Things to Do in Daly City

Archers Joesph and Beth Snell opened Pacifica Archery as an all-purpose shop for shooters of any age. Now, the pairs stays busy supervising 15 lanes, scheduling lessons for various skill levels, and hosting league events. The Snells rent out equipment for visitors to use on the 20- and 10-yard lanes, whether they are students attending a seminar or competitors honing their form. The Snells cater to young enthusiasts with Junior Olympic archery-development programs, which instruct 8- to 18-year-olds on the finer points of arrow-launching. The onsite pro shop furnishes patrons with long, recurve, and compound bows as well as shooting accessories. Channeling their own hunting expertise, the Snells stock camouflage gear and decoys in the shape of common game, including elk, turkey, and dartboards that have escaped from dive bars.

Though FLOAT’s neon sign is small and easy to miss in the window of a converted historic cotton mill, its interior is anything but unremarkable. The artist-owned urban art spa stimulates the mind with work from established and rising local artists and submerges clients in warm, dark chambers that relieve bodies of their senses. These floatation therapy sessions enhance relaxation and open up channels of creativity, freeing brains from the incessant digital stimulation and algebraic speed-limit signs of the outside world. While enclosed inside the tank, clients float in a weightless state in a solution composed of 1,000 pounds of medical-grade Epsom salts and water. There, air, water, and skin become alike—refreshing the nerves while recharging the mind more efficiently than sleep. Complementing floatation sessions are massage services that enhance already relaxed states.

Seated in your kayak, you're surrounded by cerulean waters that stretch out into the horizon. To your left, the San Francisco skyline looms in the shimmering afternoon sun. You drift by a raucous Giants game, a village of houseboats, and the Golden Gate Bridge. Led through undulating waters by American Canoe Association– and Wilderness First Aid–certified guides, San Francisco Kayak & Adventures' nautical tour groups traverse the San Francisco Bay or Sausalito waterfront during the day, at sunset, and under the light of the full moon. The guides lead their groups through calm costal waters in sturdy, closed-deck tandem kayaks, which keep legs dry and don't require typical Flintstone-style paddling. The guides regale their group with area history while pointing out local marine life. They only shepherd about eight paddlers to keep tours intimate and personal and customize paddling instruction to the ability levels of the group.

Guides also help visitors explore the natural world on land during hiking excursions between redwood trees in Muir Woods, along a coastal trail in the Tennessee Valley, and past ghost-town buildings at China Camp Village. To expand visitors' wilderness exposure, they also lead adventures such as sailing, rock-climbing, cycling in the city, horseback riding on the beach, and sleeping in phone booths.

The Magic Paintbrush’s fully stocked studio adds a thick brushstroke of creativity to everyday life, giving nascent Monets and Rembrandts of all ages the chance to craft artworks and celebrate occasions such as birthdays and bridal showers. Nontoxic paints in dozens of hues give corporeal form to the figures that dance through patrons’ imaginations as they size up their blank templates. The Magic Paintbrush also holds classes that teach students ages 7 and up useful techniques for crafting pottery, tiling mosaics, fusing glass, and sculpting papier-mâché statuettes from unpaid credit-card bills.

As a surfer and cyclist, Marcel Mijares was drawn to the Pacific Coast many years ago; since then, he’s found little reason to leave. A native of Venezuela, Mijares spoke only Spanish when he made the move, but his love of the Bay Area fueled his drive to acquire the English language and graduate with honors from the Lincoln School of Business. Now, as the owner of High Trails Cyclery, Mijares combines his passion with his determination, sharing both with riders in the heart of Russian Hill. He leads a team of cycling experts equipped to repair cycles and perform tune-ups, overhauls, and bike fittings. Team members also share their expertise during maintenance classes, in which they teach students to care for their own cycles and understand the dangers of trying to change a bicycle's transmission fluid.

While speedboats are as fast as their name suggests, no vessel on San Francisco Bay is faster than the RocketBoat. It flies across the Bay’s waves to the high-energy guitar riffs of a rock-‘n’-roll soundtrack. The RocketBoat is just one of Blue & Gold Fleet’s 17 vessels, all manned by expert captains and crews that ferry about 2.5 million passengers annually. On their sightseeing cruises, passengers drink in panoramic views of the San Francisco skyline, the Golden Gate Bridge, Alcatraz Island, and Pier 39, where sunning sea lions occasionally can be seen rubbing sunscreen on each other’s backs. Meanwhile, Blue & Gold’s ferries carry patrons to Sausalito, Tiburon, and other waterfront locales—including AT&T Park during baseball season—whereas their motorcoach tours chauffeur landlubbers to Northern California landmarks. All their services adhere to award-winning sustainability practices, which safeguard local ecosystems more effectively than arming every tree with pepper spray.