Things to Do in Los Gatos

When The Retro Dome first opened its doors three years ago, it was with the knowledge that its life would be brief and yet explosive. From the start, the owners of the building planned to demolish it at some point in the future. Yet that didn’t stop the staff from making use of the former Century 25 Theater’s stadium-style seating, refurbished chairs, and massive dome. They decked out the interior with vintage, retro-modern décor, complete with a candy counter slinging Pop Rocks and JujuBees. The foreseeable, yet fuzzy ending has recently come into sharp focus, though. The Retro Dome will go dark on January 31, 2013, bringing to an end nearly four years of live music and sing-along cinema.

If Jazzercise is a fleeting '80s memory for you, like your Betamax tape of ALF reruns or the "Frankie Say Relax" T-shirt you wear when bleaching the ceiling, today's Groupon gives you a chance to discover how the exercise phenomenon evolved into one of today's best total body workouts. Jazzercise is 60 minutes of cardio, strength training, and stretching that incorporates moves from hip-hop, yoga, Pilates, jazz dance, kickboxing, and resistance training with handheld weights. Expect to burn up to 500 calories during each round. Dancing with the Stars multiple-champion Cheryl Burke is a fan of Jazzercise's improvisational workouts, though you won't need her moves to get the most out of your class. Review basic moves online before you go.

The Knitting Room stocks a colorful array of yarns as well as the needles and hooks you need to make creative tapestries and apparel. You’ll find products from such popular brands as Cascade, Ty-Dy-Socks, and Plymouth. The Knitting Room's owners, Mary Ann and Ed Barrall—both of them enthusiastic knitters and crocheters themselves—lead classes with other staff-members to get visitors knitting, purling, and crafting woolen knickers in no time.

Founder Dori Duncan and a talented team of glamour aficionados teach classes for adults and children at Camp Fashionista. Weekend workshops include an Introduction to Sewing class for adults and children ages 8 and older that builds sewing-machine aptitude as students use a zipper and cotton fabric brought from home to construct a pouch they can then fill with notes, candies, or counterfeit Dutch guilders. The Little Fashionistas class guides students ages 6 and older on a course toward whipstitches, precision-snipped pattern pieces, and their very own hand-sewn apple pincushions. With cotton fabric in hand, students may create shoulder-slung book pouches during a Messenger Bag course, or they can add dazzle and street cred to old foot tubes during Bling Your Socks.

With a relentless focus on practice, San Jose Batting Cages lets players improve their hitting, pitching, and fitness to better prepare for their next outing on the diamond. Whether working through in-season regimens or off-season training, batters perfect their swing in indoor and outdoor baseball and softball cages, and hurlers enter the pitching lanes to hone their fastball against imaginary Ming Dynasty vases. Cages stay open until 8 p.m. each night, helping players blow off post-work steam or just squeeze in a few swings before hitting the hay. A staff of instructors helps athletes develop all aspects of their game through hitting and pitching lessons as well as team and group clinics.

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.