Gardens Galore

Signs of spring are all about, and now is a perfect time to pay a visit to one of the many Bay Area gardens.

High on many people's list is Filoli (www.filoli.org), a Georgian country house with a magnificent 16 acre English Renaissance garden, located in Woodside. The website provides a month by month breakdown of what will bloom when, so you can plan your visit around your favorite flowers. In Palo Alto, Gamble Gardens is open everyday for free self guided tours; Gamble also puts on many special events, including a family Easter event and a spring tour of outstanding gardens within private Palo Alto homes. You can find details at www.gamblegarden.org.

In Menlo Park, Sunset Magazine opens its test gardens to the public for free. The test gardens are zoned into four areas representing four different climate regions of California, and each time the magazine changes its gardening feature, you can go back to tour the new 'sets'. During the June 4-5 2011 weekend, Sunset Magazine's grounds will be alive with special events and demonstrations as part of its Celebration Weekend. www.sunset.com.

In Golden Gate Park in San Francisco, the Conservatory of Flowers offers a peek at rare exotic plants and flowers, and until April 11 the Conservatory's Garden Railway event is on-going; you'll see model trains and trolleys traveling about a miniature display of specialty gardens. Golden Gate is also home to a Rose Garden, Japanese Tea Garden and botanical gardens - and of course much much more! www.golden-gate-park.com.

If you love roses, the Heritage Rose Garden (www.heritagerose.us) in San Jose features almost 4,000 plants of more than 3,000 varieties of heritage, modern and miniature roses. Roses are at their peak through the end of April, and each year the volunteer-led garden hosts a spring festival the last Saturday of April.

Hakone Gardens in Saratoga offers a totally different experience: its an authentic replica of a Japanese Samurai or Shogun’s estate garden, designed by one of the descendants of the imperial gardening family members. It makes a lovely day outing combined with lunch in historic Saratoga Village, or a visit to one of the state parks farther up the highway 9. www.hakone.com

Finally, a California garden tour would not be complete without a cactus or two, and Stanford's Arizona Garden is a little known example. Originally planted in the 1880s, it fell into decades of neglect before restoration began in in 1997. While this volunteer-driven work remains on-going, you can currently view some 500 cacti and succulents.

Winter whale watching

We've blogged about great places to check out the butterfly migration and the elephant seal pups, and now we can add whales to the mix. From December through April, some 15,000 gray whales head south from Alaska to Mexico, where, being the smart mammals they are, they give birth in those warm waters and then start the long journey back north. Then, in the summer, blue whales and humpbacks cruise the waters. While various tour operators provide the chance to get up close on their boats if, like me, memories of a rough ocean voyage have permanently dampened your enthusiasm for whale watching tours and the like, these enormous creatures can also often be spotted from shore.

A couple of great local vantage points:

Point Reyes Lighthouse at the western edge of Point Reyes National Seashore, north of San Francisco. This is a great place to watch the gray whales migrating south in December-January and then heading north again in March. (With or without whales, the Lighthouse and its Visitor Center, located at what is considered the 2nd most foggy spot in North America, is worth a stop on its own. http://www.nps.gov/pore/historyculture/people_maritime_lighthouse.htm

Monterey: Here the whales come close enough to shore too see with a good set of binoculars. Or, Fisherman's Wharf is chock full of operators offering boat tours. December-March is the time for the gray whales, and July-September for the blues and humpbacks.

Santa Cruz: Like Monterey, tour boats can be booked, this time from the Municipal Wharf.

Half Moon Bay: Chose between binoculars at the (very nice) beach or various tour operators offering boat trips; depending on the year they boats may go out year round or just during the peak December to April time span.

Spring at the Farm

It's easy to forget that farming once drove the economy of Silicon Valley. Although almost every community hosts a weekly farmer's market, actual working farms are not a common site while cruising along the 280. (For a good list of local farmer's markets, check out www.bayareaonthecheap.com/shop/bay-area-farmers-markets).

However, there are a couple of local gems make themselves open to the public, and these are always a hit with both kids and folks looking for wonderful farm fresh produce, or just some time in the open space.

Along with its regular programming, Mountain View's Deer Hollow Farm offers three special days Spring Farm Tours for 2011: March 19, April 16 and May 21. Visit the animals in their pens, meet the newborns and pop in to the Nature Center. For details, go to www.fodhf.org

With morning and afternoon farm tours, and programs such as Milk Mania and Cow Wow, Hidden Villa in Los Altos is also a fun spot for children to get some hands on experience down on the farm. Check out the programs at www.hiddenvilla.org

Weekend Getaways: Skiing in the Sierras...and driving with chains

Our California 'winters' make it easy to forget that a snowy weekend getaway is as close as a four hour drive, but make no mistake: the Sierra Nevadas are currently buried in snow. All that rain the past week has meant several feet of new snow in and around Tahoe, and we went to check it our for ourselves this past week. Most resorts have excellent learn to ski and advanced level lesson programs for both adults and kids, often complimentary or very low cost when you rent equipment. We chose a lodge close to the Donner Summit, which is the first ski area on your drive from the Bay Area, and it took about 4 hours to reach the parking lot. Going all the way to Tahoe you can add another hour, depending on the weather.

We were hit with about five feet of snow over our three night stay, and saw more than a few people who had left home clearly unprepared; picking their way through the snow in running shoes and in one case, shorts!

While our drive in was clear, coming home it was a bit snowy, and this meant tire chains, a new phenomena for us. It is mandatory to carry chains in your vehicle at this time of year (unless you happen to have a 4 wheel drive with snow tires), and signs on the highway indicate when chains must be put on. There are pull off areas along the side of the road for their installation. People also appear magically on the roadside when chains are required, and for about $30 they will be happy to install them for you. Not a bad idea unless you know what you are doing, and when it is dark and hailing out, $30 seemed like a great deal. When the chain requirement is lifted, the same routine begins all over again. Although taking them off is much faster and simpler, be prepared to get rather wet and dirty - the snow had turned to brown slush on the road by the time we had the OK to remove ours, and it was a bit of a messy job. (A bag to put your dirty chains in is a must). However, since we were now able to go faster than 25 mph - which is the speed limit for most cars with tire chains - we were happy to remove them. All this made the trip home take about 6 hours, so make sure you check the weather (www.onthesnow.com) and the road conditions (www.dot.ca.gov) before you set off.

Feb 6th - mark your calendar

Whether you're a football fan or not, it's worth making note of Sunday, February 6th. Yes, it is Super Bowl Sunday, pretty much the biggest sporting day of the year here in the US. (Last year's game drew a record shattering 106.5 million TV viewers.) People will gather in restaurants, bars and homes to watch the Green Bay Packers take on the Pittsburgh Steelers and while the game itself is of interest to many, it is, quite simply, a uniquely American event - the pre-game show, the half time show, the hype, the food, the buzzed about ads. The NFL's website (www.nfl.com/superbowl/45) will bring neophytes up to speed quickly so you can join in the water cooler talk.

If however, football is just not your thing, Super Bowl Sunday is also a great day. Why? Because with everyone hunkered down in front of the big screen, there are no crowds. So if you've been meaning to visit the Monterey Bay Aquarium, the California Academy of Sciences or any one of a number of other popular, touristy spots, Feb 6th is the perfect day to go! Last year we hit the Exploratorium in San Francisco and practically had the place to ourselves.

Half Moon Bay

Taking advantage of the lovely weather, we ventured across highway 92 to Half Moon Bay this weekend, and were rewarded with a stunning day at the beach...in January! At this time of year, the Half Moon Bay area is perhaps best known for the Mavericks Surf competition, which draws an international crowd of top tier surfers to its beaches each February. It was not hard to understand why - the surf was incredible even on a sunny and calm day. But do not be deceived, the currents are extremely strong and anything beyond dipping a toe in the rather chilly waters is not recommended.

Happily, there are a great many other ways to stay occupied: the large sandy beach offers a wonderful spot to play, read or wander; there are trails for walking and biking along the coast; we took advantage of the BBQ grills and enjoyed lunch overlooking the beach at Half Moon Bay State Beach, which also has a small Nature Centre to explore; and, of course, there is Half Moon Bay itself, with its charming old Main Street of shops and restaurants. On our drive in we stopped at one of the many produce stalls and picked up some local honey.

We ran out of time (and energy!) to check it out this trip, but about 5 miles north of Half Moon Bay is the community of Moss Beach. The Moss Beach Distillery provides a lovely spot to sit and watch the sunset (they even provide blankets and a fire pit for those hardy enough to sit on the patio!) www.mossbeachdistillery.com

Tip: If you don't have too much gear to lug, park on the road, walk to the Half Moon Bay State Beach and save yourself $10 for parking. Or even better, purchase a State Parks pass and save all year long!

State Parks sampler pack

So many parks, so little time. California has more than 200 state parks, and it would be a shame not to visit at least a few. The California State Parks Foundation makes it easy with several levels of membership, which include some great benefits not available when simply purchasing a pass from the State Parks website. I bought our family a sampler pack - a great deal at an introductory rate of just $25, this provides entry to any 7 parks, plus discounts on camping and other materials.

Check out www.calparks.org