The Serpentarium

Specs
Type:	Museum, Animals
Distance:	Short Drive
Area:	Lodi
Ages:	All Ages
Cost:	$
Information:	www.snakemuseum.com

The Serpentarium describes itself as a "living reptile museum," but it is also a shop where you can buy reptiles, amphibians, and even insects and spiders (Have you ever seen a bird eating spider? They've got one.)

Besides the creepy-crawlies, the Serpentarium has a large display of reptiles that includes anacondas, huge monitor lizards, chameleons, pythons and boas.

You have to pay an admission price of $2 per person to get into the shop, which seems a bit strange at first, but there's plenty to see there so you're not likely to feel like you've been unfairly parted from your money.

Once inside, you can pay an additional fee for an "experience," which can be quite gross depending on what you choose (don't get one of the feeding experiences for very small children, which involves giving live prey to a monitor lizard). Experiences also include holding an albino python or a chameleon--or for the very bold, a tarantula, scorpion or (ew) a hissing cockroach. If you don't want to pay extra you can hold a bearded dragon or a corn snake, or pet the Serpentarium's giant tortoise.

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Chuck E Cheese

Specs
Type:	Amusement
Distance:	Short Drive
Area:	Roseville
Ages:	2 and up
Cost:	$
Information:	www.chuckecheese.com

I know, but it's Chuck E Cheese. That dirty, crowded place with bad pizza you remember from your childhood. Ah, but Chuck E Cheese has a few things going for it that you might not have considered. The first is those black lights. You don't know about those black lights?

When you first walk into Chuck E Cheese, you and your children get stamped with identical numbers, which can only be seen beneath a black light. With only one entrance/exit (and that guarded by a black-light-wielding attendant), your kids can't get out of the building unless you are with them. So inside, you can relax and maybe even let them out of your sight for a few minutes, because child abduction and wandering cannot happen here.

The Roseville Chuck E Cheese is also cleaner than that Chuck E Cheese of your memory, though the pizza is still pretty bad. Visit the Chuck E Cheese website before you go to get a coupon--that will usually get you a discount on enough tokens to keep your kids busy for a couple of hours. Then sit back and relax, enjoy a slice of bad pizza and let them play!

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The Sacramento Zoo

Specs
Type:	Animals, Zoos
Distance:	Short Drive
Area:	Sacramento
Ages:	All Ages
Cost:	$ to $$
Information:	www.saczoo.org

Chances are if you've lived in this area for very long you've already been to the Sacramento Zoo. Though it's not as fancy or state-of-the-art as, say, the San Diego Zoo, it's still a nice little zoo where (if you take your time) you can probably spend a whole day.

The Sacramento Zoo is not expensive (as far as entrance fees go) but expect to pay extra for add-ons like the carousel, the train ride and the "Giraffe Experience," which at last count was three bucks a person to feed two leaves to one of the zoo's giraffes. Worth it for the looks on the kid's faces.

This zoo doesn't have those big, open enclosures guarded by moats--most of the animals are still behind wire fences or glass, which makes good photos difficult to obtain. There's a decent selection of animals, though--lions, tigers, (even snow leopards) as well as the aforementioned giraffes. There are also zebras, chimpanzees, kangaroos, lemurs and bongos--and a huge flock of flamingos. The reptile house is pretty good too--it features poison dart frogs, a green tree boa, rattlesnakes, vipers and boas.

Notably missing are the elephants--where the heck are the elephants? and canids of any kid, though if you're really missing them you can go down to the Folsom Zoo to see a great collection of wolves and foxes. Not elephants, though.

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Funderland

Specs
Type:	Amusement
Distance:	Short Drive
Area:	Sacramento
Ages:	All ages, but smaller kids will enjoy more
Cost:	$ to $$
Information:	www.funderlandpark.com

Think you have to wait until August for amusement park rides to come to town? Think again! Funderland is open year-round. Sure, they don't have The Nitro or the Scrambler, but there's plenty to keep kids from preschool age to tween occupied for a whole afternoon.

There's no fee to get into Funderland, but of course you do have to pay for ride tickets. They are sold individually or in packs--unless you're just stopping in it's definitely worth it to get the pack. The lines aren't usually too long (an exception is the log flume line, which is slow loading), and most of the rides will accommodate kids from about age four and up (though you may have to ride with your child on some of them).

For horse crazy kids, there's usually a pony ride next door to Funderland, though I don't know if it's year-round or seasonal. Funderland is in the same complex as the Sacramento Zoo and Fairy Tale Town, so if you don't want to spend your whole day on the kiddie rides there's plenty of other activities in the neighborhood.

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Memorial Park Pool

Specs
Type:	Swimming
Distance:	Local
Area:	Grass Valley
Ages:	All Ages
Cost:	$
Information:	www.cityofgrassvalley.com

My kids love to swim, and besides a 10x10 foot inflatable pool we got on sale at Rite-Aide one year, we have nowhere to do it. That's why we love Memorial Park Pool--it's inexpensive, it's local, there's a snack bar and there's lifeguards. Did I mention the lifeguards?

Three of my four kids are old enough to go to the pool, and although all of them are good swimmers I wouldn't feel comfortable taking them if there weren't lifeguards. As active and enthusiastic as they are, it just isn't possible to keep all three of them in sight at the same time. Memorial Park Pool has at least three lifeguards poolside at all times. There's a diving board, but swimmers have to pass a swimming test before they're allowed to use it. They are very serious about safety there, which means that I don't have to be terrified to take my kids swimming.

The pool is open all summer and costs just a couple of bucks a person. Flotation devices are not allowed, though, which means if you have a weak swimmer or a little one you can't put him/her in a life vest. One of the lifeguards told me that particular rule is to discourage parents from just putting a vest on their kid and leaving them in the pool for the afternoon. Which, really? I can't believe anyone would do that. But, if you say so.

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Children's Discovery Museum of San Jose

Specs
Type:	Museum
Distance:	Weekend Trip
Area:	San Jose
Ages:	All Ages
Cost:	$
Information:	www.cdm.org

My kids call this "The Clifford Place," because of its most memorable exhibit: an entire room devoted to that beloved book and TV show about a freakishly large, primary-colored dog. The Clifford exhibit is laid out like a little village, complete with a restaurant where kids can serve up fish and chips, a post office and a theater that plays non-stop episodes of Clifford the Big Red Dog.

There is a ton of stuff at the Discovery Museum besides just a room full of Clifford memorabilia--there's also a miniature city with an ambulance and fire truck that your kids can explore, a room where they can make giant bubbles, the partial skeleton of a mammoth on display and a big room called WaterWays, where kids can send colorful plastic balls along a system channels, pulleys and tunnels, over waterfalls and up water spouts.

For the artistically-inclined, there's a room where kids can paint on the walls, an "Art Loft" where kids will get hands-on instruction in arts and crafts as well as a craft station where they can make corn husk dolls.

It will cost just under $50 for a family of four to visit the museum, but there's plenty there to keep you all occupied for most of a day.  I took all four of my kids to this museum solo when the littlest was only two, and somehow managed to keep track of all of them. The museum has so many activities and fun things to do that even over-excitable little ones aren't going to be inclined to wander off.

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Gold Country Gym

Specs
Type:	Birthday Parties, Sports
Distance:	Local
Area:	Grass Valley
Ages:	Toddler up
Cost:	$ (activities) $$ (parties)
Information:	www.goldcountrygymnastics.com

If you're raising kids in the Grass Valley area, you already know about Gold Country Gym. It's probably the area's single most popular birthday party venue, and for good reason. The gym is full of fun things for kids to climb, bounce on or jump in. There's a floor-level trampoline, a climbing rope, a pit full of foam blocks that kids can swing into from a rope, a ton of big, soft blocks that can be used for building a temporary castle, one or two pommel horses and a rope swing. They have a big area where kids can just run in circles if they need to burn off steam, which is especially great for toddlers or kids who may not be bold enough to take full advantage of all the gym equipment.

You really don't need to plan games when you have a party at Gold Country Gym, but if you request it they'll organize some really fun parachute games or other active party games. Upstairs there's a party room where you can set out food and serve cake. You do need to bring all your own party supplies, but the clean up is done for you.

Gold Country Gym also has open gym days, in case your kids need to burn off  some steam during the week, but unfortunately they're usually scheduled during school hours so are best for preschool aged children or for the summer holidays. And of course they offer gymnastics classes, camps and team competition, too.

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