Things to Do in San Lorenzo

The shelves at Color Me Mine’s four studios teem with whimsical bisque-pottery pieces—pony and princess figurines, piggy banks, and kitty-cat mugs—each stark white and waiting for the brush strokes of a budding artist. That artist might be a birthday boy at a party with up to 50 of his friends, or a grown-up unwinding at a girls' night out. No previous experience is required, as the studio staff dispenses plenty of painting tips, stencils, and artistic inspiration. Afterwards, the staff will fire the resulting pieces, which can then be used as décor or dinnerware thanks to Color Me Mine's lead-free, food-safe, paints.

In addition to open painting and private parties, the studio hosts after-school enrichment programs, field trips, and activities that inspire adults to design their own kitchenware or to turn that pile of rocks in the backyard into a pile of multicolored rocks.

Operating for more than a decade, Piedmont Avenue Pumpkin Patch both hosts Halloween outings and brings autumnal revelry to you. The expansive pumpkin patch and halloween store sell 15 types of pumpkins, as well as fall essentials such as gourds, masks, spider webs, and multicolored Indian corn. A harrowing haunted house tests visitors’ adrenal glands with dark corners, spooky sounds, and a befuddling maze. In addition to supplying frights, the staff also constructs pumpkin patches off site, redecorating homes and offices with pumpkins, straw bales, and house-trained scarecrows.

Though FLOAT’s neon sign is small and easy to miss in the window of a converted historic cotton mill, its interior is anything but unremarkable. The artist-owned urban art spa stimulates the mind with work from established and rising local artists and submerges clients in warm, dark chambers that relieve bodies of their senses. These floatation therapy sessions enhance relaxation and open up channels of creativity, freeing brains from the incessant digital stimulation and algebraic speed-limit signs of the outside world. While enclosed inside the tank, clients float in a weightless state in a solution composed of 1,000 pounds of medical-grade Epsom salts and water. There, air, water, and skin become alike—refreshing the nerves while recharging the mind more efficiently than sleep. Complementing floatation sessions are massage services that enhance already relaxed states.

Weathered stone walls envelop an old country road. In the distance, rolling hills streaked with ranks of wine grapes—some originally planted more than 100 years ago—spread into the horizon. The independently operated Livermore Wine Carriage invites guests to explore these verdant surroundings while seated in a crimson carriage, a fitting mode of transportation for the rustic expanses.

A scottish clydesdale horse leads the carriage to area wineries, making stops at Concannon Vineyard, Wente Vineyards, or Steven Kent Winery, among other favorites. Staffers greet participants at each winery for wine tastings and tours of the brick, wood, and ivy-draped estate buildings. In warmer seasons, passengers cruise with the carriage top down, and in colder months, drivers erect a curtained cabin and decorate its frame in twinkling white lights.

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.

Traditionally, the zoo provides the comfort of seeing animals that could not make a surprise visit to your backyard; this is a comfort CuriOdyssey dispatches to give weight to its message of science education. The menagerie of nearly 100 mammals, amphibians, reptiles, and birds primarily showcases local species like the Channel Island fox and the red-shouldered hawk, which have relatively small niches that have been squeezed by environmental degradation and human encroachment. A few native species can be glimpsed within a complex of 25 lush habitats, including a 4,000-square-foot walk-through aviary and a replica of the trading floor of the New York Stock Exchange.

Sunny, outdoor gardens fill more than 1.3 acres with plots that rotate with the seasons and plants to attract butterflies and hummingbirds for live study. Among the science exhibits, Tinkering sparks creativity needed to meet future environmental challenges with interactive exhibits that require the collaboration of multiple visitors. All the exhibits are designed to enable close observation and experimentation characteristic of the scientific method. This aim is supported by shows, such as daily otter feedings—spied from behind the glass of a cross-sectioned riverbank—and a variety of classes.