Featuring a variety of redwood forested areas, Henry Cowell State Park offers beautiful views along the San Lorenzo river, family friendly trails and magical picnic spots. Henry Cowell State Park is a great nature adventure for families!

After parking in the main parking lot, we continued to the excellent and very informative Nature Center and visited the friendly rangers. Here, you can also buy the Redwood Grove Loop Trail Self-Guided map for 25 cents. For parents and older kids, it will help you understand the magnificence of this very special place. 

The Redwood Grove Loop Trail is a short 0.8 mile trail. It's toddler, stroller and dog friendly, and easy and short enough for toddler to finish it by themselves. We had barely walked 30 feet into the park when we spotted our first banana slug of the day. We ended up seeing 3! How exciting!

About half way through the Redwood Grove Loop is the amazing Fremont Tree. This tree was hollowed out by fire and was once used as a resort honeymoon room! Daniel loved going in and out, prepare your flashlights for extra fun time!

Right after the Fremont tree, at the south end of the loop trail, look for a gated dirt road. This is the River Trail. About half a mile farther there's a bridge that took us to a fun spot on the San Lorenzo River. When we visited the river's water level was very low and the kids loved walking and playing in the gentle water flow. Aside from splashing in the river, there's a railroad bridge right above you and you can see trains crossing it. The kids had a great time!

Redwood Grove Loop Trail

Fremont Tree

San Lorenzo River

Gift shop and snack bar in the main parking lot are nice and not expensive.

Across from the gift shop, in the other side of the parking lot, there’s an entrance to the Roaring Camp Railroad. We stopped there for lunch and live music before heading back home.

Roaring Camp Railroad

Henry Cowell State Park:

Park Entrance Fee: $10/car. This is good for all day long in all state parks and beaches, so keep your receipt if you’re heading to the beach!

Park Hours: Sunrise to sunset.

Website: http://www.parks.ca.gov/?page_id=546

Roaring Camp Railroad: http://www.roaringcamp.com/

Summer 2016 Bucket List

Today, we are sharing our Summer Bucket List for 2016! We are really excited about the summertime, and we can't wait to make it memorable.

So, with flip-flops, sand-between-your-toes, beach-weather, fruit-flavored-sorbets, fireworks and bbqs in mind: here is our summer bucket list.

1) Sunnyvale Parks Challenge. More info here: https://www.facebook.com/relomom/posts/622636477905037
We did visit all the parks in Sunnyvale, just didn't finish uploading pictures and writing reviews. Check out this post. We found new favorite parks, and we are very happy we got to complete it! 

2) Visit Gilroy Gardens - We ended up getting a membership and visited many times! We love having a membership, so we can go, even if just for a little while every few weeks. We cannot wait for the Illumination and fall events!

3) Fruit Picking - Completed! Webb Ranch Berry Picking 6/14/16
 
4) Mendocino getaway - Completed! We had a great time celebrating 4th of July in Mendocino County! http://relomomblog.blogspot.com/2016/07/mendocino.html

5) Watch fireworks - We watched the fireworks in Fort Bragg during our 4th of July getaway. It was Daniel’s first time watching fireworks and it was very exciting!

6) Send postcards and letters to our loved ones overseas.

7) Visit the farmers market.

8) Go hiking. A few hikes we want to do are Portola Redwood SP, Big Basin, Uvas Canyon, and at least one more visit to Wilder Ranch.
We had a great start at Henry Cowell State Park! 
We visited Wilder Ranch again, this time during the Life On The Ranch event, and we had a wonderful day.
We also hiked Muir Woods trails, found a new favorite spot for summer at the Dennis Martin Creek and many more during our 4th of July long weekend.

9) Make homemade popsicles.

10) Go to the zoo.

11) Fly a kite - It may seem childish, but it is something everyone should get to do at least once. We got a couple, but no doubt - the red octopus is our favorite! Great spots for kite flying: The Kite Lot at Shoreline Park in Mountain View, and Calabazas Park in Cupertino/San Jose.

12) Make a masterpiece with sidewalk chalk - Another thing we did a lot! Daniel's favorite was train tracks and roadways he could play with his cars on, so we did it often :)

13) Visit the aquarium.

14) Build a fort.

15) Blow bubbles - That's probably the easiest one, because we did it almost on a daily basis. small, big and giant bubbles, homemade or store bought. Bubbles are so much fun!

Daniel inside a giant bubble at the Santa Clara County Fair. August 2016.

16) Build a sand castle.

17) Visit the Children Discovery Museum.

18) Make tie die or paint shirts - This is a new favorite family activity! Painting and iron-ons, everything goes!

19) Go to Andy Z's concert - We went to so many! Thanks Mommy&Me Club at Santana Row and Westgate mall!

20) Visit the Santa Clara County Fair - We love the County Fair!! We had a great time!! Read about our visit here. 

Santa Clara County Fair - Hands on the Farm Exhibit

21) Go to the Cupertino Library on Thursday morning for crafts and a visit to the Children's Garden.

22) Visit the Hiller Aviation Museum.

23) Spend a day at the beach.

24) Visit Full Circle Farm - Well, I'm cheating on this one a little bit, because we wanted to go and visit the animals, but we realized we entered the wrong farm (right next to Full Circle) - and we loved it! We went back to Happy Farm a few times during the summer and it is kind of my new favorite local farm. It is small, but lots of animals and people with big hearts.
Read about our visit here. We visited Full Circle as well, and loved the Children's Garden. We even got Lavender and made homemade soap!

25) Homemade pizza party with friends - we had a great time, and enjoyed the yummy pizza, too!  
If you're looking for a fun afternoon activity for the kids - cooking and baking is always a good idea!
Prepare the dough, sauce, cheese and all toppings in advance, and let the kids build the pizza themselves. I know most kids love cheese pizza, but when they’re cooking for themselves, they are more likely to try something new. Use this opportunity to add a few new toppings like broccoli, pineapple, and bell peppers. We found out we don't like bell peppers, and we love pineapple and mushrooms.

26) Lunch with dad at work - Another thing we ended up doing a lot! We visited at least every other week, and Daniel even stayed with daddy at work for a fun filled afternoon when mommy crafted the day away with friends :)

27) Have a family photo shoot - We had a photo shoot with the amazing Lena Veller, and already scheduled for October for another one! We all need just one good family photo every few months... Lena did a great job getting wonderful photos in minimum time, with a kid who doesn't like to smile to the camera!

28) Attend a kids workshop at Home Depot, OSH or Lowe's - These are really great events! We made a truck at OSH and we plan to go and build the fire truck at Office Depot first weekend of October!

29) Bake cookies - We don't usually bake cookies, we're more of bread and cakes family, so I really wanted to make something different. We baked penut butter cookies, and we ate it as soon as they came out of the oven... It was so funny! You have to try this recipe:

30) Make a bird feeder.

31) Visit Great America - Yay for Samsung summer picnic! We had a fun day! Rides, gifts, food and more fun treats!
www.facebook.com/sarit.gabbay/posts/10154937577969119

Great America

Great America

32) Make recycled crayons.

33) Make treats for our neighbors.

34) Ride the cable cars in SF.

35) Go to the Seward slides.

36) Go to an indoor trampoline park - Completed! We visited Sky High for the first time, and enjoyed it very much! We plan to go back during the family nights when the weather gets colder and you have to stay indoors...

37) Go to the pool - Lots of pool parties with friends!

38) Have brunch at Bumble with friends.

39) Take a spin on a carousel - lots of fun carousels around. Our favorites are the ones at Great America and Oak Meadow Park in Los Gatos.

40) Visit Angel Island.

41) Family event in Sunnyvale - It was hard to find a parking spot, but we made it! Daniel's favorite was the bubble guy. Giant bubbles, how can you go wrong with that?

42) Dry flowers.

43) Make a suncatcher.

44) Teach Daniel to ride bike - Well, this was easier than I expected it to be! We need to get "big kids bicycles" now :)

45) Library storytime.

46) Go to a waterpark.

47) Masking tape train tracks.

48) Visit a botanical garden.

49) Squirt gun fight.

50) Two words: Ice Cream - Too much ice-cream this summer! Our favorite is the gelato shop on Castro in Mountain View. Great flavors, but be prepare to stand in line...