Things to Do in Half Moon Bay

For years, football fans lobbied for a football field that looked more like a hockey rink. For $10, today's side deal gets you a sideline-seat ticket to a San Jose Wolves home game (a $25 value), or for $20, get a club-level ticket (a $40 value). All seven 2010 home games take place on Saturdays between March 20 and June 12 and begin at 7:15 p.m. at the Cow Palace in Daly City. Watch as the thrilling routes, veers, and tackles that define football take on new meaning in the confinement of a 50-yard field.

Helicopter pioneer Stanley Hiller Jr. founded the Hiller Aviation Museum with the future in mind, using history to inspire future generations to explore and create. He had firsthand proof of the innovative abilities of youth—his design for the first successful coaxial helicopter landed at age 15.

In the museum he established in 1998, 53,000 square feet of exhibits let visitors of all ages discover more than 40 aircraft without the dangers of encountering them in the wild. A narrated walking tour leads the way through them, tracing the history of flight from its humble beginnings in village jumping contests to today's supersonic jets. Fixed-wing and rotary aircraft designed by Hiller and others rest throughout the huge, bright space, while weekends beckon would-be pilots into a flight simulator equipped with huge monitors of bay views and realistic yokes, throttles, and pedals.

The many stigmas surrounding the sluggishness and spitball susceptibility of school buses and public transit are rendered inane by the sleek comforts of Blue Groundways' buses. Each Blue Groundways bus is an indulgence-vessel on six wheels, offering the musicality of Sirius satellite radio, the connection of on-board WiFi, five-star service from friendly attendants, beverages to hydrate your journey, and the most recent movie releases played on a slick video system. Scheduled routes include a Friday ride that starts in Santa Rosa and travels along Route 42 to Petaluma and Sacramento before arriving in Lake Tahoe and then later in Reno, returning back home on Sundays. The San Francisco to Reno route leaves on Fridays and Sundays with return trips on Saturdays and Sundays, making stops in both Lake Tahoe and Sacramento. Check out the route map for pick-up locations.

Peninsula Symphony, founded in 1949 with the goal of enriching communities with affordable musical productions, grew from a grassroots ensemble to a 90-plus-member orchestra of well-trained local musicians. Music Director Mitchell Sardou Klein leads the ensemble with a steady baton, a sharp ear, and the stamina to carry on through the inevitable triple encore.

Within the verdant expanse of Burlingame Golf Center’s practice facilities, instructor Dave Atchison, who attained his PGA Class A status in 1981, imparts score-shaving tips to pupils of all ages and abilities. After demonstrating his passion for golf each morning by shaving with a sharpened divot tool, Dave heads to the golf center to showcase club-swinging skills that have fueled his 33-year teaching career, which has included six seasons of coaching at UCLA and another seven at UC Santa Barbara. With a full-length driving range, practice areas for chipping and pitching, and a sandtrap for bunker shots and makeshift hourglass construction, Burlingame Golf Center helps Dave and his clients foster improvements in all facets of the game.

Bel Mateo Bowl, home to 24 newly-installed Murrey synthetic alleys, fully automatic scoring, brilliant LCD monitors, and automated bumper bowling, provides family-friendly pin pulverizing seven days a week. Black-lit lanes illuminate bowling balls as they travel down the center's slick alleys during Planet Bowl, held each Friday and Saturday evening and fueled by colorful lights, upbeat tunes, and gravity. In addition to hosting leagues and bowling camps for kids, the colorful bowling center stocks a snack bar and serves drinks at a cocktail lounge punctuated by big-screen TVs. The alley's arcade room, complete with glowing air-hockey table, driving games, and pinball, hosts gaming kids and inner children alike, and karaoke on Wednesday, Friday, and Saturday encourages lively covers of popular tunes and somber odes to fallen bowling pins.