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Published: January 13th 2024
Plan A for this winter break: snowshoe in the Sierras. Getting 3 pairs of snowshoes was no problem but the weather was a big wild card. Sure enough, Super El Niño didn’t bring snow in time. Plan B: hit Space museums out of town. Y’s been into all things space but the resources are somewhat limited in the Bay Area. This would be a good chance to expand our reach!
Sat: On the road to Paso Robles Before going space mode, winding down at Capaldi Ranch has been our annual. This is our third holiday season visiting the ranch stay in Paso Robles. A pit stop at Gilroy Library worked out perfectly. The holiday event was underway on our way to Paso Robles. Y enjoyed the story time, photo with Santa, and cool crafts. Although we don’t frequent this library branch since it’s a bit out of our way, it is top-notch. The event was thoroughly organized and under control.
After lunch in Gilroy, we reached Capaldi Ranch at 2:30 pm. Our go-to RV wasn’t available and we got to stay in the newly-opened house “The Grove”. It was a gorgeous day. We met the familiar faces and
Story time
Gilroy Librarythe new friends. Y played until his heart’s content on a play structure with a view.
Sun, Mon: Peaceful Days The atmospheric river was coming today. It was sprinkling and dumping at times on Sunday and Monday. But Y put on his rain gear and we still enjoyed the farm. We were well entertained outside, on the deck, and inside. We literally didn’t turn on the car engine the entire time and let these two days pass by without a worry in the world.
Tue: Wake up, we’re in the city! We milked our stay until 11:30 am. The cleaning lady was already at the back door. It was oh so sad to leave 😭 Always a pleasant stay. We ran a few errands in town and hit the road to Pismo Beach. It was dumping on and off and the visit to the Monarch Butterfly Grove was questionable. Luckily, the rain had subsided at the grove. I’d heard the number of butterflies this year was off-the-chart more than previous years and yep, it wasn’t difficult to spot the clusters. Success 🙌. Back on the road by 12:30 pm.
Oh crap! How could we forget
one crucial fact! The LA traffic! Planning to arrive in the evening? Right. A 4-hour drive was now showing 6 hours 😱 We went through Santa Clarita to save 30 min but we didn’t get to Norwalk until 6 pm, ouch. We were exhausted. A quick dinner and hit the sac pronto.
Wed: Epic Shuttle encounter and a lot more at California Science Center Slept in today until 6:30 am to make up for the late-nighter last night. After a quick grocery run, packed lunch, and we were ready at 8:30 am. It was a little earlier than planned but, why not. We decided to hit the road.
After yesterday's rude awakening, we were ready for a few stop-and-go sections given the direction we were going. But the most annoying thing was that the carpool lane didn’t break for like 10 miles! Some crossed the double-double solid lines but we didn’t end up getting on it. I mean who is it for really?? We arrived at the Exposition Park at 9:30 am. You can’t miss the BMO stadium and the Coliseum whose main entrance I’d seen gazillion times on TV. But as we drove into the parking
Our deck!
Capaldi Ranch lot, we immediately noticed two rocket boosters poking out of the scaffold. Been following the Rockets lately? Yep, we are here for none other than the Space Shuttle! It’s one of four in the world and the only one on the West Coast. It’ll be out of commission for a few years from 1/1/24 to be docked with the external tank and the boosters, the complete launching format!! That’s going to be super epic. But for now, we’ll at least see the shuttle in person.
Getting to the entrance included walking right underneath the fighter jet! Anticipation is real! Emotions are high! Finally, the door opened at 10 am. Follow the “Endeavor” sign! It’s a bit of a hike through the second-floor exhibitions to the backside, then to the hanger. There was literally just another party beside us when we walked into the hangar. Beneath this ginormous majestic piece of art, I felt like we had the whole shuttle to ourselves! It was amazing to see the tiles up close and to marvel at the size of the glider which made 25 trips to outer space. The volunteers absolutely added a kick to the visit as their knowledge and
stories made me appreciate the shuttle a whole lot more. The pilot had one shot to land successfully, with very few tools to work with! Do or die.
This museum was very truly impressive. A place like this would easily cost $70 for a family of three in the Bay Area but the entrance is free. That’s right, FREE! I thought this happened only in DC. After the shuttle, we saw a glimpse of the external tank outside. This is the only one in the world, THE WORLD!! This thing got dumped at launch and this was the only extra one that has gone through an autopsy to investigate the Challenger tragedy. The entire space exhibition was amazing with Apollo and others. This alone would have been well worth it but there was a whole lot more! One of Y’s favorites was the aquarium. You can see it from above and below. The ask-the-diver show was pretty neat too. It ended with shark feeding where the diver guy was getting bit by the sharks 😣 Another section had an exhibition on extreme weather. Y liked the big ice wall in the North Pole section. There was also a section
for under 7 with puzzles and a play kitchen. In the kitchen, though. One locked cupboard consisted of food scrap and cockroaches. Another one...rats 😱 Kids, clean after yourself.
We visited every corner and almost closed shop at 4:30 pm. Going home was another traffic jam and it took a good hour. Another evening of quick dinner, shower, and hitting the sac pronto!
Thu: Fire Museum & Columbia Memorial Space Center Enough with traffic. We’ll keep it to the neighborhood today. The first stop was a short drive to the Los Angeles County Fire Museum. We got there shortly after the 9 am opening. Right at admission, Y was treated with a helmet and sticker. Then we were greeted with friendly docents. Inside was a huge warehouse packed with shiny antique fire trucks decked up in Christmas decorations. Deeper inside was the kids’ area where Y put on the firefighter costume, played with a fire truck structure, and colored the fire trucks! This place was unexpectedly entertaining for Y. The adults had a great time talking to super approachable and knowledgeable docents. We ended up finally leaving the place at 11 am.
Columbia Memorial Center was
The sunrise
Capaldi Ranch a short 10-minute drive from there. I couldn’t find any pictures of the activities inside and didn’t know what to expect. There were space-themed experiments on the two-story space. The place was overrun by the field trip kids initially. But by the time we came back from lunch, the group was wrapping up and we had the whole place to ourselves for the most part.
This place was a huge hit for Y! There was a little kids' space upstairs that mimicked ISS where Y could put on the space costume and pretend play experiments. They even had a sleeping bag with an armhole 😊 When Y was just about done playing with the building toy, he got an invitation to the robotics lab which was taking place every hour or so in the downstairs room. Y hasn’t found a liking for iPad maneuvers but he found his new playground on the lower floor. The paper plane launcher was super cool. There was a table with scratch papers and folding instructions. The launcher shoots the paper plane. Y was running so much catching the planes. Then he saw boxes of Lego on the table. This box, I found out
Swing at dawn
Capaldi Ranch later, is $999 on Amazon. Even Y could tell the parts were exceptional. He made a rover and he could have played with this for a few more hours but we didn’t want to push it again.
We left ~1 hour before the closing at 4:30 pm but we probably closed the shop again since there were no other visitors around. We checked out Bookoff while V made a Costco run at Lakewood Center. Today, things were more on time 😊 Y got to see and hear the thunderstorm. At midnight, the outside sounded literally like a river.
Fri: SpaceX HQ driveby What a glorious morning with sunshine! We ate breakfast and got ready to hit the road at 8 am. We’ll be on our way back to the Bay Area but, first, SpaceX! Their flagship Falcon 9 booster that returned to earth at the designated spot (!!) is on display at their HQ in Hawthorne. The wall around the booster is transparent to cater to people like us 😅 . That thing is huge. We were the only visitors and snapped all the pictures we wanted as the employees rolled in.
Now we just need
to keep going north, which is definitely easier said and done. Stopping at Kettleman City for lunch and Casa de Fruta for a snack worked out nicely 👍
Tue: Habitot pop-up We took a few days to recoup before we hit the road again tomorrow for more quest to the space. But the visit to Habitot pop-up gets an honorable mention here. Although this wasn’t part of being on the road, it fit nicely into our space-themed winter break.
From what I understand, Habitot is a pro-bono organization that used to have a permanent fixture like a children’s museum. During Covid, they lost the lease and currently host pop-ups in the East Bay. For a limited time, they had a space-themed pop-up in one of the retail spaces in Emeryville.
The orange astronaut costume + booties and a helmet were a win right off the bat. The front part had a mock shuttle and a mission control. In the back, there were a series of activities including creating & launching rockets, free-style building, play-doh, and glue paints. Y lives for these things. I think this may be on the last string for an almost 5-year-old but,
Alpacas <3
Capaldi Ranch for now, it was a success!
Wed: Sacramento Children’s Museum After a brief rest at home, we were ready to hit the road again. Destination: Sacramento! How we are going there three years in a row is beyond me but the museum choices are solid.
The first stop is at Sacramento Children’s Museum. This was a different space where potpourri of activities/themes were scattered around one big warehouse-like building. Right off the bat, Y went to the costume area where he found the entire astronaut attire which included a suit, gloves, booties, a helmet, and a backpack! He had this one the entire time until the 2-o’clock closing. In between, there were workshops here and there. We were actually caught off guard by their weekday closing time and we milked it until the last minute.
It had just started to rain outside but it was too early to retreat. We stopped by Rancho Cordova library where Y could play with the toys and read all the books he wanted 😊
Thu: MoSaC – Museum of Science and Curiosity Upon V’s quick review of the plan to visit the Aerospace Museum of California today, he
S-no-ball
Capaldi Ranch realized that Y wouldn’t last a whole day there. So he found MoSaC instead. We knew Y could spend a whole day at a place like that. We couldn’t have been more correct.
We went upstairs and hit the space exhibit first. This was a pretty solid one. I don’t know how this one escaped my search (facepalm). It had a programmable rover, a big projection, and many more! Outside of that, the place was full of creative activities in a spacious setting. The most unique experience for Y was the dome theater. We saw the “Tour of the solar system” show which really made us feel like we were getting shot into space!
Fri: Aerospace Museum of California & California State Railroad Museum On the last day in Sac, we’re cramming two museums because we’re projecting each visit to take no more than a half day.
The Aerospace Museum of California opens at 9 am. We still squeezed a detour to Mahoroba Bakery following yesterday’s run 🙌. Although it’s not part of the museum, you can’t miss the huge space shuttle playground right next to it. The museum housed fighter jets and other planes/gliders inside
and outside, as well as rockets and their parts. Y doesn’t really marvel at the displays but he latched onto the kids’ area in the corner of the upper floor. It had a bunch of building toys and that occupied Y for a few hours. While Y was busy building, I saw the meticulous maintenance of the museum. Every plane was being polished with wax and people came around and cleaned/organized toys. Impressive. The kids’ workshop was a nice break. There is a whole room of flight simulators for older audiences too.
We finished at the Aerospace Museum and moved on to the California State Railroad Museum at ~12:30 pm. This was Y’s third time visiting this museum. He saw the snow plow and reverse-boiler steam train and played in the kids’ area. It put us on the road at 3:30 pm and we should be back home by dinner time. Perfect. The atmospheric river was still going strong. Kudos to V for getting us home safe in the dumping rain.
To recap, here are the museums we hit. They were all hits for Y and he’d go to any of them in a heartbeat. Thank you to
The fave
Capaldi Ranch all who made them cool and available to the kids to enrich their lives 😊
• California Science Center
• Los Angeles County Fire Museum
• Columbia Memorial Space Center
• Habitot
• Sacramento Children’s Museum
• MoSaC
• Aerospace Museum of California
• California State Railroad Museum
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