We go to Rio Del Mar...5 miles south of Capitola.  The beach entrance is in a residential area and so not a lot of people are there and it’s never crowded.  The walk is very, very short, but the downside is there are about 100 steps down to the beach.

Our favorite ocean beach is the one down in Santa Cruz, right by the BoardWalk.  So much to see and do.  A big plus, there are lifeguards on duty.    Fresh water:  Nothing like soaking up the sun on one of South Lake Tahoe’s beaches.  We like the Zephyr Cover beach for all the people, music, entertainment and they even have a bar/restaurant right on the beach! 

We head to the coast...It's always cooler there in summer. We pick wild blackberries in Bolinas. Drive to Point Reyes and take as many pictures of the Historical Ranch Signs (labeled A-Z---I'm trying to get all of them) as we can & look for elk in the fog. Go to Ikea in Emeryville and have a bay view meatball lunch. Catch the Berkeley Kite Festival (July). Go down to Carmel By The Sea and have ice creams in the little park in town and walk the shops. See Monterey & all the things there are to do there (Wharf, Aquarium, Cannery Row). As for beaches we are really fans of Carmel River State Beach (I think that's correct). It's gorgeous & usually good for flying a kite. Also, we've never been crowded out there. We take the coast route (from Monterey) to get there and enjoy looking at all the unique homes built along the shoreline. If we really want to beat the heat we will camp in Big Sur... Talk about freezing your tail off! Burrrrrrr! Just the thought makes me cold. 

Aside from staying inside in the air conditioning - which we seem to be doing a lot of this summer while I'm pregnant, we get in our above ground pool that we set up in the heat.  Other things... we go to Berkeley to visit Nana and have fun day trips (Habitot, Little Farm, farmer's markets, etc.); we're going to Monterey this summer; we go to Gymboree; go to the Community Center pool; etc.  When my husband can take time off work, we go to Tahoe and swim at the lake.

We go to the neighborhood association’s pool a couple of times a week. We take swimming lessons. My daughter gets wet from the hose when we water the yard. 

We use kiddie pools, Slip ‘n Slide, hose & sprinkler. 

We go to Del Valle Park & water parks in Dublin & Pleasanton.

We drink tall, cool margaritas.  Ole!

We stay indoors (Chuck E. Cheese, McDonald’s play area, Parti Palooza, etc.) & go to water parks.

My husband once put a bag of frozen peas on his head. 

Spray bottles in the back yard. Running in the sprinklers. Popsicles. Robert Livermore Community Pool.

When it gets too hot outside to play and almost unbearable inside the house, we first head out to Costco for "lunch." My daughter has a healthy appetite when she is in the shopping cart and there are samples galore. Then we might hit the road to the mall. And if she is tired and calm, we'll head out to the library. Basically, we go where the powerful air conditioners are! LOL.

We stay indoors in the air conditioning. If outside, we go to the community center pool or head for the shade. We go to the ocean or bay where it’s cooler.

To stay cool at the Hill house, we go for a swim in our pool,  make ice cream,  get buckets filled with water and paint the yard, play in the sprinkler, and go to the Library!

Ahhhhh Surfing!!! Haven’t done that since we had Tanya! Definitely a must do for every family if you ask me. I still get to watch hubby out in Manresa or Half Moon Bay during the summer days, and amazingly still wearing a wet suit. If not the beach, we hit my in-laws’ house for a dip in the pool. Luckily this year we are staying with them through August, so we have been chilling in the pool every day of the week, oh yeaahh.

When it's hot outside....well, our pool isn't heated so it's nice to cool off in there. We are a surfing family so we head to the beach to cool off - Stinson, Santa Cruz, Capitola, Half Moon Bay, Pacifica, etc... We also like to putz around Monterey, Carmel or Capitola.

"Watering the plants" is one of our favorites--every evening before or after dinner. All the kids get wet in the process, play with the water--it is good fun before bath time. The plants do need to get watered as these are a few pots I have on the front porch. Popsicles on the front porch is another, usually after dinner.