The Lunar New Year Celebration is today at the Oakland Museum from 12 to 4:30, Sunday, Feb. 9th, 2014

The 13th annual Lunar New Year Celebration, The Year of the Horse is today, Sunday, February 9, 2014 from 12 to 4:30PM.  This is an event for the whole family to celebrate the Lunar New Year as the Oakland Museum rings in the Year of the Horse with an array of Asian traditions in arts, crafts, food, demonstrations, live music, dance, family activities, and more.  Performances include lion and dragon dances, plate spinning by "The Happy Chef," contortion acrobatics by Inka Siefler, a magic show by The Magic of Chin-Chin, martial arts by Vovinam America, stories by Storyteller Megumi and Oliver Chin, traditional music by Melody of China, Taiko drumming by Jiten Daiko, K-pop dance with UC Berkeley's Korean Performance Group, and Bollywood and Bhangra dance performed by Duniya Dance and Drum Company.

Resources:

The Oakland Museum of California
Oakland, CA
museumca.org

The Year of the Horse

Last Weekend -- Ice Skating & Reindeer!

The holidays are receding into the past.  Folks may have already put away the ornaments.  Taken down the X-Mas trees.  Taken down the lights (though ours are still up for another day or two).

But although the hype of a frantic holiday season may be behind us, there are still a few festive things that you can do for one more weekend.

See the Reindeer at the Academy of Sciences in San Francisco!  The Academy of Sciences is an amazing place to begin with.  But all season they have been advertising "Reindeer on the Roof."  It turns out the Reindeer aren't actually on the roof.  They are on the left side of the museum.  The Academy is also making snow (bubble-like snow).  Exhibits also feature an igloo.  And trees with different scents.  All of this ends ON MONDAY (Jan. 16th).  They are also offering a one-day pass that you can upgrade to a membership and get a free video.  Our son loved the winter exhibits; the antlers on the reindeer made a big impression.  If you're wondering what to do today, go out and see this before it is gone.

Go ice skating at Union Square.  Union Square is the center of holiday insanity in San Francisco.  Between Black Friday and Christmas the stores are packed.  As are the restaurants (including pretty good but very over priced "Burger Bar" in Macy's).  Events like the Tree Lighting (which we attended on Black Friday) are packed with humanity.

Now, things are calming down.  They're getting ready to take down the decorations.  Sanity has been restored to most of the stores, which aren't clogged with people.

And, until Monday Jan. 16th, the temporary ice skating rink at Union Square is still in operation.  This seems like a good time to go out and enjoy it -- without the hassle of massive holiday crowds.

Train of Lights - Niles Canyon Railway Part III

Final thoughts on the Train of Lights:

1 - Bring warm clothes.  The train has a few open-air cars.  Kids LOVE open-air cars...

2 - Bring hot chocolate and snacks.

Note - the Niles Canyon Railway runs weekends year-round.  Check their website for details (see our earlier post).

Train of Lights - Niles Canyon Railway, Part II

We had a great experience on the Niles Canyon Railway.  We arrived just in time to catch the train (which I can't recommend).  Our son had fallen asleep in the car on the way to the Niles station (right near Niles Avenue in Fremont, which is a great neighborhood with lots of shops and a few restaurants).  It took him about 15 minutes to finally wake up; he was happily surprised to find himself already comfortably situated on the train.

The train was full of families, but not packed (perhaps since we were riding the train on the Tuesday after Christmas; the train can get very busy, especially on weekends in December before Christmas).

As we were moving through the Niles Canyon, my wife got up to get some hot cocoa from the food & drink car near the front of the train.  After a few minutes, the train came to a stop.

My wife returned about 5 minutes later.  It turned out that the train had decoupled.  Luckily, she hadn't made it to the hot chocolate and was on our side of the train.  The delay lasted about 20 minutes or so, by which time our son was just starting to get a bit restless.

The rest of the trip (which ended up at just under 2 hours because of the delay) was a mellow, fun ride for all of us.  Our son enjoyed walking through the different types of vintage cars (though we never did make it all the way to the hot chocolate car).

By the end of the ride, it was dark outside.  The Train of Lights is, indeed, a train of lights:

Here's the locomotive:

Santa Fe car:

More lights:

The outside of our car:

Here's where the train decoupled earlier in the afternoon:

 

Train of Lights - Niles Canyon Railway

The Niles Canyon Railway is one of the great hidden gems of the Bay Area.  It describes itself as "a railroad museum where the exhibits come to life," which is entirely accurate.  The Railway operates vintage railroad equipment along the Niles Canyon between Fremont and Sunol.

Each November and December, the Railway operates the Train of Lights.  The old trains are strung with holiday lights on the inside and out.  The trains are full of kids and parents; it is a really great, mellow way to spend a late afternoon with the family over the holidays.  

Two trains operate each night -- one leaves from Niles in Fremont at 4:15pm.  The other leaves from Sunol at 7:15pm (heading in the other direction).  The ride usually lasts around 90 minutes.  This seems to be just about the right amount of time for this sort of thing; by the end of the ride, most kids are ready to get going.  Tickets are $25 (early in the season you can get reserved seating, or even rent out an entire train car/caboose for a private party).

We recommend the 4:15 train out of the Niles station.  You get to enjoy the ride in the daylight, looking at the scenery along the steep Niles Canyon.  You can see the river, the steep hillsides, the old train equipment on parallel tracks, and the equipment yard (which is also the turn-around point for the train).  By the time you get back to the station, it is dark; you can see the amazing lights on the outside of the train.      

Here's a view of our train car:    

Facing the other direction:

Here's a shot of the canyon:

Is Thanksgiving Too Stressful?

After writing about whether Halloween is too scary for toddlers, I started thinking about whether Thanksgiving is too stressful for grownups.  Today is the biggest travel day of the year.  People across the country are battling snow and rain to make it home.  Yet, how many people these days have the Norman Rockwell Thanksgiving that they yearn for, especially as they sit in traffic in the snow or their plane is delayed?  

This holiday season has been very stressful for us.  We try to make each side of the family happy.  But how do people really make two families happy, especially when everyone wants to spend time with their gorgeous grandchild/grandchildren?  The other day I talked to some empty-nesters whose son wasn't planning on coming home for the holidays for Thanksgiving or Christmas.  

This year I wanted to rent a beach house at Half Moon Bay and invite one side of the family on one day, and then the other side of the family the next.  It just didn't work out.  Since we are doing some work on our house, we decided to go out to dinner this year.  I hope I can take some time to contemplate what I am grateful for, relax, and enjoy the moment.

Happy Thanksgiving!  Just for fun, I'll be sharing a few ideas I've thought would be fun- maybe next year!

-TC Mama