To say we thoroughly enjoyed the San Jose Children’s Discovery Museum last Friday is an understatement. Jack was…well, acting like Jack for the first half hour or so of our visit. Not unlike me, he tends to get a huge amount of anxiety when encountering new situations or places, and this was no exception. He refused to leave my side (or my arms) to do anything, unless I was right there with him holding his hand. Luckily he eventually warmed up to the amount of children running around and seemed to have fun.

Many of the exhibits were geared toward older children, but had activities inside the larger exhibit specifically geared towards toddlers. (In fact, there was an entire “under four” room that Jack and his friends loved.) And while it was super crowded that day, we managed to find plenty of activities to do with just our group of three kiddos.

One of our favorites was a special temporary exhibit called “unboxed”, that featured a huge tunnel sculpture made entirely of packing tape (and plastic wrap I think?). It took 14 miles of packing tape to construct, but was so sturdy we could play inside of it. I didn’t think Jack would be brave enough to go in, but we had a mellower group of younger kids that went in the same time as we did and he did fine.

We’re slowly finding things to do around here, and it’s getting easier as Jack gets older. There’s no zoo (except dinky Happy Hollow, which in my opinion is more of a kid’s amusement park but should not be labeled a zoo), but between some museums and really unique parks, we usually can find something to do.

Here’s our list of activities we’ve done so far. Feel free to chime in if we’ve missed anything really cool!

Happy Hollow ($10 for parking, and there is a lack of close, available free parking. So you basically have to pay for parking, which makes me less-inclined to visit. Their rides are cool, but most are geared towards ages 3+, in my opinion.)

Children’s Discovery Museum ($12/person, ages 1 and up, so a little pricey unless you get a pass. You can also take the light rail there, which is an extra activity in itself if your kids like that sort of thing.)

Palo Alto Museum & Zoo (Not exactly a full zoo, but is really cool anyway. The zoo is mostly a large, fenced-in garden with a variety of animals, and there’s a small kid’s museum inside. It’s free, but they take donations. I wish we lived closer to this.)

Emma Prusch Farm (Free + free parking. Lots of chickens to chase, and a large outdoor playground, though the structure is geared towards kids 3+. Lots and lots of open space and grassy areas, and sometimes there are other livestock like cows and sheep.)

SilverCreek Sports Complex Indoor Bouncy Houses ($7 for 2 hours of open-play on the bouncy houses. I’ve heard it gets crowded on the weekends – plus it’s pricier, but the weekday morning when we went it was empty.)

Oakridge Mall Play Area (we actually did go here quite often over the summer to escape the heat. Other than the lack of close restrooms and lots of sticky hands, it’s decent as long as people don’t bring their rambunctious eight-year olds.)

Local Parks (there’s one in Willow Glen and one in Sunnyvale that I know of that both have water features, the Sunnyvale one being superior. I’m sure there are a few more scattered around the city that we’ll try out this summer. These are such a blessing when those 95-degree days come around!)