FALL/WINTER 2019 Visitors Guide to the Midpeninsula DISCOVER WHERE TO DINE, SHOP, PLAY OR RELAX Fun & Funfestive & festive A dozen ways to experience the Midpeninsula in fall and winter Page 6 DestinationPaloAlto.com DestinationPaloAlto.com 1 Every kind of care for every kind of patient. Stanford Health Care is redefining the patient experience. We are transforming health care to be bigger than a building or the number of beds. We are designing what healing means to the whole of a person, bringing personalized care, customized treatment, and the best innovation to each individual. This is Stanford Health Care—a path to healing that is inspired by you. A new hospital for more healing. ORLDIDE BANKING BASED IN PALO ALTO sfcu.org | 888.723.7328 Ń Checking options that fit Ń Low interest rates on loans your lifestyle Ń High interest rates on deposits Ń Mobile and Online Banking Ń 30,000, fee-free ATMs Stanfordanford AthleticsAthletics® FanFan RewardsRewards creditcredit cardcard withwith up toto 3X reward points and zero foreign transaction fees! Apply at sfcu.org/CarryTheCard Visit sfcu.org/students for special Stanford student offers Federally insured by NCUA DestinationPaloAlto.com 3 Equal Housing Lender Voted #1 by the people THANK YOU! Best Ice Cream /Frozen Yogurt & Best Ice Cream Store for many years 2011 Italian Ice Cream 2012 ILYLYY PALO ALTO DA BBEST OF 22004 2014 “IT’S “IT’S IRRESISTIBLE!” ABSOLUTELY MOUTH WATERING!” THE VOICE Best of MOUNTAIN VIEW Look inside the store for more and different 2016 “Voted #1” awards by the people THE VOICE Best of MOUNTAIN VIEW 2017 THE VOICE Best of MOUNTAIN VIEW 2010 2018 Buy 1 Get 1 Free Buy 1 cup of ice cream or espresso bar item and get free item of equal or lesser value. Pints, quarts, specialties excluded. Expires June 30, 2019. 4 Fall/Winter241 B 2019 C Visitorsastr oGuide Street • Mountain View • 650-969-2900 WELCOME The Midpeninsula offers something for everyone FEATURE: THE OFF SEASON 6 ATTRACTIONS & TOURS 8, 12 ARTS 13 SHOPPING 15 STANFORD 16 RECREATION 18 GETTING AROUND 22 FOOD & DRINK 25 hether you are visiting for business or pleasure, you The Palo Alto Visitors Center is co-located with the will quickly discover the unusual blend of innova- W Palo Alto Chamber of Commerce at 355 Alma St. at tion, culture and natural beauty that makes up Palo Alto Lytton Avenue in downtown Palo Alto. The Visitors and the Midpeninsula. Center is staffed Monday through Friday from 9 a.m. Palo Alto is home to Nobel Prize winners, Silicon Valley to 5 p.m. and may be reached at 650-324-3121. CEOs, venture capital firms, Hewlett-Packard and one of Destination Palo Alto (DestinationPaloAlto.com) of- the most renowned universities and medical centers in fers even more information about where to go and the world. what to do while visiting the Midpeninsula. The emergence of Stanford University in the 1970s as Visitors Guide is a special project of the Palo Alto the nation’s leading high-technology research center Weekly. Copyright ©2019 by Embarcadero Media. All paved the way for hundreds of startup businesses with rights reserved. Reproduction without permission is connections to Stanford professors and their inventions. strictly prohibited. Thus, Palo Alto became known as the birthplace of Silicon Valley. On the cover: Dancers perform during last year’s annual Fall Fiesta held in October as part of the monthly Facebook The Stanford campus itself is the biggest attraction, and Festivals series held at the company’s headquarters in visitors could easily spend a day or longer exploring it. Menlo Park. Photo courtesy of Facebook Community At a minimum, any visit should also include a walk or Events Team. drive through Palo Alto’s tree-lined residential neigh- borhoods (among the costliest in the nation), a walk in eating in the handful of nearby business districts. the foothills or Baylands and some great shopping and Enjoy your visit to the Midpeninsula! DestinationPaloAlto.com 5 FEATURE STORY Insider’s spotlight on the Midpeninsula Celebrating the off season A dozen ways to experience the Midpeninsula in fall and winter ead to the mountains for a special wine tasting an exhibition of altars, as well as free children’s arts Hduring harvest season, experience Day of the activities. Dead festivities along the shores of San Francisco Bay Cost: free. Information: bit.ly/DiaDeLosMuertosRWC or spend Valentine’s Day sailing with your sweetheart — however you want to enjoy fall and winter, the WINERY PASSPORT DAY Midpeninsula offers plenty of festivals and activities to take advantage of these quieter seasons both indoors More than 40 wineries in the Santa Cruz Mountains and out. will open their doors on Saturday, Nov. 16, from noon to 5 p.m. for Passport Day. Hosted by the Santa Cruz Mountains Winegrowers Association, the quarterly event gives participants access to wineries not gen- erally open to the public, as well as special tastings, tours and the opportunity to meet one on one with the farmers, vintners and families who represent the roots of this unique mountainous wine region that stretches along the Midpeninsula between the bay and the ocean. Passport Day is held the third Saturday of November, January, April and July. Passport tickets are valid for one year. Cost: $75. Information: SCMWA.com MORE ... Can’t make it to the mountains? The Santa Cruz Mountains Winegrowers Association hosts Taste of the Mountains Wine Walk in Menlo Park on Saturday, Fall Fiesta at Facebook. Courtesy Facebook Dec. 7, 1-4:30 p.m. The winter winewalk includes wine community events team. tastings from 14 local wineries at more than a dozen shops along Santa Cruz Avenue in heart of downtown. Cost: $49. Information: SCMWA.com FALL FIESTA HIKE AND HARVEST Celebrate fall, Day of the Dead and Halloween at Fall Fiesta on Saturday, Oct. 19, 1-6 p.m. The daylong fam- Fall is a great time to explore the area’s mountain trails, ily event is part of the monthly festival series Facebook especially during early November when chestnuts are holds at its headquarters every May through October. ripening off the trees at the Bay Area’s only chestnut The fiesta-themed event includes a free kids zone with farm. Docents from the Midpeninsula Regional Open Halloween activities, farmers market, food trucks, Space District lead guests on a 5-mile, moderately crafts, dancing performances, carnival rides and mul- paced late-fall hike on Horseshoe Loop on Skyline tiple stages with live music. Ridge in the Santa Cruz Mountains on Nov. 1, 10 a.m. to 1:30 p.m. The docents will take hikers through a Cost: free. Information: facebook.com/facebookfestivals/ DIA DE LOS MUERTOS Decorated with sugar skulls, marigolds and fam- ily altars, Redwood City’s Courthouse Square is trans- formed into a gathering place for musicians and danc- ers during the city’s Dia de los Muertos (Day of the Dead) celebration on Sunday, Nov. 3, 4-9 p.m. The annual event, which celebrates the Mexican tradition of honoring dead relatives every November, is one of Redwood City’s largest cultural events. During the celebration, Catrinas (elegantly dressed skeletons) will be walking around the plaza greeting visitors. At 7 p.m., a procession will make its way through down- town. The event also includes a food court area deco- rated with papel picado (tissue paper), where an array of vendor booths will sell traditional foods. The San Harvested chestnuts. Courtesy of Getty Images. Mateo County History Museum also is open and hosts 6 Fall/Winter 2019 Visitors Guide family-owned tree farm and continue to an elevation of annual Christmas Market on Saturday, Dec. 7. Housed about 2,500 feet above Palo Alto to the 20-acre Skyline in Spanish-colonial style buildings surrounded by Chestnuts farm to learn how chestnuts are harvested European-inspired gardens, the grounds have been from trees planted more than 100 years ago, shortly a place for artists to come together and share their after the United States acquired California. Those in- wares since its inception in 1929. Today, the complex terested in harvesting their own chestnuts can return is home to nearly 20 artisans and includes retail space to the farm after the hike. Reservations are required. for the public to view and purchase original art works. Cost: free. Information: openspace.org/activities/docent/ Cost: free. Information: alliedartsguild.org farm-farm MORE ... MORE ... Can’t make the Christmas Market? Allied Arts is open Can’t make the hike? Skyline Chestnuts farm is open Monday through Saturday from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. The for six weeks every fall for u-pick and harvested chest- Allied Arts Guild Auxiliary, which owns and operates nuts from the Johsen family’s 100-plus mature trees. the arts complex, also hosts docent-led tours of the Skyline is among the approximately 920 chestnut gardens and buildings Monday through Saturday. farms that have remained in operation in the United States following a fungus that nearly wiped out the American chestnut in the early 20th century. Those who visit the farm to pick their own chestnuts are sup- plied 5-gallon plastic buckets and leather gloves. Information: skylinechestnuts.com Chanticleer Christmas. Photo by Lisa Kohler, courtesy of Chanticleer. A CHANTICLEER CHRISTMAS It wouldn’t be December at Stanford University with- out San Francisco’s Chanticleer choir. The internation- ally acclaimed male a cappella choir, brings its annual Filoli at Christmas. Photo by HT Mitchell, courtesy of holiday celebration concert to Stanford University’s Filoli. Memorial Church on Wednesday, Dec.7, at 7:30 p.m.