Things to Do in Dublin

An International Kiteboarding Organization affiliate center, KGB Kiteboarding hosts a staff of enthusiastic, experienced instructors that teaches small-group and private lessons in kiteboarding, snowkiting, and powerkiting. At training sites ranging from beaches around the bay to the Lake Tahoe and Mammoth Mountain areas, instructors show students how to safely harness the wind for an adrenaline-pumping thrill. To facilitate smooth transitions into training, the staff maintains an online compendium of FAQ and safety tips.

KGB also encompasses a shop stocked with gear from brands such as Litewave, plus the company’s own line of eco-friendly products that protects equipment from sun, sand, and saltwater. In-house technicians are on hand in the repair center to mend worn gear.

Bay Area Wedding Fairs assembles exhibitors from all areas of wedding planning for intimate and fun gatherings at various Bay Area grand-hotel ballrooms. Ranging from photographers to florists to the elves that carve the tiny bride-and-groom cake toppers, the fairs' exhibitors find time to discuss their services thoroughly during the unhurried, casual events. Additionally, each Wedding Fair organizes complimentary events, which may include bridal-gown and men's-formal-wear fashion shows, bridal seminars, food-and-wine samplings, and in-booth personal services such as makeup applications.

For more than a decade, Team Bay Tennis's founder and director Igor Savanovic has fine-tuned the swings of athletes ranging from beginners to pros. Savanovic and two other instructors tailor their instruction to varying levels of play. They work with graduated court and racket sizes while forming a personal rapport and motivational relationship with students. Adults hone strokes in clinics or one-on-one lessons that focus on technical aspects of the game, such as how to deal with hecklers.

Mark S. Macy has been helping golfers improve their games for more than 25 years with a methodical, easygoing style and skills that have earned him top 10 finishes in Northern California Golf Association state-level amateur matches. His lessons comfortably conform to beginners' needs, as well as the demands of more advanced golfers. His grab bag of performance-enhancing tools includes video recording to capture and analyze swings, an indoor golf simulator, and a portable radar gun that tracks the speed of balls in flight and detects miniature subs lurking in water hazards.

More than a century ago, an industrious farmer named Gerard enlisted the help of bees to pollinate his family estate. Inadvertently, the buzzing insects fertilized a new passion for Gerard, one that would become a family tradition.

Four generations later, Gerard’Z Honeybees' bustling hives create more than a dozen local and monofloral honeys from such plants as star thistle, orange blossoms, and avocado blossoms. Because the honeys are completely raw and natural, they maintain the micro-nutritious qualities often left out of industrial varieties, and they may help allergy sufferers to acclimate to their local pollen varieties.

Gerard’Z holds year-round beekeeping workshops and honey tasting seminars at local wineries, nurseries, and farmers’ markets throughout the Bay Area and Central Valley. During the classes and tastings, bee experts demystify the process of maintaining a hive, and people get the chance to taste the difference between clover honey, buckwheat honey, black sage honey, and Doritos honey. Gerard’Z also helps to maintain the delicate honeybee population by finding homes for wild swarms or colonies that have built hives in unwanted places and might otherwise fall prey to exterminators.

Lavender walls evoke a tranquil dusk sky as students and yogis make the transition through the ancient poses of the Hatha, Ashtanga, and Bikram traditions. Here, experienced teachers guide groups toward states of intense focus and increased physical fitness with a series of stretches, bends, and deep-breathing exercises. An emphasis on safety abounds as the instructors help students align their bodies properly, and padded, Zebra floor coverings absorb joint pressure that would otherwise build up in knees and backs until it took over bodies and forced them to be spokespersons for aspirin.

The schedule of classes meets students of all skill levels where they live. Easy-going Vinyasa classes weave poses and breaths into a graceful, dance-like sequence, and more demanding Bikram sessions explore 26 classical poses in a 95-degree room, which helps loosen muscles and oust pent-up toxins. After class, students retire to an ADA–compliant changing room, where they can bask in showers and relax like a kitten reclining on a pillow made of sunbeams.