Category: Family

Conservation group puts Sacramento in top 10 for park systems

Calm Afternoon

In the Sac Bee’s story on the rebuilding of the McKinley Park playground, I noticed a neat bit of info: the Trust for Public Land, a national nonprofit group for land conservation, has once again named Sacramento in the top 10 cities in the US for park systems. Our fair city tied with San Francisco (!) and Boston for third overall, below Minneapolis and New York City.

The ranking took into account things like the median park size, park land as a percentage of city land area, and parks per 10,000 residents (Sacramento has 4, twice as many as New York City).

Continue reading “Conservation group puts Sacramento in top 10 for park systems”

YMCA will operate 3 city pools this summer

Tahoe Pool, ready for action
Tahoe Pool, ready for action

YMCA of Sacramento had recently announced it would operate Glenn Hall, Southside and Tahoe Pools this summer. But the even better news is that these pools will hav open swim hours seven days a week.

In addition to open swim hours 1-5pm Sunday through Friday and noon to 6pm Saturday, the pools will be open for lap swim, lessons, water exercise and swim team (at Glenn Hall). The public swim fee of $4/adults and $2/children is steeper than previous years but still a great deal. There will also be a $150 family unlimited pass.

This is excellent news. I am definitely looking forward to some serious chillaxing at Tahoe Pool this summer. Long hours on Saturday is awesome!

Exploratorium officially out of Palace of Fine Arts

IMG_0563With a Facebook photo yesterday, the Exploratorium announced it is officially closed at the Palace of Fine Arts, which had been its home since 1969. KTVU has video of the closing ceremonies. The new location at Pier 15 will open April 17.

I’m pretty excited for the new location, though I have been visiting the PFA since I was a kid and will definitely miss it.

Sacramento Public Library boasts big web redesign

The Sacramento Public Library’s website got a big facelift today and is looking pretty hot. The new design by local firm PMC is a big step up from SPL’s former ’90s era design.

I’m loving the big showoffy Locations pages and the responsive design (the layout modifies itself in mobile browsers instead of forcing you to squint). The catalog section of the site does not appear changed, but it had already gone through a recent change.

What do you think? Will you finally break down and read a book now, doofus?

Mustard Seed Spin supports homeless kids

This weekend the Mustard Seed Spin will have hundreds of riders touring the American River Parkway. The ride, which has been around since 2005, raises money (100% of rider fees) for the Mustard Seed School, a school for the children of homeless families run by the Catholic organization Loaves & Fishes.

Online registration is closed but it looks like you can still register at REI or on the day of the event, which is Sunday at 11:00 AM at William Pond Recreation Area. I’ll be there, either as a rider or handing out water and protein goo.

The Harvest is in at Colonial Heights Library – Photos

I visited Colonial Heights Library with my family on Saturday, and we and several other families were treated to a hands-on visit to the library’s Demonstration Garden, which in the rear of the property. Though the garden is not typically open to the public, staff do regularly open the back doors to allow patrons to enjoy the garden. In addition, the garden is part of a “Read & Feed” program to highlight planting and nurturing of crops as well as nutrition and literacy.

On this particular visit we got to help harvest some cherry tomatoes! I have posted a few photos after the break… Continue reading “The Harvest is in at Colonial Heights Library – Photos”

Last chance to enjoy City pools this summer

The City pools are gearing up to close for the season but there is still time to enjoy them before then. From the City Aquatics page:

  • Bertha Henschel Play Pool, Clunie & Pannell Meadowview Pools are open through Labor Day weekend.
  • Tahoe Pool is open through Sat. 8/25.
  • McClatchy Park and Sim Pools are open through Aug. 26.

My family and I have quite enjoyed being able to go to Tahoe Pool this year again. The staff is awesome, the facility is great and the vibe is always really nice even though there are always swarms of unsupervised tweens.

Let’s hope that this gem is open again next year!