I am a sucker for Christmas lights. This was my first time trying the lights at the Oakland zoo…read morewhich was super unique and fun. The gondola was the highlight! This was a blast and I am glad we did it.

Fun night out with the kids 1) had a blast on the gondola,…read moresouring across the sky with an amazing view of the city and lights. The kids were thrilled! 2) walking through the zoo and experiencing the light show that the kids could walk thorough was an experience like no other. 3) short and quick line to se Santa! The kids got some adorable pictures and the set up was extra cute! The boys were pretty excited about the jelly beans. 4) it was a great experience seeing the zoo at night, totally different than a day experience! The crocodile just barely peaking out through the water at night was horrifying and amazing! 5) kid friendly 6) my kids loved the rides the best, but they are so expensive!!! I get that the zoo is expensive to upkeep but my kids only care about the rides 7) the zoo train of lights was a crowd pleaser! Definitely worth the extra dough

This place is crazy nostalgic, and I'm loving it. Playing the games I grew up with, along with the…read moresounds of kids having fun, the games are clean, and the area is fantastic. A nice park around the corner and plenty of restaurants a short walk away. I drove just shy of 100 miles to get there and try their games, and it was worth it. The town is like a cool getaway, especially if you live in an area that gets hot.

Some cool nostalgic games. It was smaller than I expected, maybe 25 games. Several games were not…read morefunctional.

The golf courses are beautifully maintained, and have the perfect amount of challenge for the…read moreaverage mini-golfer. My family and I visited on Sunday morning, and the cashiers were pleasant and seemed to actually enjoy their job. Arcade was clean, and games were all operational. I highly recommend bringing your family or friends here. We will be back soon!

Roll up your sleeves, loosen your hips, steady your stance and get ready for some putt-putt at…read moreGolden Tee Golfland! Castro Valley hosts this mini golf spot that's an affiliate of the Golfland family and features its two 18-hole ranges perfect for beginners and experts alike. After a few rounds on the green, consider venturing into their arcades to play some good old fashioned video games (Time Crisis and other dual player shooters, Mario Kart and other racing games, and fighting games) and skill games (like skee ball, table air hockey, and claw machines). Be wary, however, for those who have game cards from other Golflands, they're location specific so they won't work here unless you have one from this spot. Starting from the giant parking lot which is just off of a busy street, you'll make your way through the gates and stroll up the long walkway to the front desk where you'll register to get your clubs and balls (you'll get your choice from among a few colors). From there, you'll have your pick of the two courses, one for novices and one for the more adventurous. Make your way through the obstacles and mark your scorecard to determine the winner of bragging rights! We came for a birthday party and logistically, they have the main room amongst the beginner course which is well lit from all the open windows but I believe they have another space near the arcade for those looking for a more enclosed, private gathering. Once the guests arrived, they hosted an orientation and got the members all equipped and ready to go. The youngsters had a lot of fun and can't wait to return! The staff were all very friendly and helpful. You'll interact with them more at the arcades especially if you'll be redeeming prizes with your hard-earned digital tickets. The ticket values on the top tier prizes were pretty large but for frequent visitors or lucky winners, you can get some pretty neat stuff here. The mini prizes definitely reminded me of my times at the arcades when I was a kid, very nostalgic! Overall, Golden Tee Golfland is a well-maintained, family friendly environment conducive to an awesome time outdoors as well as an exhilarating experience soaking up the old school arcade vibe. We accumulated a ton of steps during our visit here and the kids could not stop hitting the greens to get their fluorescently colored balls into the holes. The obstacles are fun - there are water effects and moving doors and bridges. While most of them functioned as expected, there were a few hiccups with some like balls getting stuck or certain doors just not functioning as expected. For wetter seasons, the holes for the balls do end up pooling which makes picking the balls out a bit of an unpleasant endeavor. For being exposed to the outdoors, the place was in pretty good shape, however. It's a bummer that the Golflands don't have a unified system for the game cards as it just incentivizes families to just pick one and stick with it instead of venturing out and exploring the other amazing locations like this one. If you're a local, this is a great place to take a date or the family - it'll tee you up for a good time!

Five stars because it costs no yen…read more As far as Japanese gardens go, this one is my least favorite because it is rectangular, with a visible metal fence perimeter, with ugly trash and graffiti visible from across the creek and no opportunities to feed the koi fish. Three things, though, that make it special is that they have memorial plaques, stray cats, and blowtorched wood for an aged and weather-resistant finish. From 1913-1962, the site was a practice site for farming and raising livestock for Hayward Union High. It became a garden by the late 1970s, and when dedicated in 1980, focusing on botany (with plants donated by local Japanese-American nurseries) rather than religion. Every first Saturday at 1pm there's a free lecture/tour. It's not especially beautiful or big (3.5 acres) or exciting (the few people I saw there were on their phones), but it's a peaceful, clean area. I think informational displays could help people enjoy it more. Or phone chargers. Information like, many of the wooden connections (including the main entry gate) have notches instead of notches to fit together like puzzle pieces. This more authentic approach prevents rust. Or, the garden uses the Shakkei technique: when you can stand at the highest point, the surrounding trees are meant to look like distant mountains, with specific plants blended with the Japanese maples and native Oaks to make the garden feel ten timers larger than its actual 3.5 acres. Or, the hand-selected granite boulders from the Sierra Nevadas are buried one-third into the ground so it looks like they are growing, which is why I don't manicure myself often. .

I did not know this place existed until my partner found this and brought his family here…read more It's a nice, serene and scenic short walk with plenty of nice photo spots and benches to sit and take in the greenery. I loved seeing all the koi, bansai and various plants they had in the area. It is well worth a visit to come check it out!

The CUTEST Mini Golf spot in East Bay! All the holes were East Bay themed which I loved.. it also…read moregave a bit of history of each landmark. Not crowded right at opening on a weekend. There was also beer and food. Facility was clean and overall a grand old time.. Great for friends, date night, and even kids! ANYTHING but a subpar experience!

Fast and friendly service at entry and 19 holes at an affordable price, I had a positive experience…read morehere this past Sunday. I used to play at their very first location in a small room on Park Street in Alameda, more than a decade ago, and the current spot is a total 180, updated, spacious, and offering an arcade, pool tables, and snack bar serving pizza, sandwiches, chicken wings, and twister fries, as well as sweet treats and alcoholic beverages. The mini golf course has a similar theme to their SF location, the props and holes showcasing familiar landmarks in and around the city. Some moving parts, but not a whole lot. Challenge level is minimal, but it was still fun. There were some slow families on the course, but I was able to move around them and do the different holes at my own pace with little or no waiting needed. Easy parking too in the parking lot shared amongst the neighboring businesses.

I had such a wonderful time at the cherry festival today!!…read more We came early and parked at the bart station so that was nice. We got here around 9:50am. We watched the entire parade as we walked up and down Parrot Street. The parade was from 10-11am. It was a bit cold this morning so we had to keep walking to stay warm, also good exercise! The actual festival was a lot bigger than I thought. It was our first time here. Tons of booths, vendors, organizations, activities, etc. We had a good time browsing around and had some lovely free samples of various cherries! Hehe. Enjoyed looking at all the arts & crafts vendors. We also enjoyed the live music stage. The performer was really good at singing! The other stage in the kid zone was entertaining too. We enjoyed seeing the little girls dance performances. I hope I get to come every year from now on. :)

San Leandro Cherry Festival (6/1/24) has entered the big leagues at last, giving neighboring events…read morein Hayward, Castro Valley, Alameda stiff competition. It's now located a block from the Davis Bart Station, parking nearby is easier in the afternoon. Short parade 12-1 starts the festival. @1 the 200 booths (arts & crafts, food trucks/booths, info from nonprofits/government agencies, a slide for youngsters, kid activities, music for adults at one stage, teen performances & others at community stage,.... Event is a combo of a county fair, arts & crafts, cherry festival..FREE admission. Area isn't impacted as organizations here closed on Sat. *diverse colors on slide a celeb of Pride Day?

Lots of cool games! You get plenty of time in laser tag! 15 minutes of laughing out loud and…read moreblasting kids with laser tag guns! The laser tag arena has great layout and is super fun! Check their hours during the week as they open a little late and be sure to try the pizza at Craft next-door! It's great!!! I highly recommend visiting! https://yelp.to/yhnJemAgoR

Great addition to downtown Hayward. Perfect for kids - it a smaller version of chuck e cheese…read more I love this place and want it to succeed. Hayward is an underdog city - and this is such a unique space. If I was the mayor of Hayward I would shine a light on this place as I think its an important piece of the city. I live just 2 blocks away and have never gotten any note on my front door or advertisement or coupon. I think that is a shame. If I was head of marketing for this business I would place a flyer under every door mat in a 5 or 10 block radius. This is a missed opportunity for core customers. There are new high rise buildings also popping up - a huge senior building - why not a special flyer offering seniors discounts if they show up for an early bird dinner? Often times you can also tell if kids live in any given home in the neighborhood. There are kiddie pools, tiny shoes left out front, bikes thrown around in the front yard - these homes should be targeted even more aggressively with fliers and some sort of incentive to come in. Another huge problem with this place is the lack of emphasis on ease of 'searchability' of the place. I had lived so close since 2016 and had not known about the place until maybe 2020 during the pandemic. How is that possible? It's all about not knowing this is an arcade. Sector 19 doesn't mean anything to me. It should be called 'Sector 19 Arcade' so that people can find it with a Google or Waze search. The arcade is clean and bright and fun for little kids. Its a safe place too - where parents can hang outside more in the restaurant part and not worry they wandered off - there is only one way out. The arcade needs to be front and center - this is why people come. Pizza House or Susie Qs have no competition in this arena.... so lean in on this. I will say that a Susie Qs has an edge with food quality - so again, more reason to make the family friendly atmosphere the center of attention.

I just want to say thank you for making my twins birthday party wonderful ! Scott was very nice &…read moredirect. The popcorn was delicious. The set up was quick. I would definitely use this company again & I recommend you gift them a try.

We used the FunFlicks so we could have a live stream of the 49ers vs Rams game at our Corporate…read morePicnic that honored all of the employees and their families at our Construction Company, D-Line Constructors. It was about 150 people at Rowell Ranch in Castro Valley. Hayden showed up early ready to set-up so that everything was up and running before the event started. Hayden had great communication and organization. He went above and beyond making sure the LED screen was situated perfectly so that all the guests could see and hear the game. He keeps extra generators and extension cords on hand incase anything is to happen the party can go on!! lol. We're definitely going to be using them again! Truly awesome Team and Experience. Much Respect!

My little family came here for a first visit on the Saturday of the long Memorial Day weekend, and…read moreit was a delightful and eye-opening experience. TBH, my expectation were kind of high because just the month before, we had visited a planetarium in Arizona that just blew my mind and was so cool (will write a review on that one soon) so I think my review of this Space & Science Center might be a little more serious, ha! To be fair, this is not a planetarium, although there is one here, which is used to show short featured films about different space exploration and nature-based stories which we did watch 3 of and they were really good. However, as a Space & Science Center, the focus is on space exploration by NASA and the science behind it. Specifically, the NASA Ames Research Visitor Center is located here. This place is ok for little kids, but probably better for those about 7-8 or older as they'll actually remember and get something out of this Science Center. When you enter, there's a little gift shop to the right, then you will purchase your tickets (which can be applied towards membership should you decide to buy an annual one) and enter into the exhibit hall on the first floor. From there, the planetarium/theatre is to your right and there's shows to watch every hour on the hour, some of them are a half-hour long, and some are only about 15 minutes or so. Different topics/titles and they do not repeat, so it is best to get to this Space & Science Center by mid-morning and plan to stay the whole day. Next there's a NASA visitor center with exhibits of actual space suits, lots of pictures of historic and current/recent space endeavors and journeys, as well as posters explaining how NASA developed the technology to take us to the moon and different parts of the universe. There are also interesting autobiographical posters written by astronauts and other space scientists on their roles in space exploration. There are a few hands-on activities such as using Kinetic sand, and other low-level simple engineering type of fun experiences for younger kids. Finally, there's also a cafeteria on the first floor towards the back of the building. Prices are a little high, but expectedly so for a museum/science center type of venue. On the second floor, there's several classrooms, and then there are some exhibits from retired space vehicles such as a real module you can climb in and play with that still has all the (non-functioning, obviously) controls. My kids had a great time with that. There were even a dog-space-vehicle/container thing, and lots of smaller spacecrafts and many space suits and miniature replicas of space shuttles on display. Finally, on the top floor, there's the observatory with several huge rooms that contained one telescope each for viewing real stars and planets, although they were all hard to see during daytime and realistically, they're all so far, you can only see like a speck of light when viewing Venus, for example, or the star Betelgeuse. But since it's outdoors, you find yourself surrounding by the redwoods out in nature, and it is just so peaceful and beautiful. I imagine when it gets even warmer later on in the summer, at night, that the night sky would be spectacular here. Overall, we really enjoyed coming to Chabot Space & Science Center. It has something for everyone and my kids, my husband, and I all enjoyed it. It's a cool place to feel the vastness of our universe and the greatness of our Creator, and to appreciate that humans have made some pretty cool strides in exploring and discovering our galaxy and yet we've only just scratch the surface. We'll plan to come back, but may try to visit other similar space centers first.

My wife loves to find educational opportunities for our family outings. We came on a Saturday, and…read moreit was a pretty cool experience. At the entrance, there's a little gift shop to the right, before the ticket counter (pretty steep) and then the exhibit hall is on the first floor. Since this is a Space & Science Center so it's not technically a planetarium, but there is one here where they show short featured films about nature and space exploration. We watched 3 of them, and they were all pretty well done. So this said planetarium/theatre is on the first floor too, and the shows are every hour on the hour, some of them are a half-hour long, and some are only about 15 minutes or so. Different topics/titles and they do not repeat, so it is best to get to this Space & Science Center by mid-morning and plan to stay the whole day. The focus of this Space & Science Center is about space exploration by NASA and the science behind it. In fact, the NASA Ames Research Visitor Center is housed here. My kids are both older now and they definitely got some learning out of this NASA center, which if they were younger, would be too hard for them to understand. There's exhibits of space suits, pictures of historic and current space endeavors, and displays explaining how NASA developed the technology to take us to the moon and other parts of the universe. There are also interesting autobiographical posters written by astronauts and other space scientists on their roles in space exploration. Further back on the first floor, there are a few hands-on activities such as using kinetic sand, and other simple engineering experiences made into fun for younger kids. There's also a cafeteria on this floor towards the back of the building. Prices are a little high, but expectedly so for a museum/science center type of venue. The second floor houses several classrooms, and then there are some exhibits from retired space vehicles such as a real module you can climb in and play with that still has all the (non-functioning, obviously) controls. My kids had a great time with that. There were even a dog-space-vehicle/container thing, and lots of smaller spacecrafts and many space suits and miniature replicas of space shuttles on display. On the top floor, it's basically an open area/observatory with several huge rooms that houses one telescope in each for viewing stars and planets. They were hard to see in daytime and are so far, you can only see like a speck of light when viewing a planet. I "saw" Venus, but it was just a dot, or for example, I "saw" Betelgeuse the star, haha. This beautiful space is surrounding by the redwoods, so it was a nice area and so peaceful. Later on in the summer, when it gets warmer, I think the night sky would be spectacular here and real nice out even when it gets totally dark. We enjoyed our visit to Chabot Space & Science Center. It has interesting things that should provide something for everyone and we all enjoyed it. I felt the vastness of our universe and the greatness of our Creator, appreciated that us humans have made some significant strides learning about and exploring our galaxy, but there's still so much more we don't know and much more we have to go. My attempt at a deep thought, haha.

Came here for the first time last weekend and it was so much fun! It definitely won't be the last…read moretime either! This Dirty Bird of Paradise/'Lounge' area is downstairs. Once you enter in the bar, go to the right, they'll give you a stamp on your hand, and then you can head downstairs. There are many lounge areas, and small tables & chairs to sit and drink at. There are also pool tables to use for free! There's also a DJ that plays GOOD r&b, hip hop, pop, and even some throwbacks too! The DJ that night took song requests and even gave a shoutout to the birthday girl in our group too. The cocktails were good, and I'm sad I didn't take pictures of it (had too much fun). The waitress will come to your table and you can order there OR you can also order at the bar. When I ordered at the bar, the waitress was so nice and helped me bring the drinks over to our table. I also had a taste of the fries, and the cups and guac and it was tasty too! There's some parking right infront or a parking lot behind the bar. I will definitely come back!

Drinks 4 Service 4…read more Ambiance 5 Food 4 We came here on a slow Tuesday night. They were about 10-15 other guests but the places so big and spacious that it almost felt like we had a place to ourselves. There's a spot for a DJ/music and I can only imagine that they have some great shows here. The bartender was attentive, and while they weren't very personable you could tell that they knew several of the regulars. I didn't drink anything fancy, bourbon neat, but it was a fair pour. You order food separately. We are fish tacos, wings & nachos. The fish was fried and coleslaw had a touch of mayonnaise but not too much. This was my favorite dish. The wings of the nachos or what you expect, definitely flavorful and cooked well. We liked the crowd and will definitely be back to listen to some music and check out the lounge downstairs.