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 year, Radio Alice@97.3's Now & Zen Fest was free for the first time ever. Dashboard…read moreConfessional, Howie Day, Colbie Caillat, & Train each did a set of songs. Along w/ the live music were various activities, booths, & vendors. Included was the ZEN Den w/ Sarah & Vinnie, Kaiser Permanente's Healthy eZENtials Pavilion, & meet witches at the 'Wicked' booth. There were supposed to be additional activities, but I did not see them. This was the twelfth year of Now & Zen, w/ this year being the first free event. Past artists included Melissa Etheridge, Macy Gray, Alanis Morissette, Aimee Mann, India.Arie, Train, Duran Duran, Liz Phair, Seal, Maroon 5, Natasha Bedingfield, the B-52's, Gnarls Barkley, Josh Stone, Sara Bareilles, Duffy, & Sugar Ray. The food booths were pretty pricey, the weather gorgeous, & the music wonderful. :) Santa's Yelper sez: "I didn't REALIZE that Colbie is so, well, BUBBLY! Yeah, I said it. heh."

The Russian Festival has been renewed as the The Slavic Festival. There's a nifty museum area of…read morethe community center you can browse historical items like old uniforms & clothing, maps, and artifacts. There's a stage for performances and it has two levels of seating. There's a blini bar, bar, and baked goods section. There's lower level where vendors are selling scarves, jewelry, nesting Russian dolls, etc. That level includes another bar where you can try one of the many flavored vodka shots. I was told that the vodka shots are flavored by the center's staff. The grass one was indeed grassy tasting. I think it's $6 for a shot or 2 for $10. The blini from the upstairs level are quite big. I would definitely get these again. We also shared a Slavic appetizer box that included herring. I got a dessert that was described as a cheesecake and it was tasty as well. I ordered a beverage called Kvas from the wooden bar near the blini area. It was described as a lower alcohol content fermented drink. It reminded me of sour fruit beers. It was a little tart, a cool and refreshing drink. It was a good chance to experience another culture and try different foods and drinks. Overall, it was a great way to spend a couple hours on the weekend. It does get crowded later in the day, so I didn't try any of the hot foods like dumplings, borscht, or piroshki because the lines were so long and moved quite slowly on the lower level. I think admission was about $10 each person. I would recommend bringing some cash but most all the food stations did seem to accept credit cards. The staff/volunteers seemed friendly and happy to be hosting the event.

We don't know much about Russian culture and food so on this rainy day decided to check out the…read more19th Annual Russian Festival going on Feb 9-11, 2007 held at the Russian Center of SF. They charge $10 per person for adults. Seniors/Students $6. Children 12 & under: Free. They have lots of Russian kids performing dances, a Magic Act (I didn't see this); Russian adults dancers & singers. Food: we were full from an earlier lunch but still we tried some things. We got the Borsch-a beet & vegetable soup w/ sour cream & fresh dill, a bowl was $3, comes w/ rye bread & butter. It was pretty light and tasty. Hubby got a Chicken Kiev $3-Rolled breast of chicken stuffed w/ savory herb butter & breaded. He liked it. I also got a Russian black tea $1 they call Tchai but it's not Indian Chai, just a regular black currant tea. Also tried a Russian Tea Cookie $.50 that was just ok. Hubby also tried some Vodka at the Vodka tasting bar. A souvenir shot glass w/ the clear Parliament Vodka (think u can pick what flavor u want) from Russia was $6, plus some herring .50c a pc--for a tiny piece of herring that goes well with the vodka. He enjoyed it. He also tasted a Walnut flavored Vodka that he liked it. $3 for flavored vodka. Other foods they have: Blini-thin buckwheat pancakes; Sladkyi stol (sweets table), piroshki (baked or fried); Pelmeni-small meat-filled dumplings similar to Italian ravioli boiled in broth & served w/ sour cream; Golubtsi-"little Birds" stuffed cabbage rolls w/ rice & meat served in a delicious sour-cream tomato sauce or mushroom-cream sauce; Beef Stroganoff-sliced beef strips in a savory cream sauce served over rice. They have an art gallery; museum (3rd fl), and even Russian library in there. Overall, I'd recommend it, next time we'll spend the day and eat and watch all the entertainment. Parking across the street $7, but we took the 38 Muni bus & walked a couple blocks. Separate men and women bathrooms on many floors. check out my pics above. Visited: 1

This event was on Sunday 10-6-13. I actually volunteered for this event and worked the morning…read moreshift. i hung around after my shift and partaked in the festivities after. The event itself was spectacular. beer from all over. Including this i had no knowledge about. The food was also very good. I had an awesome baked potato which i couldn't even finish. The music was great a lot of classic jams. All live. I have listed the bands below. 1AM-11:45AM - The Coburns 12:15PM-1:00PM - Fleetwood Mask 1:30PM-2:30PM - Tasche 3:00PM-4:15PM - Avance 4:45PM-6:00PM - The Spazmatics I will work this event next year as this event alone pays for all of the down town san leandro events for the year. without it we wouldn't have things like the farmers market and food truck Tuesdays in down town san leandro. This event is filled with local culture and pays for all these cool things down town san leandro does. It doesn't get much better!

3 stars because of the great beer selection. but what happened to all of the stands? And the…read moresausage? Years prior there were many more booths and food options and bands. Not sure what was going on for the 2013 festival but please bring back the other vendors- sausage (only stand I saw was Aidelm's- not even a hot link in sight), desserts, other food.

It took over 10 years for the SF Noodle Fest to return. Amazing experience tasting noodles from…read morerestaurants in Chinatown and North Beach. Lots of noodles and lots of vendors. Great atmosphere and it was a good value. I hope they keep the tradition alive.

I don't know why it was gone for so long, but the Noodle Fest is back and the samples on display…read moreshow almost every noodle North Beach and Chinatown have to offer. Big names like Tony's Pizza with their fresh pesto pasta, historic Sam Wo's BBQ pork noodle rolls, and 27 other restaurants come to offer their noodles either with forks or chopsticks at every tent. There's something for everyone, but the kick is that you're limited to only 5 samples to choose from. The event was a perfect balance of organized and relaxed. The lines were manageable and volunteers help sort trash appropriately; yet they never checked my list to see if I passed the limit of 5. I was able to sample almost half of every pasta! A surprise for me was the spicy wontons from Bund Shanghai. It was big and perfectly cooked because it arrived fresh just as I went to their tent. Another experience was Golden King who had their dish in several parts-- their fish sauce and imperial roll were great. Each dish was good enough to stand on its own, and while the portion sizes are small, I still managed to feel satisfied after 5 and definitely full after 10. However, I hope next year will bring along some improvements such as having better access to water or drinks; as far as I was aware nobody offered or sold water directly from the festival itself. Trash cans got full quickly, but it can't be helped based on the amount that accumulated. And while I loved sampling as much as I liked, I expect it won't be as easy next year to break the limits. There will always be things to improve on the first attempt. Overall, this was a great start to what I hope to be a staple for SF for years to come. More places to try, more accessibility, and more noodles please!

The best thing about the Wondercon was the look on my nephew's face when he saw Batman, while…read morewearing his Batman shirt (with cape), Batman beanie, Batman jacket and holding his Batman costumed Monkey. Yeah, the kid likes Batman. He's 3 years old, so it was a blend between pee in your pants excitement over seeing your favorite superhero ever and being terrified of someone dressed up as your favorite superhero. He was scared of the Alien and Storm Trooper costumes, how do you explain they are not real if they are standing in front of you. I like checking out the memorabilia, but I've grown out of buying collectibles since they dont exactly go with my decor at home. The kid inside of me will always have an appreciation for comics, cartoons and video games, so I love visiting the Wondercon every year. I noticed that this year's show was more crowded than last year, despite being on the holiday weekend. Way to boost the economy, Comic geeks and Fan Boys! :)

What I liked: -…read moreBatman!!! My favorite super hero :) - The table selling hats with animal ears! - HAGGLING! FTW - Talented artists, most of whom would draw you something awesome. (Mine was me hugging batman with my cat-ear beanie on) - ART ART ART! COMICS! ANIME! CUSTOM DRAWINGS/PAINTINGS! - Cast of Chuck What I didn't like: - Sunday was slow... not very many people in costume... - Table selling hats with animal ears was so overpriced, as were ALL the tables selling anything. $15/hat after haggling... - Everything seemed soo expensive...(t-shirts were $20+, one sketch my friend bought was a mass-produced drawing that you could get anywhere...for $18!) - No beer... or they ran out by the time we got there. boo. - No Final Fantasy stuff anywhere... ! Minus the Helios table giving away a Cloud and Chocobo doll to the winner of the name drawing contest. (Was not happy to constantly see the winner of the chocobo doll ... grr) It was a fun experience overall but I don't think I'll be back. I def. want to check out ComicCon before I die, though!

Noise Pop time of year has always been a period of discovery for me. Amongst my audiohead friends,…read morelinks to band pages and shows fly, we spread sound like a virus, hungrily downloading and awaiting the thunderous 3D experience. These folks have succeeded in bringing indie music to the forefront, reeling in talented performers, facilitating unique collaborations and breaking new artists, and providing top venues in which to showcase this music. The crowds come out in droves. Sure, you're going to get your fair share of scenesters clogging up the bar and restroom arteries, but if a substantial portion of my ticket price is going into the pockets of the performers, I am happy to stand in line. My only real gripe is that the passes aren't all-inclusive. For the most part, it's the sound that binds, and the appreciation and energy has been high at every show I've attended thus far. The results are commendable. Kudos, NP, and thank you.

I love live music. I love performing it. I love listening to it. I love watching it. Contrary…read moreto what San Franciscans are supposed to say, I don't love Noise Pop. Actually, I hate it. Let me explain. Music lovers go to see local bands, smaller-to-mid-sized touring acts, and other branches of "underground" music tend to do so because they love music. They love the emotional thrill only music can give them. When you have a crowd of these people, generally that weird thing humans do where they amplify others' experience happens. A good show with people that appreciate it for the same reasons is a wonderful thing to be a part of. So what happens when a show stops being a show and starts being an event? No longer is the crowd simply music lovers. One sees people that only want to see and be seen. One sees people that may have a passing affection for music, but don't appreciate it on a deep level. These folks tend to dress more stylishly, order more lite beer and other brews distributed by MillerCoors at the bar. For the kind of music that's played on the radio, this is fine. More power to them for fueling an industry that employs bartenders, waitresses (unfortunately, it's always a feminine title), soundmen (unfortunately, it's always a masculine title), bouncers, etc. But for the kind of music that music lovers go to see, it means the music lovers now have to deal with these people that, at best, are there for superficial reasons. Moreover, the music lover had to pay a higher ticket price due to increased demand. (S)he also has to wait in longer lines for the bar and john. More noise pollution is in between the speakers and the music lover. (S)he has to listen to their superficial conversations because they stand next to her/him and their friends. (S)he has to smell them and their lite beer. (S)he has to hear about their favorite sports team. (S)he sees them hug from behind for a quasi-metal band on the bill. Noise Pop is an event. Noise Pop _intentionally_ creates a brand. For a music that, originally though no longer, stood firmly against brand-identification, crass consumerism, and superficiality. And it's not even that original about it; it's crassly based on the SXSW formula. Noise Pop bastardizes all the great things about smaller performances. It bastardizes everything that was great about independent rock. I can't stand Noise Pop. If a festival of this size is this bad, I firmly understand why my friends in Austin loathe SXSW. This is why I look forward to March every February.

We went to the Chinese New Year Parade on Saturday, March 7. The San Francisco weather was…read moreunbelievable--75 degrees and wonderfully warm, and it felt like summer. This parade, known as one of the largest Chinese New Year parades in the United States, is definitely a must-see in person. The energy is exciting and festive, and you can truly feel the vibrant spirit of the celebration all around you. There was lots to see--too many things to describe! I loved watching the lion dancers, school groups, and the many horses featured for the Year of the Fire Horse. There were also lots of sounds of firecrackers throughout the parade, traditionally used to ward off evil spirits and bad luck. A plus--MUNI was free that day, which was a nice perk. The grand finale with the massive Golden Dragon was incredible and the perfect ending to a spectacular event. Loved it!

This weekend was the Chinese New Year Parade in San Francisco. It is the year of the horse and as…read moremuch as I love the lion dancers and they are always the highlight of the parade, I have to say that all the little children with their stick horses just melted my heart! One of the marching bands was also exceptionally good this year, I'm sorry I can't recall which one but the colors were purple and gold. The parade is supposed to last 2 hours but seemed to start a little early and definitely went late this year. In the last 20 years I have probably been to this parade 4 or 5 times and I have kept coming because it was always a lovely celebration. One year when my son was smaller the crowds were so intense that we ended up leaving early because he was small and we were worried about the potential for trampling. This year was much less intense but that is likely because crowds were smaller. The smoothness and coordination were also not as good as they have been in years passed and the entertainment level seemed a bit diminished as well. That being said, this is still considered the best and largest Chinese New Year parade in the United States, and in the past has been considered one of the top 10 in the world, so it is definitely worth the trip if you can make it.