Things to Do in East Palo Alto

Each year, thousands of fans of Apple products power down their MacBooks to attend the Macworld/iWorld expo, an event dedicated to using, appreciating, and admiring Apple products and their surrounding culture. The expo features main events such as a hall buzzing with more than 250 exhibitors, including iOS and OS X developers sharing their latest projects and magical spells. Every attendee can also venture into the Live Zone, an interactive center that showcases Apple-technology-integrated displays such as an iPad-sketch station, an iPhone-photography gallery, and a music studio presented in collaboration with the Berklee College of Music. Visitors can also join activities such as a drum circle, create their own games such as bobbing for iPods, or attend special events, which have included a concert by Little Feat, an iPhone film festival, and forums on Chinese technology.

In 2011, James Bowser tried setting the Guinness World Record for the world’s largest human-heart formation. Eleven thousand people established the record elsewhere, but few showed up for James’s event. That same year, another organization broke the record for the world’s largest water-balloon fight with 175,141 balloons chucked at 8,957 attendees. On hearing of their success, James—a lifelong water-balloon-fight devotee—decided to make another bid for the record books. For the World's Largest Water Balloon Fight 2012, he aims to congregate 15,000–30,000 participants to wage a war of water with half a million balloons. Alongside balloon-flinging festivities, the World's Largest Water Balloon Fight 2012 also hosts giveaways and raffles supplied by onsite vendors, a battle of the bands, and the chance to break the record for the longest clothesline.

The echoes of hooves clopping against loose dirt carry across California Riding Academy’s expansive training arena, where founder and director Jessica Harrell can often be found jumping warmblood ponies over fences or leading lessons in various riding styles. Jessica helms a staff of experienced instructors and trainers who all specialize in one area, technique, or style of horse-riding; students can team up with resident cowgirl Joanne Morrison for lessons in the Western riding style or trot alongside silver medalist Teri Dosen and her dutch warmblood during dressage lessons. Though their combined experience adds up to more than 100 years, the instructors would be nowhere without their stable of well-trained horses and ponies, who carry themselves with poise and dignity through competitions, summer camps, and stagecoach robberies.

Homestead Lanes welcomes friends and families to hurl balls down 32 glistening lanes. The alley's modern amenities include electronic scoring, gutter returns, and robotic dogs that love unconditionally. After working up a sweat slicing strikes and dancing in glittery clouds of victory, groups can meander to the snack bar. A medley of drafts and bottled brews such as Pabst Blue Ribbon, Newcastle, and Guinness stock shelves in The X Bar, a full-service sports bar that also serenades strikers with live music, Friday-night karaoke, and DJ dance parties. The bar also tends to college nostalgia with beer pong and impromptu physics quizzes.

The extensive facilities of MVP Arena, which include indoor and outdoor fields, a basketball court, and batting cages, host visitors for an array of sports leagues and classes. Adults hone their skills in training classes and then unveil new maneuvers on one another during league games for basketball, flag football, and soccer. Bat wielders practice swing timing and charging the mound without fear of retaliation in the batting cages, where regulation pitching distance and a mural of the San Francisco Bay recreate the excitement of practicing in a big-league stadium. In addition, three of the cages feature virtual pitchers that help batters time ball delivery at different speeds or a random assortment of slow, medium, and fast.

As strobe lights slice across the stage, masked dancers descend from scaffolding and undulate to Lady Gaga’s “Just Dance.” Minutes later, a troupe of 6-year-olds takes to the same stage in traditional Indian shalwar, or loose trousers, and launch into a frenetic dance set to fast-paced bhangra music. These divergent routines—performed at Mona Khan Company’s student showcase—hint at the scope of dance styles that instructors bring to their classes. Though traditional folk and classical South Asian dance make an appearance, instructors also incorporate styles such as salsa, modern, and hip-hop.

This Bollywood dance philosophy has propelled Mona Khan Company into the national spotlight. The company’s professional dance troupe has performed with Bollywood demigod Shah Rukh Khan and dancer Shaan, and dazzled a live audience on America’s Got Talent.

Though classes at Mona Khan Company occasionally lead to professional dance careers, the studio strives to make Bollywood dance accessible to every aspiring dancer. For example, Jollywood dance classes train performers age 65 and older, and the Jeena program trains special-needs students. “It’s more than just dance,” says Ms. Shankar, the company’s dance captain. “We try to build a whole community around it."