Things to Do in San Leandro

The Magic Paintbrush’s fully stocked studio adds a thick brushstroke of creativity to everyday life, giving nascent Monets and Rembrandts of all ages the chance to craft artworks and celebrate occasions such as birthdays and bridal showers. Nontoxic paints in dozens of hues give corporeal form to the figures that dance through patrons’ imaginations as they size up their blank templates. The Magic Paintbrush also holds classes that teach students ages 7 and up useful techniques for crafting pottery, tiling mosaics, fusing glass, and sculpting papier-mâché statuettes from unpaid credit-card bills.

Offering three membership plans, NauticShare dispenses its fleet of well-maintained luxury yachts, sailboats, and powerboats at ports around the world. Depending on location, members also have access to sailing and boating lessons, which include how to become a skipper or discover the password for getting into secret Atlantis parties.

An International Kiteboarding Organization affiliate center, KGB Kiteboarding hosts a staff of enthusiastic, experienced instructors that teaches small-group and private lessons in kiteboarding, snowkiting, and powerkiting. At training sites ranging from beaches around the bay to the Lake Tahoe and Mammoth Mountain areas, instructors show students how to safely harness the wind for an adrenaline-pumping thrill. To facilitate smooth transitions into training, the staff maintains an online compendium of FAQ and safety tips.

KGB also encompasses a shop stocked with gear from brands such as Litewave, plus the company’s own line of eco-friendly products that protects equipment from sun, sand, and saltwater. In-house technicians are on hand in the repair center to mend worn gear.

After meeting and falling in love on a Venetian gondola ride, April Quinn and Angelino Sandri decided to bring that romantic experience to others with Gondola Servizio. Drawing from a mutual love for Venetian boating culture and history, they’ve assembled a staff of skilled gondoliers to lead intimate nautical cruises. On these excursions, personal gondoliers in traditional dress serenade passengers with lilting Italian melodies and half-remembered TV-sitcom themes. When not leading standard tours, gondoliers work with professional photographers to orchestrate on-water photo shoots.

Each gondola carries up to six passengers, and sandolos offer a smaller, though still traditional, boat alternative. Gondolas with felzes boast an on-deck cabin where guests sit sheltered from the elements on a love seat behind etched glass windows. A flexible schedule allows significant others to arrange lunchtime jaunts around Lake Merritt or romantic evening cruises beneath the moon’s jealous gaze. While on land, visitors can enter the Bottega Veneziana gift shop inside the Lake Chalet Seafood Bar & Grill, which abounds with locally handcrafted jewelry as well as imported shawls, Venetian chandeliers, and the fossilized remains of the first known cannoli.

Since it opened in 1946, the 800-seat Historic Bal Theatre has continually hosted a wide array of film screenings, comedy shows, and musical acts on its stage, remaining one of the few American theatres of its era never to have shut down. Despite the building's vintage art-deco vibe, the theater boasts a concert-series sound system, digital projection, and three-dimensional seats, immersing audiences in a heightened sensory experience.

Staffed by native East Bay trail explorers and expert riding instructors, Bella Oaks Stables fosters trained and fulfilling relationships between horses and their enthusiasts. Nestled among towering oak trees and gentle rolling hills, the fleet of majestic equines tote riders through lessons, community field trips, and trail rides, all under the guidance of a doting congregation of caretakers and volunteers. Seventeen summer camps for all ages and an apprenticeship program for more advanced riders instill saddle savvy in patrons of any experience level, and those pining for nature can meander through 80 miles of lush scenery and 1 mile of sci-fi-movie scenery for an afternoon trail ride.