Things to Do in Los Gatos

Palm trees aren't normally present when Kristi Yamaguchi turns a triple axel. But that's par for the course at Downtown Ice, where the former Olympic skater has been known to circle the rink in celebration of a chilly San Jose tradition. Each year, Christmas lights wrap around the tree trunks in downtown San Jose’s Circle of Palms, lighting up the ice rink that spreads beneath the trees' fronds. Designed by rink architect Gil Garcia, the outdoor ice arena enables revelers to partake in a beloved winter tradition without being forced to partner skate with yetis. At night, the palms’ twinkling lights join stadium lighting so that skaters can practice their Scott Hamilton backflips all night long. The temporary ice rink is part of San Jose’s Downtown for the Holidays traditions, such as Christmas in the Park and the Winter Wonderland amusement rides.

A prismatic array of glaze bottles and sparkling glass pieces form kaleidoscopic patterns for guests to splash across create-your-own pottery and fused-glass masterpieces. Visitors select from stencils, stamps, and samples or select still frames from their dreams to decorate ceramic mugs, figurines, and fused-glass dishes. Staff members set up and clean workspaces, as well as package kits for home pottery-painting parties. This means artists can focus solely on siphoning their imagination into their project. The studio regularly hosts parties and meetings, to which guests are welcome to bring snacks, wine, or milk shakes made of ground-up poems.

AeroDynamic Aviation owner and chief pilot Zdravko took his first flight at the ripe old age of 2 months. As his baby eyes looked out the window of the DC-3 airliner, watching the houses grow smaller and smaller and the clouds become his companions, the idea of flight bored itself into his mind. Zdravko has now racked up more than 7,000 flight hours—most of them as a flight instructor—and completed taildragger and acrobatics training with Amelia Reid, a pioneer of female flying and the 1960 founder of the location's original flight school.

Together with his fellow FAA-certified instructors, Zdravko shares his passion for flight via sport, private, commercial, and aerobatics training. The staff is dedicated to educating pilots on tailwheel aircraft and teaching true stick-and-rudder flying, which is much more reliable than using leather reins attached to each wing.

SkiMela.com facilitates skiing and snowboarding trips to seven of the areas best ski resorts, including Heavenly and Sugar Bowl. Charter buses pick up outdoor adventurers at six locations along San Francisco – East Bay and Silicon Valley – South Bay routes between 4 a.m. and 6 a.m., ensuring guests get a full day’s worth of recreation and snowman heckling. The trips, held in January, February, and March, include breakfast and a movie, and SkiMela.com schedules around 60 trips per season.

Pruneridge Golf Club’s nine-hole par 30 course features few obstacles and just two holes longer than 300 yards so that golfers can concentrate on making solid contact with the ball and enjoying their round instead of worrying about extreme distance or hazards such as “Sink Holes Probable” signs. Meanwhile, range balls spray from both levels of a two-tier driving range with 44 stalls, and Class A PGA professionals dole out advice throughout indoor and outdoor lessons. During these sessions, Visual Golf stop motion video technology helps golfers see their own bad habits and instructors make recommendations on how students could improve.