San Francisco's Off the Beaten Path Attractions - as part of the expert series by GeoBeats. Hi, I want to share with you some of my favorite off-the-beaten-path attractions in the San Fransisco Bay Area. One of my favorite places to start is actually the San Jose Giants, San Fransisco is known for the wonderful San Fransisco Giants, but their minor-league team is located in San Jose and it is actually a wonderful family activity and believe it or not it is cheaper to go to the baseball game than it is to go to the movies these days. There are so many fun things for the kids to do between every single inning, and at the end they get to run the bases. So it makes a really fun afternoon outing with kids. Another fun place is Los Gatos, they have the Vesona Park, which has a wonderful train Billy Bob railroad, they have a lake where you can rent boats and go sailing, and paddle boats, and then they also have a carousel, and of course a wonderful park where you can picnic. It is a beautiful, beautiful spot that a lot of people do not know about, especially if you have smaller kids and you want to do something fun with them. Let them go on a train ride, let them ride the carousel, get some popcorn, have a picnic, and spend a wonderful day at the lake. Close to Los Gatos is the Santa Cruz Mountains. Everyone is familiar with Santa Cruz and the Santa Cruz Boardwalk, but up in the Santa Cruz Mountains is Roaring Camp which is another great train that children love to take and it is in the beautiful redwoods in the Mountains and its a really fun activity to do with your kids. Another fun thing to do is when you are heading up the coast, go to Half-Moon Bay. What a lot of people do not know is that you can actually go horse-back riding on the beach, and what a fun thing to do with your family. After you go horse-back riding you can go over to the ritz-carlton and enjoy roasting marshmallows and looking out over the beautiful ocean. But get that horse-back riding in on the beach, there. Also, up the coast is a little town called San Gregorio, there is the San Gregorio General Store. It is a really quaint, old-fashioned General Store, which is so much fun. One of my favorite things about it is that they usually have live-music playing. All kinds of music, whether it is bluegrass, or country, little local bands come in and play, they have a fireplace going, you can get drinks there and snacks, they have got a really fun shop and they also have a lot of books and toys out on the table for the kids to play with. They are just enjoying the old-fashioned general store, it is a great little hidden spot that we love to go to. And then one of my favorite things that people often overlook is Stanford University Campus. Having gone to Stanford I know I am a little bit partial to it, but it really is a breathtaking place. It is really fun to go with kids because they can bring their scooters, their roller-skates, there are so many beautiful places to go around on the campus, and also their museum is incredibly child-friendly. They have a gorgeous outdoor Rodin Sculpture garden, so that the kids can run around and touch all the sculptures, and just have a really fun day outside. I also think it is a good idea to get kids excited about college at a really early age, so, taking them to a fun, university campus and saying that college can be fun is a great way to get them excited for their future. So the next time you come to the San Fransisco Bay Area, be sure to check out some of these fun things you can do, just south of San Fransisco.
