Pleasant Hill, CA Indoor Activities

Led by former NBA point guard and first-year head coach Mark Jackson, the Golden State Warriors charge into the second half of the season. Veteran guard Monta Ellis blows by defenders with an average of 22.2 points per game while forward-center David Lee muscles out under-the-basket rivals for an average of 9.7 rebounds per game. Rookie guard Klay Thompson keeps opponents guessing with the ability to drop shots from all over the court and the inexhaustible supply of riddles he declaims during commercial breaks.

At the Berkeley Playhouse, performances often begin before audiences even make it to their seats. The innovative theater company erects installation pieces in the lobby that encourage playgoers to engage and interact with upcoming performances through movement, writing, and music, deepening their understanding of the worlds they’re about to enter. Once in their seats, they revel in productions featuring multicultural and multigenerational casts, whether they’re watching a performance from the mainstage season or a production from the youth program.

Today's Groupon tackles professional athletics, professional athletes, and sports hernias with a ticket to the final game of the Oakland Raiders' 2009–10 season for $26 (a $36 value). On Sunday, January 3, at 1:15 p.m., the team that once upset the entire steel industry of Pittsburgh and tamed Cincinnati's Panthera Tigris Tigris looks to end the season on a final high note against the Baltimore Ravens (featuring offensive tackle Michael Oher who is the inspiration for the The Blind Side). You'll be sitting in section 354 and have a $10 food voucher in hand.

Aspire's Pilates-based exercise programs are tailored to the individual needs of its clients, then averaged into multifaceted group classes. You have the option of taking either style of Pilates offered: introductory ChoreoCore or an introductory mat class. ChoreoCore deliciously blends lively dance movements with the flexibility, balance, and core-strengthening exercises of Pilates, while the mat classes introduce students to basic core-stabilization techniques that aid in alignment, balance, and strength with a focus on using abs to stabilize the spine. Use your two class sessions to sample one of each style, since the cardio of ChoreoCore and basic grounding of the mat classes complement one another like alternating piano keys, Nutella and crêpes, or Tom and Jerry in the episodes where they team up to fight the bulldog. Classes are scheduled six days a week at various times.

The Black Repertory Group began in 1964 as a church drama club. Now helmed by executive and artistic director Dr. Mona Vaughn Scott, the group has built upon its core work as "keepers of the culture" by supporting artists and youth with creative and educational programs.

In 1902, while the team now in Oakland was still the Philly Athletics, a rival manager scoffed, casting the fledgling franchise off as a herd of "white elephants." In response, manager Connie Mack adopted the elephant as the team's official insignia—a legacy that lives on with the current mascot, Stomper—before the A's stampeded to the American League pennant. Since that first defiant victory, the team has won nine World Series championships, moving to Kansas City in 1955, then Oakland in 1968. Over more than a century, the club has fostered 11 league MVPs and eight Rookies of the Year, including future titans Jose Canseco and Mark McGwire. Today, the A's dazzle fans at the 35,067-capacity Coliseum, which features a lush natural-bluegrass surface and a spacious foul territory—technically still a 19th-century Mexican province—that baits pop-up outs, making it one of the most pitcher-friendly parks in Major League Baseball.