BayDad

I had the kids to myself all day on Monday (on account of the holiday), so we met up with some friends of mine who live up on the peninsula, and their two kids. We ended up going over to Coyote Point, and it was a lot of fun. There is a huge play area with a very large slide and a dragon theme and many smaller slides and swings and assorted play equipment stuff. We liked it a lot. We also walked over to the bay for a while, and threw rocks into the water. The rocks aren’t very flat, so not so good for teaching the kids to skip stones, but just throwing rocks is good fun in its own right. You can also watch the planes coming in for a landing at SFO, and the park is off to the side of the flight path enough that they weren’t too loud. It was only a 20 minute drive from Mountain View, and well worth the trip.

In theory admission is $5, but there wasn’t anyone there to collect the money, and no other way to pay, so it was free on Monday anyway. It was really warm there yesterday, but it is right on the bay so I bet it is windy and possibly foggy up there pretty often. 

The park is right at the Peninsula Ave exit off 101, but that exit is all torn up with construction right now. You have to get off at the exit before it, Dore Ave, and use the frontage road. There are signs saying as much, and it isn’t hard to figure out.

I forgot to bring a camera, but I borrowed my son’s and took a quick picture of the playground with him and his sister standing there looking hungry. I should have taken a picture before everybody needed to go get lunch, now!

Update: I seem to have inserted the picture at full size, and now I can’t get it to resize. If you open the picture in its own tab you can see the whole thing, but otherwise you are stuck with just seeing the left edge, which isn’t really all that great. I’ll work on that.

Since this is my first post here, let me introduce myself before I get to the matter at hand: I’m E. Stephen Mack, aka Zeigen. I live in Mountain View, I work at TiVo (which is how I know Slacy and Howard), and my wife and I have two kids: Sammy, who’ll be three years old exactly one month from today, and Sophie, who will turn one a week later. I blog over at Zeigen. My thanks to Slacy for inviting me to participate here!

Three of Sammy’s very favorite things are airplanes, ducks, and mud. You can find plenty of all three at The Baylands, off Highway 101 in Palo Alto.

As you enter The Baylands from Embarcadero Road, follow the signs to the Duck Pond. Geese and ducks abound, while an endless parade of small aircraft take off and land at the adjoining municipal airport. The Duck Pond Loop trail (0.7 miles) is a granite trail bed (fine for strollers) that takes you around the pond and its fountain, reasonably close to the airport’s main runway and control tower.

From the Duck Pond you can also hike up the Marsh Front Trail for about half a mile to the Lucy Evans Baylands Nature Interpretative Center (or you can drive). The Center’s summer hours are Tuesday through Friday, 2 to 5pm, and Saturday and Sunday 1 to 5pm. The Center was closed when we visited, but it seemed to have a few dioramas and was set up to show educational films. After checking out the wren’s nests in the Center’s eaves along with a periscope and binoculars that were set up outside, we saw that the Center adjoins a short platform bridge walkway over the marsh, which led to an observation platform where you have excellent views of the Dumbarton Bridge, Moffett Field, and the foot of the Bay.

There are good spots for picnicing, including one spot near the ranger’s station that had barbecue grills. You’ll also find a few bathrooms (just porta potties), some drinking fountains, plenty of flat and wide hiking trails, and lots of marshy streams and sloughs. There are very few large trees, so The Baylands can be windy and is unshaded — light windbreakers and brimmed hats are recommended.

The park is an odd mixture of industrial and natural: One section is home to a recycling center and dump, so you can combine a picnic and hike with some errands. Despite the power lines and proximity to the water quality control plant, the wetlands are beautiful, and the park is known as one of the Bay Area’s best bird-watching sites. We spotted at least a dozen species of birds.

Cost: Free to enter, free to park.

When it’s open: 8am to sunset, year-round.

How to get there: Take 101 to the Embarcadero exit, then turn off on Embarcadero East (in between Embarcdero West and the Oregon Expressway). You’ll pass by Ming’s Restaurant, a couple of car dealerships, a golf course, and the Palo Alto Airport before entering the park.

If you’re biking, there’s a bike bridge over 101 via St. Francis Drive near the Oregon Expressway. Most of the trails are open for biking.

What to bring: Lunch, hats, layered clothing due to wind.

For more information, including trail maps: Visit the City of Palo Alto’s web site

For go-getters: Combine your park visit with weekend dim-sum at nearby Ming’s, and explain to your kidlet why they might enjoy eating that greatest of favorite children’s dishes: phoenix talons.

Obligatory bad iPhone photograph:

Mercy-Bush park is like the community back yard for everyone with kids in downtown Mountain View.  It’s a small park, with a small grassy area, and a small jungle gym.  You wouldn’t think it was something special, would you?  Well, let me tell you…

Mr. Busy Bear took his first steps, swang on a swing for the first time, and met his first ‘friends,’ all by the jungle gym at Mercy-Bush.  It’s sort of like the parental version of the shared TV room in a college dorm.  Everything goes on there — people coming and going, you can see who’s with who, you can meet their kids, you can meet their parents and grandparents, you learn who gets home from work and when, and you can meet all the neighborhood nannies, too.

Mercy-Bush is like a tiny little oasis that reminds us that we can go outside and play every day.  It’s an invitation to walk two blocks down the street and spend some time having a little fun, going down a slide or climbing on the monkey bars. (Mr. Busy isn’t old enough for this yet!)

Is it worth a visit if you don’t live nearby?  I think so, if just to see the workings of a surprisingly idyllic neighborhood.  It’s not the kind of place that a lot of people drive to, so if you do come and visit, you’ll get to meet all the local families, and get a brief feeling for what living in Silicon Valley could be like.  Don’t hesitate to say Hi!

I like to think of Mercy-Bush as the gem of Old Mountain View, and I think the city does too…  See you there!