Cove [...]

Baseball daytrip: SF Giants fan lot playground

SF Giants fan lot for kids

Go Giants! Though I’m not much of a baseball fan, it’s pretty exciting having world champs in our backyard. Am I right? To get a taste of the action without paying for a ticket, you and your children can head down to the fan lot playground on non-game days. I learned this tip from San [...]

See you at Cal Day?

visting the bug doctor

There really is something for everyone as UC Berkeley, AKA Cal, opens its doors to the families of the East Bay for Cal Day. My husband and second grader have their eyes on auditing another physics class while my kindergartner and toddler want to run around the grounds making slime and looking for doggies and [...]

Exploring the USS Hornet with little ones

Alameda's USS Hornet with kids

Even kids too young for the engine room tour will have a blast. The flight deck features more aircraft, wide expanses of tarmac that little legs can use to run off energy and gorgeous views of San Francisco and the East Bay hills.

Cal baseball games: good, cheap fun

cal-baseball

Daytime home games at Cal are an opportunity to watch baseball up close. It doesn’t deliver the “Wow” factor of AT&T Park, but it is a pretty easy outing, and the “cheap seats” do not give you a nosebleed. We parked in the garage on Durant and Telegraph and entered the campus from Telegraph, then [...]

Off The Grid Lake Merritt @ OMCA with kids

Off the grid Oakland with kids

What to expect Friday nights, you will see plenty of families and people heading toward the Oakland Museum. During Off the Grid, 10th Street is closed next to the museum with all the food trucks parked in a line. Music is playing through speakers, tables and chairs are packed with people of all ages (many [...]

Egg-centric activities around the East Bay

Cal-egg-hunt

If you’re not gung-ho about the Easter holiday enough to produce your own egg-stravaganza at home, perhaps one of these outings will provide you with some good spring-themed photo opps. We’ve rounded up eight Easter egg hunts in the 510. Saturday, March 23 Spring Egg Scramble in Crab Cove, Alameda Sunday, March 24 Egg Hunt [...]

Park Review: Memorial Park in Albany

memorial-park-albany

Memorial Park in Albany is home to so many family-friendly resources and events, that all parents in communities north of Berkeley should know about it. While parking is plentiful, the streets surrounding Memorial Park are flat and relatively quiet, so biking there is inviting. An open playground for kids five and older offers big kid [...]

Leland Snow Play: Tubing fun for all ages – including adults

snow-park-sierras

Leland Snow Play is a snow park for tubing in Strawberry, CA, in the Sonora Pass region. If you’re not familiar, that’s about 175 miles, mostly East, from the Berkeley area. Rental houses are abundant in Twain Harte, a mountain town about 25 minutes from the snow park, and early planners may have luck securing [...]

Park profile: Montclair Park

playground

The Montclair Park is a fantastic park for kids of all ages. They have two sets of swings, one with bucket seats for the little ones, and the other set has regular seats for the bigger kids. There are two playground areas that appear to be for different ages and both are clean. There is [...]

How do you like to celebrate Lunar New Year?

Lunar New Year for families on fourth st

As a single lady, I loved venturing to the usually-rainy evening parade through San Francisco’s Chinatown (this year Feb 23). As a parent, we’ve had much more success with Fourth Street and their laissez-faire easy-access demonstrations and festivities. I asked others in their parent posse what’s been fun for them. Fourth St Whitney, Cara, and [...]

Weekend Planner (February 2 + 3)

Hayward Interpretive Center

If you’re near Hayward, their shoreline “Interpretive Center” has countless events coming up for kids to do hands-on science. Friday will be Toddler time! Long winter or short? I know which one I’m wishing for. Regardless, there will be Groundhog Day-themed fun at Playland Not-at-the-Beach (Saturday & Sunday!) Preview a Kindermusik class in Montclair for [...]

Botanic Garden, free fun for all ages

mom and toddler hiking

The Tilden Regional Parks Botanic Garden, an enchanted, not-so-secret garden, is a magical place for visitors of all ages at no cost. The garden is full of California native plants, rare and endangered including flowers, ferns, trees and even flowering cactus. You don’t have to be a botanist to enjoy the space, just a lover [...]

Saturday stroll: Art murmur for kids

kid with monkey art

I told you about Oakland Art Murmur for date nights and I’m excited to report there’s a daytime version for kids, too! Many of the galleries that participate in Oakland’s first Friday Art Murmur gallery walk are also open EVERY Saturday afternoon for a quieter and more focused time to view art and wander. Better [...]

Date night: Oakland’s Art Murmur

art installation

We discovered Oakland Art Murmur, the perfect feel free again, but still be glad you’re older than most of the kids out there date spot! My husband and I set off child-free to cruise the Art Murmuring streets of Oakland. This event happens each first Friday of the month. We’ve been twice now and would [...]