Need Drivable Weekend Getaway Ideas for the SF Bay Area (Menlo Park)

I'm always going on day trips with my family. Sonoma has train town with a nice long enough miniature train ride, miniature town, and full size train cars to explore. Sonoma has the plaza downtown with the last Mission, military barracks, the Cheese Store, the site of the Bear Flag revolt. It also has a Garden on the main road that is made up of unique and fun gardens for kids to discover. We really had fun on this trip.
If you go to monterey, be sure to go to Dennis the Menace Park. Just outside the park are paddle boats. Even My Museum would still be fun for 6 and a half year old. My 9 yr old did fine there. There is also fisherman's wharf--not much for a building for kid activities, but certainly neat to eat lunch and go to the candy store and watch taffy being pulled. Include one nick-nack store with nature glass wood animal stuff as entertainment. The Wharf scenery is also a novelty.
In Sacramento you can take a tour of the Capitol, walk old Town and pan for gems, watch the bridge move for boats, go to the train museum. You can even take the train to Sacramento.
Don't forget about riding bikes across Golden Gate Bridge, and the Children's Park in Golden Gate Park. Zeum (Children's tech museum) is good too. Taking a trolley, riding the curved escalator in the mall at Powell St. You could take a day trip to Muir Woods.
Spend the night in a bunk bed at Montera Lighthouse and spend the day at the tidepools or on the beach just below the lighthouse, that beach is really fun because of the stream going to the beach.
Take a hike at Russian Ridge, the wildflowers are out. Or bike ride at coyote creek (long paved bike path). Go to Berkeley to the Lawrence Hall of Sciences and the Botanic Garden. There is also a park on the marina that kids build with boards and tires.
There are tons of things to do and places to go that are close enough to drive to in a few hours. I could keep going, but I have to get out there today to have fun, too!

1 mom found this helpful

Sign up for a monthly on-line newsletter called Weekend Sherpa. You can search their archives.

Try Santa Cruz. Some beautiful places to check out there.

Hi,
The best place for us for snow is in Strawberry. There is a snowpark called Leland's and it's great! The drive is a breeze, doesn't snow until you are nearly there. Dodge Ridge is also close by and when we stay the night we would sometimes do Leland's one day and snowboarding lessons at Dodge Ridge the next. We used to stay at Strawberry Inn and were happy with it for years, but the last two times we went things were bad.

montery bay is great, you have the aquarium, kids museum, beach, play areas, shopping, beach ect

Do a day in SF and got to the zoo, natural sciences museum, goldengate park, alcatraz,

Lots of things in the area

If you're not hooked on seeing snow, but want a very fun, kid-friendly get-away, Capitola is great! I'm a little biased, as we happen to have a beach cottage there (www.capitolabeachcottage.com), but even before we bought it, we looooved taking our kids there, as the town is small, laid-back and everything you need is within walking distance. And it's less than an hour from Menlo Park, so if you forget something, you can always head back over the hill :). We might have some spring weekends available at our place (which is just a 1/2 block from the main beach), but you'd need to check on the VRBO (Vacation Rental By Owner) website - there's a calendar on there for our place, as well as other places nearby :). Good luck!

Half Moon Bay, nice road to drive over there if not crowded...

Here are a couple of websites high lighting Doug McConnell (Bay Area Back Roads): www.bayareafamilytravel.com and
www.openroad.tv. I believe Bay Area Back Roads has a book of recommendations, or check the library or Barnes & Noble for other sources.
Also, my Grandchildren love the Oakland Zoo. I took them to SF Zoo last summer and it was heartbreaking to see the level of disrepair and empty buildings and animal environments. There are no elephants due to care issues a number of years ago and only a couple of tigers as a result of the incident a couple of years ago. The new Savannah area was nice along with the area set aside for docents and interaction with animals, but the rest of the zoo was a major disappointment...sad really since it used to be a world class zoo.
I believe there is an animal safari like area in Marin County or perhaps north of Pleasanton. That could be fun too.
Have fun planning your family adventures!