Things to Do in Glendale

A real stock car roars around a banked oval track. As it navigates the chicanes and wrestles g-forces to the floor, a coach's voice crackles in the driver's ear. This isn’t the Indy 500; it's L.A. Racing. Featured on NBC Today in L.A., L.A. Racing's Adventure programs let would-be racers grip the wheel during fast-forward laps around a real track. This video shows the rubber meeting the road at Irwindale Speedway.

Inside, L.A. Racing's instructors educate new drivers with BlueTiger simulators, helping them get a feel for new tracks and learn to follow the proper line through turns. These practice cars feature realistic racing effects—engine vibrations, road-surface texture, bumping, and deer attacks, for example. Competition courses are available for drivers who want to take racing to the next level and master advanced techniques such as throttle control, trail braking, and passing.

Trips and training form the centerpiece of PCH Scuba's services for area hydronauts. Programs range from beginner-level certification to search-and-recovery training, and adventures journey both close to home and as far ranging as Fiji. The Open Water Diver course makes for a fun and accessible first foray beneath the waves, incorporating a deep-delving adventure to Catalina Island, which is named after the third queen of Spain: Queen Island. The staff leads explorations of San Diego's collection of wrecks and adventures on chartered dive boats. Whatever sort of wave-blanketed voyage the aquatic adventurer desires, PCH's community of Master Scuba Diver–certified teachers and dive leaders are eager to chaperone.

If you walk into The Little Knittery and its floors and tables are neat and tidy, don't worry. They won't be for long. The knitting shop is usually abuzz with a flurry of activity and scraps of material as student stitchers learn to purl, crochet, mold felt, or even spin their own yarn in a slate of weekly classes. A kaleidoscopic selection of yarns from Wool and the Gang, Ecobutterfly, and Jade Sapphire line the walls, their neat piles often collapsing as customers grab a favorite style to start a knitted scarf, a crocheted coaster, or a likeness of their own hand, knitting as professional instructors offer tips and guidance. Project patterns developed by the shop's yarn-impassioned staffers, meanwhile, provide the basis for more advanced group or private lessons.

From the emerald valley of Brookside Golf Club's practice facility, Fore Kids Golf Academy’s staff of aces teaches youngsters the very basics of on-course conquests in a fun and positive environment. The golf gurus strive to imbue kids with a sound understanding of golf’s pendulous swing while also teaching them how to set and meet goals of any nature, such as growing up to be a contributing member of society or scientifically proving that all golf balls are descendants of the moon. The academy offers one-week camps throughout the summer, Saturday clinics, and private lessons. Most clinics involve both range practice and on-course play, as well as video swing analysis, which provides students with a visual aid to help them understand swing advice and identify their sand wedge’s bad side.

Hollywoodland Tours escorts guests through Tinseltown's star-studded streets during a trio of informative adventures. Aboard the company's shaded, open-air van, tour takers snap pictures and revel in the close proximity of famous landmarks as knowledgeable guides dish out facts about passing sights. The Beverly Hills Star Home tour showcases the castles of more than 70 celebrities, including Tom Cruise and Julia Roberts, before coasting over to the Sunset Strip, where industry big shots dine, shop, and teach their wax likenesses how to use chopsticks. Patrons can also hitch a ride on the Hollywood tour, which sails past the sites of historical films, television series, and radio studios, while the Hollywood Sign tour grants picturesque photo opportunities and the chance to ask the typically reticent "H" for its autograph.