Mendota, CA Indoor Activities

At Freeway Lanes, families and friends bond over their shard passion for slippery shoes as they send balls careening down 18 lanes in pursuit of the elusive 300. Friday night Rock and Glow bowling sets the alley alive in a whirlwind of live DJs spinning tunes, colorful lights, and glowing pins, each activated by the superpowers of a radioactive ball. After each 10-frame game, bowlers can retire to the Starlight Lounge for savory grill fare or a round of pool.

To give her students a well-rounded workout, Brandy Daugherty isn't content with teaching one style of Pilates. Instead, she blends the regimen's mat and reformer styles so her students can reap the benefits both of their bodies' own resistance and that of the reformer's series of cables, straps, and pulleys. Backed by a dozen certifications—including in Zumba, personal training, and turbo kickboxing—Brandy leads her students through sessions that blend core-stability work with plyometric moves and resistance training. She also switches up the workouts so that the body can’t adapt, because, like baby Hulks, confused muscles grow more quickly. Brandy holds class as early as 5:30 a.m. and as late as 6:30 p.m. to accommodate every schedule, with personal training available on an appointment basis.

The dazzling, art-deco exterior of The State Theatre sends moviegoers back in time to Hollywood’s heyday. The elegant 1934 theater eschews the big-budget productions and 3D infomercials of today’s movie industry and instead screens classic films and indie features. On opening nights, The State Theatre often hosts Skype Q&A sessions with the directors and other filmmakers.

Visitors traveling through Challenger Learning Center's exhibits may feel they've fallen down Alice's rabbit hole. One moment, they're as tiny as a nanobot as they gaze at nanotechnology components developed for medicine, electronics, and space elevators. The next, they're giants who could bat the whole planet around with one well-aimed jump—that is, if the planet is the NASA projection globe across whose surface features of the sun, moon, and Earth flow in vivid color.

Other exhibits take visitors far out, with images snapped by the Hubble Space Telescope or deep inside, with the Body Plaza's skeletons, x-rays, and organ models. A wide slate of interactive programming engages youngsters' problem-solving and teamwork skills with activities such as simulated space missions, where they keep the astronauts entertained over the radios at mission control or assemble probes in the spacecraft while hurtling toward Mars.

All across California, Western Bowling Proprietors Association sends pins scattering at a network of bowling alleys, each with its own personality. In addition to open bowl on automatically scored lanes, many locations host special events that heighten the experience with enhancements such as vibrant lights, lively music, and laser systems that do double duty protecting the alleys' diamond collections. The alleys also house refreshment facilities, pro shops, and diversions that range from arcade games to billiards.

At Fresno Fencing Academy, head coach and former Soviet and Ukrainian champion fencer, Vladimir Ostatnigrosh, distills his experience to foster a new generation of duelers within a 4,200-square-foot facility that boasts electric fencing strips, a fitness room with weight machines, and changing rooms. Ostatnigrosh invites students of all levels, aged 7 and older, to discover the art of parrying and thrusting, which nurtures self-discipline while bolstering the cardiovascular system and developing the skills necessary to retrieve stolen lunch money from Zorro. The academy’s classes, which range from introductory to competitive levels, cover the three Olympic fencing weapons: the foil, the épée, and the saber. Those expert swordsmen and swordswomen who have mastered the fencing rules and refrained from detonating any last-resort grenades during a match defend the academy’s robust reputation at local, regional, and national tournaments.