LIVERMORE -- Spend the afternoon trying to hook a trout or catfish, paddle a kayak or a canoe, take a windsurfing lesson, hike the hillsides or just relax along the shore and enjoy a cool swim. All of these are waiting and available to visitors to Del Valle Regional Park, which sits just minutes south of Livermore.

WOODSIDE -- Midway on the San Francisco Peninsula, at the eastern base of the Santa Cruz Mountains, Filoli Gardens is year-round garden party. Visitors delight in 16 acres of precisely manicured gardens, revel in the magnificence of the Georgian mansion -- 43 rooms, 17 fireplaces -- and spend hours traversing seven miles of flower bedecked trails.

PAICINES (San Benito County) -- Did you know that three natural treasures turn 100 this year: the Grand Canyon, Muir Woods in Marin County and the Pinnacles.

HANFORD -- Half an hour south of Fresno, Hanford invites visitors to "leave" the Central Valley through the medium of art and take a visual trip to the Far East at the Clark Center for Japanese Art & Culture.

CALISTOGA -- Driving the highway dotted with vineyards and wineries and world-famous restaurants, visitors heading to Calistoga are offered some of the best scenery northern California has to offer -- very much like Provence, say those familiar with the historic region in "the south of France." This time of year, lots of purple lavender and yellow mustard fill in the rows between the grapes.

SAN FRANCISCO -- Monday is Opening Day at home for the Giants. Spring has sprung and the Boys of Summer have stepped into their uniforms, tightened up their batting gloves and taken their places on well-manicured fields across the country.

MARIPOSA -- Although known to many as a gateway to Yosemite, the quaint foothill town of Mariposa, with its population of less than 2,000 people, has an identity all its own, and that identity is ingrained in its preservation of history.

ROSEVILLE -- Looking for a replacement 9 iron? Need some new silk plants for your home décor? Hoping to find that elusive baseball trading card? Or maybe you're simply in search of fresh corn?

The city of Roseville has gone green.

Looking for a peek at spring?

SAN FRANCISCO -- It's the opportunity to relive Saturday morning cartoons or see how your favorite comic book came to life. Visiting the Cartoon Art Museum in downtown San Francisco is the chance to see hundreds of comic-book characters, comic-strip families and cartoon favorites all displayed through media from drawing to television.

SAN FRANCISCO -- Dig out those old bell bottoms, grab that tie-dyed shirt from the costume bin, put some flowers in your hair and revisit the neighborhood that once was home to the largest hippie movement in the nation. San Francisco's Haight District, as it is commonly referred to now, once was the area where young people came for free love among the eight blocks dotted with Edwardian and Victorian homes.

SANTA CRUZ -- What fun to celebrate fungus! Santa Cruz reaches out to millions of visitors each year with its famous boardwalk, fresh seafood and coastal beaches but for those who are looking for a chance to celebrate the fun of fungus, this seaside community aims to please for one weekend in January.

SAN FRANCISCO -- Trying to pry your kids away from those video games during their holiday vacation? Well, take them on a gaming adventure back to the days when you were a child.

VALLEJO -- Christmas has taken over in a big way at Six Flags Discovery Kingdom -- the former Marineworld/Africa USA.