The best Christmas present we gave our son this past year was the "Adventure Box." It's a shoe box covered in plain brown paper with a blank journal inside. At the beginning of each month we will hand our son an envelope containing the dates and details for a family-only activity that has been planned for that month. He can then gather tickets, photos and stickers to add to the journal and decorate the outside of the box. By the end of the year, he'll have a box full of memories to look back on and a whole bunch of road trips clocked in as well. The very first envelope contained the tickets to the Lawrence Hall of Science in Berkeley, CA and lunch at Jupiter, a brewery that specializes in wood-fired pizzas. Upon opening the box, our son read the contents of the envelope and grinned wide...he couldn't wait to begin! The Lawrence Hall of Science - Berkeley, CAThe drive from Bodega Bay to Berkeley on Sunday was an easy 90 minutes. Using GPS, we drove over the Richmond Bridge, through Cal State Berkeley and found The Lawrence Hall of Science perched on top of a hill with an amazing view. The admission was $18 per adult and $12 for children ages 3-17, but this Coupon Queen scored a FREE child admission voucher using the "Discover & Go" program, a free service online through the Sonoma County Library using my library card. We also opted for the $5 per person 3-D movie entitled "Back From the Brink." I spent a lot of time researching the various things to do at the Lawrence Hall of Science and quickly realized upon entering the first exhibit, that this was an experience geared toward younger children and NOT Teens or adults. This was not mentioned anywhere on their website. We trudged through any way, looking at all the science challenges and exhibits and noticed quite a few families with young children actively engaged. I felt really bad that I didn't know this ahead of time as we would've chosen a different venue all together. We watched the 3-D movie, which was good, checked out the view on the backside of the building and then left for our next stop - Jupiter Pub. We considered the money we paid as a "donation" to the Hall as it is in need of renovations. So far, the first stop on this Adventure Day was a BUST. JupiterThe drive to Jupiter was a quick 10 minutes and it took about another 10 minutes to find a parking spot. Once inside the restaurant, we were told to seat ourselves and we chose a cozy round table. The wait staff was super friendly and the service was fast which was great because we were starving. We ordered the large "Mediterranean Salad" and two 13" pizzas to share among the three of us and it was plenty. Pizza # 1 was called the "Aries" which was your standard pepperoni with cheese...this was mostly for our son. Pizza #2 was called the "Galileo" and featured artichoke hearts, mushrooms and more which is mainly for my husband and I. Both pizzas were delicious and took away any of the ad feelings we had about our bummer science hall experience. We ordered two sodas, refills were $1 each and iced tea...also really good. The restaurant was decorated with strings of white lights on the ceiling and we all decided that we would come back if ever in the area again. Rootbeer FloatsOn our way home we stopped at A&W in San Rafael and ordered root beer floats. They were delicious and it was a great way to end our day on a happy note.
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |
My name is Gigi and I live in California. I love to travel, craft, sew and eat! I am a self proclaimed "Coupon Queen" and am constantly scouring the internet to find the best deals for the next family adventure.ArchivesCategories |