For $3 per person (children 1 and under are free), you can take a tractor ride around the farm.  Along the way, the tractor driver will stop at various points to tell you about the produce that they grow and sell there.  There’s a little farmstand where you can purchase their organic produce; they also sell their produce at the Sunday farmer’s market in Newark.  So during our tractor ride, they showed us all of their different types of cauliflower (regular, Romanesco, purple, and a yellow cauliflower), their green beans, and different types of lettuce.  (Throughout the growing season, they have lots of different produce, including tomatoes.  See the list here.

So more about the tractor ride.  I’m not sure what I was envisioning.  I suppose I thought there would be bales of hay or something to sit on.  But nope, there weren’t.  There was just a trailer covered with straw, and you just plop down in the straw in rustic fashion.  Needless to say, it’s not all that comfortable, especially when toting a baby in an Ergo and having a toddler insist on sitting in your lap and trying to ensure that said toddler does not squish the baby.  But then again, tractor rides aren’t meant to be all that comfortable.

If you’re squeamish about bugs and spiders, you might want to sit in the middle of the tractor rather on the sides, where you can see the bugs crawl up the sides of the tractor.  It was’t *crawling* with bugs, but we certainly saw some tiny little spiders and a pair of mating green ladybugs.  I don’t particularly like bugs, but I got over it quickly, chalking it up to the whole farm-y experience.

My almost-3-yr-old (who is obsessed with vehicles of all sorts) loved the tractor ride and wanted to go back.  It really was quite the hit with the children.

The pumpkin patch also has a port-a-potty station with a handwashing station.

Pumpkin patch is open Mondays to Sundays from 9am to 7pm.

Anyone have some cool Halloween costumes planned for the kids?

We’ve never been on the Holiday Train of Lights, but I think we’ll take the family this year.

Anyway Gilroy Gardens is having their Back to School promotion – admission is only $14 with coupon (I think it’s almost $45 regularly); kids under 3 are free.

It’s a really family-friendly amusement park; the water features are sure to get your kids soaking wet, and they even have rides suitable for toddlers!

Explore the wonders of science with FREE activities for the whole family at the Cal Science & Engineering Festival. From Astronomy to Zoology, you’ll experience science in action. Take the solar energy challenge, join the search for extraterrestrial intelligence, make your own earthquake, get hands-on with ancient fossils, and touch areal human brain. Witness unicycle basketball, play silly animal games—and yes, there will be liquid nitrogen! Also featured are free giveaways, take-home science activities, and the lively edutainment of the Banana Slug String Band.

The Cal Science & Engineering Festival is hosted by Science@Cal, and is presented in conjunction with the inaugural USA Science & Engineering Festival.

Saturday, October 23 10am — 2pm
Location: Spieker Plaza
Next to Haas Pavillion at UC Berkeley

Already a Habitot Facebook fan? Just print out your Facebook “likes” page to get your free admission.

This post is about my experience with the California’s Consumer Assistance Program.  I’m not going to discuss whether there should be a whole industry created for smog check (smog check stations, having to get a  costly smog check every two years for vehicles registered in CA, mandatory repairs, etc.).  I just thought the following information might be helpful, especially since not many people seem to know about the CAP.

Luckily the Smog Check Test Only Center where I brought my car gave us an application to apply for California’s Consumer Assistance Program (CAP).  If your car fails its smog check, you may be eligible for up to $500 in repairs paid by the State, after a $100 co-pay.  You can qualify for the CAP program either a) if you meet certain household income limits or b) if you were instructed to take your car to a Test Only or Gold Shield station for the smog check on your DMV renewal notice.  We qualified under “b”.

We received an application from the Smog Test station, but you can also download one online.  After filling out the application, you can mail it in.  They’ll process the application and if approved, they’ll send you a confirmation letter.  After receipt of the letter, you take the letter, your DMV renewal notice, and your failed smog test notice to a Gold Shield Test Station, where they’ll diagnose your car and hopefully make repairs.  I hear it takes about a week to receive approval by mail.

I didn’t want to wait a whole week, and they don’t have a fax number.  So I found out that I could take the application to a local field office and have my application approved (or rejected) on the spot.  Luckily there are a couple field offices in this area – San Jose and South San Francisco.  I went to the San Jose location in the late morning.  It was in the middle of a complex of professional offices, almost like a dentist office.  I was pleasantly surprised that there was nobody else waiting – I was anticipating something like the horrors of the DMV, and I steeled myself against it by bringing snacks and toys for my son while enduring the epic wait.  There wasn’ t much of a wait when we got there.  I went straight up to the window, gave them my application items, and was told to wait about 20 minutes for them to verify everything.  So in those 20 minutes, my son and I walked around outside.  The people at the office are incredibly nice – nothing like government worker stereotypes!  Some guy even came out and gave my son a toy car!  Anyway, 20 minutes later, my name was called, and I received the approval letter for CAP.

I hear some people are denied assistance, but usually it’s because there are ownership issues with the car or if the registration on the car isn’t current.  In the latter case, the person can pay the registration fees to make the registration current, and then apply for the CAP.

So I then took my car, the CAP approval letter, DMV renewal notice, and failed smog check notice to a Gold Shield Station.  When I dropped off the car, I was required to pay the $100 co-pay.  I was really anxious that the $500 assistance from CA wouldn’t be enough to cover repairs (I tend to run through worst-case scenarios in my head), but it turned out to be enough.  My car needed a new oxygen sensor, which was replaced.  All of the paperwork for the State was taken care of by the Repair Shop.  After my initial $100, I think CA paid about $400 for repairs to my car to bring it into compliance.  When I picked up the car, they provided me with a letter stating that I had passed smog check.  I was then able to directly take my car to a AAA office with DMV services to complete the vehicle registration.

California also has other programs if you want to retire your vehicle (if making repairs really isn’t worth it) or if $500 isn’t enough to cover the necessary repairs.  They have more information about these programs on their website.

Since 1990 Perry’s Produce has been providing customers with fresh, great tasting produce available. We carry wide variety of organic and conventional produce. At Perry’s Produce we grow an abundant variety of the organic vegetables affordably price.

You can download a coupon for a free head of lettuce with $5 purchase here.

America The Story of US – premiering on HISTORY™ April 25 at 9pm/8c – is a six week event that provides a fascinating look at the stories of the people, events, and innovations that forged our nation. It will provide you with an unprecedented opportunity to bring our nation’s history to life for your students. This 12-hour series will be supported by educational materials tied to curriculum standards and is copyright cleared for Fair Use in the classroom by instructors or pupils in the course of face-to-face teaching activities.

* HISTORY is offering America The Story of US on DVD to every school in the United States. School must be an accredited public, private or home school, grades K-12 and college. In order to receive your school’s DVD, your school principal (grades K-12) or Dean of Students (college) should fill out the request form below. HISTORY strictly limits each school to one request. DVD requests must be made prior to July 1, 2010. DVDs will be mailed around August 2010, and free shipping is included in this offer.

You can fill out the request form here.