FREE Stuff to Do

This page is meant to provide an easy-to-find list all of the  free stuff that's been identified and included in the wiki.  At the moment, all of the links go to other wiki pages.

• ARC Laundry (Moffett Field) - Not very recreational, but definitely free.

• Computer History Museum (Mountain View) - Exhibits on computers, mostly since around 1950, but there's also a Babbage Difference Engine on display (a 5-ton automatic mechanical calculator from the 1800s, and distant ancestor of your iPod).

• Intel Museum (Santa Clara) -

• Lick Observatory (northeast of ARC/Moffett Field) - Daytime tours of the telescopes are free.  Just don't go there at night, it annoys the astronomers.

• Mount Tamalpais State Park (northwest of San Francisco) - A great view of the Golden Gate Bridge, plus hiking, biking, and an outdoor theater that holds an annual broadway musical.  No, really.

• Muir Beach (northwest of San Francisco) - A scenic beach (but not for swimming) and it surrounding area.

• Muir Woods (northwest of San Francisco) - Huge, gigantic, we're talking really really BIG trees.

• NASA Exploration Center (Mountain View) - More often referred to on ARC as the Visitor Center, it's the big white tenty thing near the main gate.

• Randall Museum - A museum of science, nature, and art for children and adults.

• Shoreline Park (Mountain View) - Not everything that you can do here is free (paddle boats and sail boats have to be rented), but the walking trails, biking trails, and kite flying area are all free.  It's not a bad place for a picnic, either.

• Stanford University Tours (Palo Alto) -

• US Geological Survey Evening Public Lecture Series - Lectures on things geological.