Frosty fun: 6 cool ways to beat the heat in the Bay Area this summer
Lace up the skates at Sharks Ice, try curling in Oakland, hit the waterslides in Concord and Santa Clara and brave the "arctic tour" at Fentons Creamery.
Don’t let the heat stop you from having a cool time this summer. There are plenty of ways to mix thrills and (literal) chills in the Bay Area — from trying out an icy Olympic sport to bundling up for an evening concert on a mountaintop. Here are six ideas for having some frosty fun over the next few months
Curling time
You might have watched this fascinating sport during the Winter Olympics or perhaps on one of the many ESPN channels late one random night. Now you can try it out for yourself. The San Francisco Bay Area Curling Club, the oldest of its kind in California, opened a facility in Oakland last year.
The sport’s origins date back at least 500 years to medieval Scotland, and it’s been a hit in Canada for eons. It’s the fastest-growing winter sport around the world, not just in icy climes, but in Mexico, India and here too, with the number of league-playing curlers nearly doubling in the last dozen years, according to USA Curling.
Anything done on an ice rink is a good way to cool down, especially when the air temperature is set at supermarket-cooler levels. But it’s also a fun way to get some exercise: Players slide 40-plus-pound stones across the ice, madly sweeping brooms ahead of those gliding rocks to ease the path to the house — also known as the target.
Details: Learn to curl at introductory classes ($20-$40) at the San Francisco Bay Area Curling Club, 8450 Enterprise Way, Oakland; bayareacurling.com.
Lace ’em up
Ready for even more ice time? You can do your best Kristi Yamaguchi or Tomas Hertl impression when you lace up your skates at one of the Bay Area’s three Sharks Ice facilities.
The biggest of the bunch, not surprisingly, is in San Jose, where the San Jose Sharks host open practices that fans can attend during the season. The facility had just two rinks when it opened in 1994, but it’s grown mightily over the years and now has six National Hockey League regulation size rinks. At around 400 square feet, it ranks as the biggest ice facility under one roof in the U.S.
It’s a popular destination for ice skaters of all levels and boasts the largest adult hockey league west of the Mississippi. Ice lovers also play broom ball here — it’s kind of like hockey, only you keep your sneaks on — and try their hand at curling.
Our favorite part about this icy destination is Stanley’s Sports Bar, which channels a cozy ski chalet vibe and provides a great vantage point for parents and grandparents to nosh on cheeseburgers, salads and nachos, as they watch their kids skate. It’s a great spot to refuel after your own skating experience, too.
The Sharks also manage smaller ice facilities in Fremont with two rinks and Oakland (with one), which also draw healthy crowds of chill-seekers.
Details: Sharks Ice is open daily at 1500 S. 10th St. in San Jose (sharksiceatsanjose.com); 44388 Old Warm Springs Blvd. in Fremont (sharksiceatfremont.com); and 519 18th St. in Oakland (oaklandice.com).
Music on the Mountain
Veteran concertgoers always bring a jacket or a coat — or both — when visiting the historic Mountain Winery in Saratoga. Even on an incredibly hot day, the evenings can still get chilly up at Paul Masson’s legendary “Vineyard in the Sky.” The warm days and cool nights make for ideal conditions for growing grapes. Not so much for trying to enjoy the Psychedelic Furs in shorts and a tank top.
But when temperatures soar, we embrace the mountain top chill and enjoy the two-hour respite from summer’s heat while watching such acclaimed acts as Diana Krall, Brit Floyd and Boyz II Men perform at the nearly 120-year-old winery site, which provides some of the most spectacular views to be found in all of the Bay Area.
Details: The Mountain Winery summer season runs through Oct. 17 at 14831 Pierce Road, Saratoga; mountainwinery.com.
Waterslide mania
The Bay Area is awash in cool water parks, all offering different ways to beat the heat. Concord’s Six Flags Hurricane Harbor, for example, boasts a wide array of attractions, from the relaxing Kaanapali Kooler Lazy River to the six-story-tall Break Point Plunge and its 270-foot-long looping journey.
We love spending a hot day at South Bay Shores at California’s Great America, splashing it up in the Breakers Bay wave pool, cruising along in tubes on the mellow Rushin’ River and soaring down the towering Pacific Surge Slides.
H2O fans can also soak up the fun at Dublin’s The Wave waterpark, San Jose’s Raging Waters and Fremont’s Aqua Adventure Waterpark. Just don’t forget the sunscreen.
Details: Hurricane Harbor is open daily this summer at 1950 Waterworld Parkway, Concord; sixflags.com/hurricaneharborconcord. South Bay Shores is at 4701 Great America Parkway, Santa Clara; cagreatamerica.com/south-bay-shores. And the summer season has already begun at The Wave (4201 Central Parkway, Dublin; thedublinwave.com), Raging Waters (2333 S. White Road, San Jose; rwsplash.com) and Aqua Adventure Waterpark (40500 Paseo Padre Parkway, Fremont; goaquaadventure.com).
Arctic blast
Folks may not need yet another reason to visit Fentons Creamery. After all, the iconic Black and Tan sundae — with its dreamy mix of caramel and fudge over toasted almond and vanilla ice cream — is more than enough to keep bringing us back to the flagship Oakland location.
But those looking to take their cool-downs to the extreme should think about signing up for the creamery’s Arctic Tour.
Led by Fentons’ Stefanie Hastie, these 30-minute tours begin with a bit of history about the creamery, which got its start in 1894 and moved to its current location on Piedmont Avenue around 1960.
From there, Hastie brings her guests into the Fentons workspace, where the ice cream as well as those amazing caramel and fudge toppings are crafted. At that point, you can decide if you want to brave the oh-so-very-cold blast freezer, which is where newly made ice cream is stored. How cold is it? It clocked in at minus 15 degrees on our visit.
The tour concludes with a demonstration of cream whipping technique — turns out you can create three different kinds of textured whipped cream. And, yes, you get ice cream samples.
Details: Tours ($9) are available by reservation (call 510-658-7000 and leave a message; someone will get back to you) and offered at 10, 10:30 and 11 a.m. Mondays and Fridays. Find Fentons at 4226 Piedmont Ave. in Oakland; fentonscreamery.com.
Go under the Bay
Get out of the sun and into the Aquarium of the Bay, the fascinating Pier 39 attraction that is home to more than 24,000 kinds of marine life. Just being near water is cooling, but head to the Under the Bay exhibit area, and you’ll be surrounded by it. A 300-foot-long clear acrylic tunnel runs through a 750,000 gallon tank that is absolutely teeming with swimming creatures.
The exhibit is broken up into two areas. The Near Shore Tunnel spotlights rockfish, bright orange garibaldi and other sea life that make their homes in the shallow areas of the Bay. Meanwhile, the Sharks of Alcatraz Tunnel allows visitors to get close — but thankfully for our comfort level, not too close — to leopard sharks and sevengill sharks, the Bay’s largest predatory creature.
Other attractions include touch pools, where you can touch bat rays, sea stars and even leopard sharks, as well as those ever-popular, rambunctious river otters.
Details: The Aquarium of the Bay is open from 11 a.m. to 6 p.m. daily on Pier 39 in San Francisco. Tickets are $25-$35; aquariumofthebay.org.