Create a pirate ship, a photo booth, a corner market, or just a place to play hide and seek. This is an incredibly easy think to do. You can be as simple or elaborate as you want. It's amazing how kids will find ways to use their imagination by just cutting a few holes in a box.
Like most fish stories, this one just gets better over time. In 1984, on the site of a cannery immortalized by John Steinbeck, a new attraction showcasing the splendors of the sea opened its doors. In large glass tanks designed for easy viewing, sleepy-eyed octopuses clung to coral outcrops. Slow-motion stingrays kicked up sand along the bottom while antic otters skittered across the surface, clacking shellfish like castanets.
More than 2,000 years ago, a seed the size of an oatmeal flake began to sprout in the mountains now known as the Sierra Nevada. The seedling grew through a forest canopy and eventually reached 275 feet, the height of a 27-story building, with a trunk wider than a three-lane highway. Today, the giant sequoia called the General Sherman reigns as the world’s largest tree.
HOW LARGE?
Though not the tallest or widest tree, the General ranks as largest based on the volume of its trunk—52,508 cubic feet, enough wood to make a two-foot-wide path of inch-thick planks 60 miles long.
AN OFFICER’S RESPECTS
In 1879, naturalist and Civil War veteran James Wolverton named the tree after his former commander, William Tecumseh ("War is hell") Sherman.
The sea otters are so close you can hear one munching a crab, making a cracking sound like a kid with a bag of sunflower seeds. It's a cool, gray morning near the tiny town of Moss Landing, Calif., and I'm sitting in a flatbottom boat with 15 other passengers, gliding across the waters of Elkhorn Slough. The otters—27 of them in this particular group—seem wholly unconcerned with us. A mother otter nurses her pup; another rolls in the water. Some are brown, some streaked with gold.
Dip into honey making - visit the Lavender Bee Farm in Petaluma, California where happy bees forage on two acres of lavender. Visit with Mel the Camel and Lamar the Llama. For more info, go to www.lavendarbeefarm.com.
What a wonderful way to spend time with grandparents, the kids, and their friends. Rent a houseboat for a week or weekend. Fish, swim or watch a DVD inside while enjoying some tranquil time. This is one of the most affordable vacations and in this economy that's a great fit for a family or share with friends.
For thousands of years Miwok Indians came to the island to catch salmon, the Spanish named the island Isla de los Angeles, the Russians hunted otters, the Mexicans brought cattle, and etween 1910 an 1940 Chinese immigrants were detained here.
This is a great place to hike, bike, picnic, camp, play volley ball, baseball, fish or take a tour to soak in the rich but storied history. There are 13 miles of hiking trails and 8 miles of bike trails.
Ride the sand dunes at Pismo Beach, California in an ATV or dune buggy. Get a thrill jumping the dunes and then jump in the ocean for a refreshing cool down.
Grab a sled, squirt the rails with furniture polish, and go for a spin in Colorado's Great Sand Dunes National Park and Preserve. Schedule your trip for June, and you can catch the annual Castles, Kites, and Concerts event, featuring—you guessed it—sand castles, flying kites, and music concerts. See www.nps.gov/grsa.
