Things to Do in Santa Clara

LeMans Karting helps visitors satisfy their needs for speed, safety, and social interaction. Nine-horsepower SODI RX 7 karts take drivers soaring at speeds of up to 42 mph across indoor and outdoor tracks as they compete for the fastest finish. High-grip track surfaces help drivers reach top speeds, and high-visibility lighting and flagmen keep everyone safe as they round corners and pass other drivers on the wide course. On certain days, the staff connects the indoor and outdoor track into a single, giant mega track that hosts extended races when it’s not busy fighting Godzilla.

LeMans Karting also offers endurance racing for drivers who want to sharpen their driving skills or land a job as Vin Diesel’s chauffer. The center also offers private parties for birthdays and bachelor parties and can help plan charity or corporate events.

City Lights is an innovative, intimate (100 seats), nonprofit theater company that produces six main-stage plays per year. Each play runs for a five-week period with four shows per week. Coming up in the current season is a production of Billy Aronson's First Day of School, a farcical look at the behavior of suburbanites in autumn (September 23–October 24); an irreverent, interactive, and totally historically accurate play titled Abraham Lincoln's Big, Gay Dance Party (November 24–December 19); and the horseplay of the drama Equus (March 17–April 17), the winner of the 1975 Tony for Best Play and a favorite of horse whisperers and hoarse whisperers everywhere.

Homestead Lanes welcomes friends and families to hurl balls down 32 glistening lanes. The alley's modern amenities include electronic scoring, gutter returns, and robotic dogs that love unconditionally. After working up a sweat slicing strikes and dancing in glittery clouds of victory, groups can meander to the snack bar. A medley of drafts and bottled brews such as Pabst Blue Ribbon, Newcastle, and Guinness stock shelves in The X Bar, a full-service sports bar that also serenades strikers with live music, Friday-night karaoke, and DJ dance parties. The bar also tends to college nostalgia with beer pong and impromptu physics quizzes.

The Dive & Adventure Travel Expo 2013 will connect scuba and snorkel enthusiasts with some of the industry's top experts, brands, and innovations. More than 50 seminars scheduled throughout the weekend will showcase the diving deftness of speakers from across the country, enabling attendees to net information on such topics as underwater photography and safety. ReefID founder and editor John Fifer will host two of these gatherings, sharing ways his online database of diver-captured photos is helping raise awareness for marine life. Fifer will also play host to the expo's signature Saturday Night Film Festival event at 7 p.m. alongside 3D photographer Mark Blum and other presenters.

In addition to engaging activities, the Dive & Adventure Travel Expo 2013 is also home to the best in dive-related gear and information. Approximately 140 exhibit booths connect attendees with purveyors of international adventure from global hotspots including Palau, Yap, the Virgin Islands, and Fiji. In addition to resort representatives, booths also house all of the equipment needed for undersea excursions, with new products ranging from snorkel and scuba innovations to travel accessories and luggage. During face-to-face conversations, dive skills clinics, or snorkel sword fights, expo-goers can get travel tips or plan dive vacations around the globe. While parents research, younger visitors can decamp to a youth section filled with interactive attractions designed for youngsters aged 8–12.

Attendees who come for the education should probably stick for the prizes; the expo plans to give away over $50,000 in door prizes, including a massive grand prize: a full set of dive gear including a drysuit, Weezle undergarments, ScubaPro G260 regulator, Aqua Lung BCD, a TUSA mask, fin, and snorkel set, an Oceanic dive computer, and trips including weeklong Philippine dive adventure from the Marco Vincent Resort.

After buying the Exclamation Point's original location in Saratoga, owner Melanie Vancil moved the studio to Santa Clara, expanding the workshop's inventory of needlepoint and cross-stitch manuals, crochet threads, buttons, and hand-painted canvases. Needlepoint, originally developed in the 16th century to create beautiful cloth tapestries without bulky looms or expensive trained spiders, draws from a proud tradition of craftsmanship, decorating household objects such as pillows, chair backs, and rugs with patterns and pictures of colorful fiber. Students of all ages learn to master this ancient form of art, as well as machine sewing and crocheting, in fun, informative classes, creating beautiful fabric keepsakes of their very own.

A Transporter Limo’s professional drivers carry passengers through the streets of the Bay Area in style. Chauffeurs take the wheel inside a range of vehicles, from all the glitz and glam of a Hummer stretch limo to the understated class of a luxury sedan or Scooby Doo Mystery Machine. The crew can scoop up riders from select areas across the Bay Area and take them on a one-way or round-trip journey to the airport, prom, or business meeting.