Saturday Morning Caltrain Adventures

We have seemingly started a new tradition in the last couple weeks by taking the Caltrain places to have Saturday brunch.

Two Saturdays ago, we took Caltrain to Laurel St in downtown San Carlos. We jumped on the 11:19am train, watched the world go by on the 25 min train ride, had a nice leisurely brunch at Town, stopped by Vanilla Moon Bakery for some delicious cupcakes, played a bit at this great, independent children's bookstore called The Reading Bug, had a little time at the train station to do some yoga (see pic), and then jumped on the 2:01pm train back to Mountain View. A 3 1/2 hr trip altogether - and a wonderful way to spend a Saturday morning / afternoon.

Then, this past Saturday, we took the train to Menlo Park. While we hopped on the 11:19am train again and rode 15 min to Menlo Park, Wendy drove to Stanford Shopping Center to run a quick errand and met us for brunch at Ann's Coffee Shop, an old-school, inexpensive greasy spoon in the middle of posh Santa Cruz Ave.

After brunch, we met up briefly with our friends Joyce and Eddie to meet their new baby Diego at Cafe Borrone down the street. And then we drove home together. In hindsight, we could have easily taken the train home after that (the next train would have come in 15 min at 1:14pm), but it worked out well nevertheless.

This new "tradition" has been a lot of fun for us, and something we might try to do a couple times per month. We can have fun riding the trains and explore new restaurants and towns, all without having to get in a car!

More potential Saturday morning Caltrain stops:

• Downtown Sunnyvale: farmer's market on Saturdays, brunch (Palace Cafe)
• California Ave: brunch (Cafe Brioche, Joanie's Cafe, Printer's Inc. Cafe, Palo Alto Baking Company), shopping (Country Sun Natural Foods, Common Ground, farmer's market on Sundays)
• Downtown Palo Alto: brunch (Bistro Maxine, Coupa Cafe, St. Michael's Alley)
• Menlo Park: brunch (Cafe Borrone, Stacks, Ann's Coffee Shop), shopping (Cheeky Monkey Toys, Le Cirque Des Enfants, Bubble)
• Redwood City: breakfast/brunch (Pamplemousse, Alana's Cafe), shopping (farmer's market on Saturdays)
• San Carlos: brunch (Depot Cafe, Vanilla Moon Bakery), shopping (The Reading Bug)
• Belmont: brunch (Good Bites Cafe)

Evening Family Outing - No Car Necessary

A few weeks ago, we went on an evening family outing to Redwood City. We were looking for somewhere interesting and new (to us) to eat - and we settled on trying Donato Enoteca in downtown Redwood City. Despite the last minute planning and limited weekend Caltrain schedule, we were able to make it work:

- Ride the Caltrain from downtown Mountain View to downtown Redwood City (5:19-5:41pm) - Kaiya loved people watching on the train

- Walk a few blocks to dinner reservation at 6pm

- Lovely dinner on the well-heated patio at Donato Enoteca, a very smartly decorated, modern Italian restaurant with an interesting menu featuring fresh, seasonal and local offerings such as a sampling of artisan olive oils (which Kaiya loved dipping her bread in); a salad of Half Moon Bay fava beans, pecorino and roasted Chioggia golden beet salad; and "bigoli" pasta with braised Niman Ranch oxtail

- Walk back to the train station to catch the train back to Mountain View: 7:07-7:29pm

Nice weekend dinner at interesting new restaurant, fun train ride for Kaiya, no car needed. =)

Adventures on public transit to Berkeley!

Dad took me to Berkeley a couple days ago - it was SO much fun, but I'm still pooped. That's what happens when I ride the train for 4 hours (!). I LOVE riding the train, but even I have my limits.

Here's a quick rundown of our fabulous day riding public transit to Berkeley:

• Hopped on Caltrain in Mountain View at 8:59am (good thing the train station is just a few blocks from our house). The conductors we're really nice and I really enjoyed looking out the window. I love Caltrain.
• Switched over to BART in Millbrae. I wasn't that excited about getting on another train after the 40 min on Caltrain, but good thing Dad brought lots of Cheerios and raspberries. The snacks and playing Amazing Race with auntie Kasey was pretty fun.
• Arrived in downtown Berkeley around 11am. It was fun walking around Berkeley with auntie Marna, especially since the Cheeseboard has so much bread and cheese. Yum. The chocolate gelato at Gelateria Naia was tasty too - and it was pretty cool they list the farms where their fruit comes from! I wish I had more time in Berkeley to run around and play at the park. Maybe next time, we can get out of the house earlier and have more time.
• Back on the BART around 1:30pm and Mountain View Caltrain station around 3:15pm. It was a long haul home. I was fine as long as Dad was willing to help me "fly", carry me up and down the Caltrain stairs, and feed me lots and lots of raspberries.

After we got home, I was pooped and conked out for 2 hours. I didn't realize how much fun it could be to play on the train and BART for 4 hours (and I didn't realize Dad could have the energy to entertain me for that long). I love riding the train - maybe we can go for an hour next time? =)