Spend an extra day or two while at the AGM and see and do things you can’t do anyplace else. From the short hop just an hour away or a longer trip, there are infinite things for the whole family. Attached are just a few of what we feel are the best attractions:

Winery, Brewery, and Jelly Belly Tours

Just an hour away is Napa Valley. You can do a Winery Tour by driving your own car, taking a bus or a Wine Train Ride www.winetrain.com. Budweiser Tours www.budweisertours.com at their West Coast Brewery in Fairfield. You can also take a Hot Air Balloon Ride over the lush vineyards www.napavalleyballoons.com or www.balloonrides.com. Just down the street from the AGM is the Jelly Belly www.jellybelly.com factory where free tours include free samples.

San Francisco – about 2 hours away

If the ocean or dining is your idea of a great get-away – you must see San Francisco. There you can spend the day on Pier 39 http://www.visitfishermanswharf.com/aboutus/default.aspx or www.pier39.com and feast on fresh crab and San Francisco Sour Dough bread, go over the Golden Gate Bridge, visit Ghirardelli Square, ride a Cable Car, visit Coit Tower, or take a boat cruise around Alcatraz www.redandwhite.com or www.blueandgoldfleet.com. You can even visit Alcatraz www.alcatraz.us. (Note if you want to visit Alcatraz you will need to make reservations soon as they sell out months in advance during the summer).

Sacramento area – only 30 min up the road

The area has some of the best train museums in the country. Sacramento has the Railroad Museum www.csrmf.org in Old Town Sacramento or the Western Railway Museum in Fairfield www.wrm.org. Also visit the Towe Auto Museum http://www.toweautomuseum.org, the Heidrick Ag History Museum www.aghistory.org or the Tractor & Truck Museum www.truckmuseum.org with a very large private collection of antique farm and trucks. The Discovery Museum includes the Gold Rush History Center and the Science and Space Center with a public planetarium www.thediscovery.org. You can even see where “Arnie” lives and the California State Capitol.

The Gold Rush Country

Just a couple hours away you can travel Hwy 49 through the Mother Lode Country and step back into time with the 49’ers and Mark Twain. There are museums, ghost towns, historic towns, mines, and even places to try your hand at gold panning http://www.historichwy49.com/mainmap.html. There are even historic steam train rides available. Ever think about touring a cavern or cave? How about repelling down into one? The Gold country has four different caves and Mt. Shasta has two (one that you have to take a boat to get to http://www.totalescape.com/active/leisure/sites/caves.html.

Family Amusement

The Monterey Bay Aquarium is about 2 hrs away www.monterybayaquarium.org, while Raging Waters water park www.ragingwaters.com, and the Sacramento Zoo www.saczoo.com are less than an hour away.

Drives and Hikes

Grab a picnic lunch and head out to some of the most unique and beautiful scenery in the world. You can drive a couple hours up the coast through the Redwood Forest www.redwoods.info and see a real family tree (a tree that is so large it has 20’ trees growing up from it’s branches) or take a tram ride up through the tree tops. There are mountains and more mountains from a quick one hour drive to the Sutter Buttes (the world’s smallest mountain range) to Mr. Shasta http://www.shastahome.com and Mt. Lassen’s Volcanic Park www.nps.gov/lavo which are 2 - 3 hours out. There are several hikes along the famous Pacific Crest Trail, and along the beautiful beaches. You can drive 2 hours south to Morro Bay (where The Birds was filmed) or go 2 hours north to a park where the Roosevelt Elk live in large herds.