San Francisco travel with kids is a no-brainer. There’s the zoo, Fisherman’s Wharf, the Exploratorium, the Steinhart Aquarium and so many other adventures to tackle. We drove up to the Bay Area on a Friday (all day), spent Saturday with family, and then drove back on Sunday (all day).  What does that leave time for?

No Planning
The best part for me was NO planning. We completely turned over our plans to our hosts, not knowing what was in store for us until we arrived. If you’re a parent, you know that’s heaven! I didn’t have to think about a thing.

Off We Go!
We got to sleep in a bit on Saturday and left for a fun day outdoors after being scrunched in the car on Friday. Scrunched in a good way – I love road trips! And the kids saw so much of California’s beauty on our drive to San Francisco.  Here are the stops we made:

• Marine Mammal Center on the Marin Headlands
• Rodeo Beach at Fort Cronkhite – right below the Marine Mammal Center. It’s part of the Golden Gate National Recreation Area. There were trails all over the place.
• Picnic at the beach (or in the park – or anywhere in between)
• Bay Area Discovery Museum – I love children’s museums and this one was no exception. It’s right under the north side of the Golden Gate Bridge at the old Fort Baker. Great views for us on our visit. NO fog! And talk about an AWESOME playground – Lookout Cove was adventures galore!!  I could write a whole separate  post on it.
• Battery Yates – A short walk up the hill from the museum is Battery Yates and great views of the bay.
• Explore Sausalito and eat dinner out

It seems like a lot – but there was really a lot of downtime between 10am and 5pm when we headed to dinner. Definitely a do-able day near San Francisco with kids.  Lots of outdoor play and educational opportunities.

More resources:

• Fun Things To Do With Kids in San Francisco (with some great book suggestions!)
• Trekaroo Kid-Friendly Activities

I was thinking “not.” I swear I’ve become a playground snob after visiting the many unique and amazing Orange County playgrounds. So when we headed up north to the Bay Area a few weekends ago for a family birthday, we initially hemmed and hawed about stopping at this little corner playground. It had chain link fence all around and looked more like a prison than a playground.

The kids didn’t mind. They tumbled out of the car and hit the playground with their usual fervor. The sand was soft and clean. The playground was simple. There were some beautiful flowers in between the playground and the basketball court below. We even spied tennis courts above. We found a shady spot in the back corner to watch the kids. That’s when we turned around and saw . . .

Which really looked more like:

The moral of the story:

• The kids don’t care what it looks like – they just want to run around and play.
• Don’t knock it before you try it!
• Perspective is everything – so every once in a while, change your mind.

Tomorrow:

• I’ll post about our whirlwind road trip and what you can do when you’ve only got one day on the bay.
• AND I’ll finally be able to get back out researching parks (a.k.a. PLAYING) so look for lots more park posts over the coming weeks. And some new kid-friendly beach posts, too.