A couple of weeks ago we went to Santa Cruz for the day to escape the heat. We walked around the beach boardwalk and wharf, and then had lunch at a restaurant right next to the beach. We also drove to Henry Cowell Redwoods State Park, which is a couple miles north of Santa Cruz. The Redwood Grove Trail is a short, easy walk (you can even take a stroller on it) that goes right through the big trees. It was a fun day!

My husband and I just took our girls to Reno this weekend. It's probably not the most ideal with kids but we went down to the hotel pool (with lots of sunscreen because it was hot!), went to Circus Circus to play some games, went to the arcade/game area at the Hilton, and played at the park. The only downside is that it's about 3.5- 4 hours away but our girls are pretty good in the car. Another quick getaway is to Monterey. We love to go down there in the summer because it's so much cooler. We love going to the beach, walking through Cannery Row, and Bryanna (my 2 1/2 year old) loves the aquarium. Monterey is a closer trip, about 1.5 hours from Livermore.

Murphy's in Calaveras County. It is in the heart of Gold Country and is beautiful. There are things to do there any time of the year and with or without children. There is a wonderful park that has a creek bed in it that goes through the park with play structures on either side. The creek goes to mid-calf of the toddlers and is SAFE for them to wade in and play in. There is a large green grassy area with plenty of shade trees and quaint park benches. Across the street is a very nice winery and deli, so you can go wine tasting and grab a nice bottle to enjoy with lunch on the beautiful grounds of the park. There is also the Caverns to explore, the gold country history tour, river rafting, old towns to explore, Bear Valley ski area is 30 minutes away, many lakes around, the list goes on and on. There are many amazing little Bed and Breakfasts around and wonderful wineries. We've had great romantic get-aways there as well as fun family trips.

To beat the heat, we went on a last minute trip & stayed in Salinas (90 miles from Livermore). It’s close (19 miles) to Monterey where places to stay are full in advance during the summer. It’s the home of the National (John) Steinbeck Center. We went to Big Sur (29 miles south of Monterey on State Highway 1). Along Hwy. 1 are The Village Shops (next to the River Inn) where I received an excellent massage without appointment at Namaste Therapeutic Bodyworks. My husband , son & dog explored a little creek behind the shops. Going further south we went to Pfeiffer Big Sur State Park. We took a small winding  road down to the beach which magnificent views of the ocean. There’s a really cool arched rock formation through which the water crashes. There’s swimming & hiking. Recently, we went to Seacliff Beach (near Aptos). It has a covered  picnic area, fishing pier (a concrete freighter, The Palo Alto, is anchored there but unsafe to board so it’s fenced off). People were swimming & surfing there. It was 40 degrees cooler than Livermore’s 100 degrees until the afternoon when the temperature rose.