Nearby Outing Ideas for 10-Year-old and 1-Year-old

Micke Grove Park in Lodi has a little, and I mean little zoo, as well as a large park area. The Sacramento Zoo and the Oakland Zoo are also great for day trips. The Sacramento Zoo has free parking on the street, but the Oakland Zoo gives you a great view of San Francisco during the train ride. Also, the Children's Museum in Stockton is super fun for little ones on up through 5th or 6th grade or so. Also, if it's a warm day, there's a nearby water area on the riverfront for children to play in. The Children's Museum has free parking and is pretty inexpensive and tons of fun! I know that these aren't very elaborate ideas, but they're tried and true and offer great half to full day adventures that are pretty affordable! Have fun!

Try Micke's Grove in Lodi. It has a park, a golf course, a zoo, and a carnival-type zone, all in a pretty compact area (except the golf course)! It's shady, so you can pack a picnic if you like. You can also eat the food inside the zoo. For the ages of the children, it's a good combination.

I would definitely suggest the zoo in Sacramento, San Francisco, or Oakland, all of these are great! There is also Coyote Point Museum in San Mateo which is really fun as well. And in San Jose there is the Children's Discovery museum.

Good Luck and Have Fun!

M. *~

Hi S.!

Ripon has a couple of places. They have a "waterpark", which is just a bunch of water that shoots out of the ground. But it also has "interactive" water games for the kids. My boys loved it, and your one yr old can just run around in her water shoes and probably have fun,too :o)

I haven't been there in years, but Ripon also had a "camping" area with a semi-beach. It's always fun for kids to play in the sand & water.

Mickey Grove (in Lodi)is always fun. They have the Zoo, the Amusement Park (which is very small), and a large Park setting for picnic-ing and playing around.

Modesto Resouviour (sp?) has another "camping" dayfun at the "beach".....

Sacramento has the Sac Zoo & across the street there is Fairy Tale Land, and all next to a park where you can feed and play with the ducks...all very nice & fun.

Sacramento also has that Train Museum, although it can alot of walking, and I think your daughter will get bored.

Atwater has a super cool Science Musuem with interactive science fun for all ages. I'm trying to get there this summer because it was really cool :o) It has all sorts of science games. Magnets, floating balls, paper airplanes, sound chambers, hurricane experiments, and too many more to mention. Next door (across a small path) is the Airplane Museum and FOOD! It's pretty fun to see all the old-fashioned Airplanes.

Turlock has the Stanislaus County Fair going on, too. Apparently they have a huge Dinosaur thing going on, but I haven't checked it out yet. The petting zoo is really fun there once you get used to the "smell".....

That's all I can think of right now :0) I was hoping that you had more responses by now, so I could get a few ideas myself :o)

Have fun next Friday with whatever you do :o)

:o) N.