Category Archives: San Francisco

Riding horses with Events & Adventures

Find Things to do on a Rainy Day in the Bay Area

Gloomy weather can ruin the moods of even the most optimistic of people, but at Events & Adventures we always find a way to make the most of our time together; no matter what the weather is like, we’ll always have things to do on a rainy day.

It’s happened to all of us—we plan a lovely day outdoors and then the weather decides to be a spoilsport; it begins pouring the night before and continues relentlessly for the next entire day, ruining your plans entirely! When you’re in that situation it’s very easy to fall into a sour mood and wonder what to do to make the day a little less disastrous. That’s where Events & Adventures comes in. We planned a weekend of outdoor adventures, and a little rain didn’t stop us from making the most of our weekend.

On Saturday, a group of us went up to wine country to try a variety of wine from some of the local wineries and educated ourselves on the different varietals. Even though we couldn’t play any of the lawn games because of the weather, we still made the best of it. We shared cheese, crackers, wine and great conversation. Meanwhile in the South Bay, our members turned a flag football game into a successful day of mudball. The rain was coming down hard and our members were playing even harder. Wet and wild was definitely the theme of the day.

Then on Sunday, Raider, Chucky and Buster led our way through the rain. These were some of the horses that members got to ride at Garrod Farms as they enjoyed a trail ride. It was drizzling a bit but this did not stop us from taking in the beautiful landscapes. The trails allowed us to wander through vineyards and oak chaparral forests teeming with wildlife. In the South bay nothing was going to stop us from hiking through that redwood forest and enjoying nature and the company of our fellow members.

So next time you’re looking for things to do on a rainy day, let Events & Adventures create the kind of experience that you’ve always craved.

The Santa Clara Club Becomes Modern Day Cowboys at a Dude Ranch

The Santa Clara club spent a wild day in the west on the Events & Adventures Dude Ranch Adventure.  The day started as all 56 participants took a shot at learning how to rope under the tutelage of a roping expert. Members spun real lassos above their heads and then tried to use them to rope bull horns attached to the front of hay bales.

While the first group of members hit the trails on horseback, the remaining members participated in a haystack search. Each participant had 10 seconds to dig in a huge pile of hay and find the chocolate coins hidden inside. The first and second place winners won fantastic prizes!

When the second group of riders headed out, the tug-of-war began. The competition was fierce (and fun) as five teams struggled to yank each other across the field.  When the third group went on their ride, it was time for two-legged hilarity as the members participated in a two-legged race and went for the gold!

As the final group saddled up and went for the last horseback ride of the day, we got ready for a pie eating contest. After the three lucky participants were chosen at random to take part in the contest, it was on! The competition was tough, but one very messy winner was crowned!

The dude ranch we spent the day on was beautiful, and we got to feel like actual cowboys thanks to the attentive staff. Everyone got to try new things together and the experience helped us bond. The day ended with a country cook-out, barbecue, and great conversation on a beautiful sunny day. There isn’t anything better than being surrounded by nature and spending time with a great group of friends.

Fun Events with Events & Adventures San Francisco

Events & Adventures San Francisco Offers Some Dating Tips

Dating today is different than it was for our parents’ generation. They lived in an era where just sitting down next to a stranger on the ferry could turn into a conversation that might one day lead to marriage and two kids. Our generation lives in a fast-paced world, so sitting down and having a conversation can be hard to manage. Here are a few dating tips for Events & Adventures members that will help make dating in the new millennium much easier.

In today’s world we tend to “play the game,” like arguing with ourselves for hours about when the right time to call back is. We’ve all been there—feeling like we’re at the mercy of someone else’s casual feelings. In a scenario like this, they probably weren’t very interested in making a connection with you at all. You’re left holding on, playing a mind game in hopes that if you just play your cards right they’ll see how ridiculously awesome you are and you’ll both end up happily ever after.  Do yourself a favor and stop playing games—unless that game is dodgeball or a board game with Events & Adventures!

We also make the mistake of looking for instant gratification. We’re all so busy we feel like we don’t have the time to put ourselves out there—after all, who knows how long it will be before you get a chance to see someone again, or how long it will take to figure out where to meet next time you do?  We worry that by the time we figure these things out the person will have lost interest or moved on.

Dating through social media only encourages this mentality; people on Tinder are used to swiping in one direction and finding someone they can hook up with in an instant.  When you date on the internet it’s not who you are, but how you look. Studies have even been done where fake dating profiles were created with objectively terrible personal biographies and pictures of attractive supermodels—and despite how disgusting these fake profiles sounded they still received dozens of messages a day.

Events & Adventures is the perfect way to break this habit; when you join us, all you have to do is show up. We take care of planning the events and finding great people; you focus on starting a conversation with a new friend while playing flag football or putting your brains together to solve the scavenger hunt.

Dating has become a sport. We date because we believe we’re supposed to date. Our schedules are so packed we fit in opportunities to date whenever we can, and often the caliber of the people we meet aren’t the quality of companionship we deserve. But Events & Adventures members have the chance to really connect with people, have rewarding experiences, and the opportunity to build a friendship and see where it leads. So as a reminder, here are some dating tips to help you really make a connection:

  • DO make Eye Contact (Put the phone away!)
  • DONT mistake kindness for attraction
  • DO be original, BE YOU, if they can’t like you for who you really are they are not worth it.
  • DONT think chivalry is dead (it’s not), remember small genuine gestures of kindness matter.

Events & Adventures allows you to be active, be yourself and to create new experiences while making friends. You never know when you might find that special connection.

Fun events with Events & Adventures Santa Clara

Events & Adventures Santa Clara Gets its Members VIP Treatment

What’s it like to be treated like a VIP at the stadium that just weeks before the mostly highly sponsored and most highly viewed annual sporting event in the world? On March 12th, the members of Events & Adventures Santa Clara found out!

Forty of our members got a private tour of Levi’s Stadium and everyone at the venue went out of their way to make sure that this was an extraordinary day. Our group was given the honor of being the first people allowed in to tour the stadium since the Super Bowl.  We were given unbelievable access to the player’s locker rooms, VIP seating areas, the broadcasting booth, the field (which still had the Super Bowl grass) and much more.

After the tour our members were given access to the interactive Levi’s Stadium Museum. The entire museum was reserved just for our members and we were able to try on the 49er’s uniforms, perform routines with cyber 49ers cheerleaders, and run the 40-yard dash against cyber-versions of some of the team’s most famous players thanks to the magic of technology.

We ended the day with a meal at The Bourbon Pub, a restaurant located at the stadium. Everyone at the restaurant bent over backward to serve our huge group and make sure that everyone had a fantastic time!  Spending the day at Levi’s Stadium with our Events & Adventures friends is a memory that everyone will surely cherish for a very long time to come.

Single group events with Events & Adventures San Francisco

Celebrating Irish Culture with Events & Adventures San Francisco

Every year on March 17, the Irish and the Irish-at-heart across the globe observe St. Patrick’s Day. What began as a religious feast day for the patron saint of Ireland has become an international festival celebrating Irish culture with parades, dancing, special foods and a whole lot of green. Events & Adventures San Francisco is celebrating the entire week with fun filled events for everyone to participate in. You don’t need to be Irish to get together and enjoy some corned beef and cabbage, just make sure you wear green so you don’t get pinched.

This week started with The St. Patrick’s Day Parade in downtown San Francisco, complete with leprechauns, bagpipes and kilts. The performers marched down Market Street to celebrate and showcased the Irish community, Irish culture and character in all its forms. Then the real fun began when the Irish Bank, a local pub in San Francisco shut down the alley way for a giant block party with live music and of course green beer. Events & Adventures members kept the party going into the weekend; we all dressed up in green and got to try beer from over 30 local breweries including Anchor Steam, 21st Amendment, Lost Coast and many more. Members got to try beer, learn to dance to Irish jigs and listening to reels, hornpipes and polkas all at the Fairfax Brew Fest.

St. Patrick’s Day is a day most of us look forward to, and in the spirit of the holiday here are some traditions that go along with it—some are more familiar than others.

  • Drinking – Since many Irish-Americans are Catholics, some may be required give up alcohol for Lent. However, they are allowed to break this fast during the St. Patrick’s Day celebrations. This is one reason why the day is so heavily associated with drinking.
  • Dyeing water or beer green – Chicago dyes its river green for St. Patrick’s Day festivities, and many bars serve green beer. The White House also dyes the water in its fountain green. Lots of cities incorporate green in public displays in different ways. For example in Seattle, all the floats of the St. Patrick’s Day parade are painted green and observers are supposed to wear green or else risk being pinched.
  • Pea planting – In the Northeast, many celebrate by planting peas. The color of the plants and the fact that this time of year makes for ideal growing conditions make it a perfect tradition for St. Patrick’s Day.

To Events & Adventures members new and old, find that lucky shamrock and follow the leprechaun to the end of the rainbow where you might find your pot of gold, or even better meet some new lads and lasses to celebrate with!

Single group events with Events & Adventures San Francisco

Events & Adventures Has Their Own Amazing Race in Santa Clara

Last week 44 members of Events & Adventures Santa Clara participated in the club’s Amazing Race event.  Members drew colored armbands from a hat, and the colors that were drawn determined the teams. The groups then raced from Shoreline Lake to Rengstorff Park in Mountain View. We made a four-mile trek using three different modes of transportation, over land and water, and going outside our comfort zones while we worked as a team to win prizes and an epic BBQ.

With seven or eight people on each team, and other members stationed throughout Mountain View California, the race began! Five teams played “Peddle Boat Tag”. Two members at a time churned across the lake, and once on the other side, one member of the team had to exit and tag the bushes on the shore. The duo peddled back to the dock, gave another set of teammates their life jackets and joined their group in cheering on the members who were still racing.

Once all members of a team had finished the peddle boat leg, they were directed to a bicycle waiting by the dock. At that point, the entire team ran to the “Bicycle Basketball” station. There, one-by-one each member had to try and throw a basketball into their team’s basket while riding their bicycle around the court.  Once this task was completed by all the members of a team, the group was given a clue that they had to decipher. It led them to a bridge and there, a club member stationed there handed the team another clue. Once solved, this clue told the teams to follow the edge of a golf course to the park’s kite flying area.

When contestants arrived at the kite flying area, they were met by another member who gave each team a kite-making kit. Each team was required to build the kite as quickly as possible. Once the kite flew in the air for two minutes, the member who was supervising gave the team another envelope with their next clue, as well as a list of tasks that they could accomplish along the way for time deduction bonuses. Teams had to take a group selfie outside the gates of the park, take pictures with any Google self-driving cars that they saw, and attempt to form the word “Google” in front of one of the Google signs using only their bodies—all as we raced to our Events & Adventures chapter’s favorite bar and volleyball venue. Once there, another member made sure that each team hit the volleyball over the net ten times without it hitting the sand before they could be given the next clue.

The next clue contained a multitude of riddles that directed the teams through several streets until they came to another park. There, a member was waiting with balloon-covered boards. The teams were then given a blindfold and darts, and while each team member attempted to hit the balloons, their teammates would shout directions to help them aim.  Once a team was ready to move on, they were given the final set of clues which would take the teams to the game’s finish line—Rengstorff Park.

Each member of the team that finished the race the fastest won an Events & Adventures Amazing Race Mountain View water bottle filled with tiny Jelly Belly Champagne Bottles and Pop Rocks. The best prize, however, was all the laughter that ensued at the barbecue that followed the race, as everyone relived the excitement of the day.

Events & Adventures can be The Perfect Makeshift Sports Club in the Bay Area

Bay Area Events & Adventures members like Wesley Chang look forward to the annual rite of spring that is baseball, and when our club members need a group of people to enjoy their favorite sports with, Events & Adventures is the best sports club they could ask for. Wesley and fellow member Kris Marie both revel in their memories of Game 4 of the 2012 Division Series when the A’s pulled off a stunning come-from-behind win.

“That was the most incredible baseball game I’ve been to!” Kris recalls.

Robert Miller remembers that night in 2012 very well. He and a group of Events & Adventures members attended an event planned by the club at a bar in downtown San Jose. Little did they know that would be the night the San Francisco Giants would win the World Series for the first time in a long time. Robert feels that the day was made even more special because he and all his Events & Adventures friends were able to celebrate the event together. Watching the game together made them all feel like a sports club, but getting to celebrate history being made turned them into lifelong friends.

Our sports events are popular among our members. Sam Rothstein, another Events & Adventures member from the Bay Area, says his favorite experience at an Events & Adventures event was at an A’s game. Events & Adventures booked a luxury suite to watch the game, and everyone was able to comfortably mingle and experience the game in a way most of them never had before. The night ended up being unforgettable.

Just hear it from Kris Marie, “I’ve gone to the A’s opening day with Events & Adventures three years in a row, and I’ve always had a great time, even though I’m a Giants fan!”

Events & Adventures member Toni Duffy summed it up well when she said, “Baseball is summertime to me”. And what better way to kick off the summer than adding a new spin to your favorite sports by experiencing them with Events & Adventures Bay Area.

Spend Your Whole Week Meeting New Friends

This week we broke away from the ordinary and spent our free time with an amazing group of new friends. While Valentine’s Day is usually miserable for singles, Events & Adventures members spent the day laughing at Rooster T. Feather’s, a local comedy club, because laughter is infinitely sexier than spending Valentine’s Day alone. After that we left our stress (and a lot of our common sense) on the curb as we watched Zoolander 2 from the comfort of recliners at a luxury movie theatre—the day was spent in the company of good people with lots of great conversation.

But that was just the beginning of our week; our adventures included a rousing evening of sand volleyball with a huge crowd of members, and volunteering at Second Harvest Food bank. We also went bowling, and enjoyed meeting new people while having some great drinks. We ended our week on Saturday with a challenging hike through the Saratoga Mountains and ending it by filing into a party bus for some bar hopping. But this isn’t anything out of the ordinary here at Events & Adventures, just another busy week filled with interesting places and meeting great people.

Events & Adventures members attack the ropes course!

Meet New People While Embarking on New Adventures

It’s not summer yet, but the weather is starting to make it feel like it’s just around the corner. Last Saturday Events & Adventures members from the Bay Area enjoyed the amazing February weather as we challenged ourselves to work together on an outdoor ropes course at Fort Miley in San Francisco.

The combination of low and high rope courses enable participants to grow as both a team and individuals by exploring skills like leadership, communication, problem-solving, and coaching. The low ropes course focuses on collaboration; the challenges call upon every member of the team to participate, while the high-rope course emphasizes risk-taking, trust, and coaching. The challenges enable participants to expand their comfort zones, sometimes dramatically and recognize their fears while conquering them. The adventures we undertook helped us bond on a level that probably couldn’t achieve otherwise!

Everyone worked together with members they just met, or ones they’ve been getting to know. We helped each other leap over walls, shimmy across a line between two trees, and make our way from one plank to another while we were suspended in the air. It was a great day, but in a way, the day in the life of an Events & Adventures member!

Listening To Opera Outside With Friends!

San jose opera and Events and Adventures

Santana Row is a beautiful place on a summer afternoon. It’s especially beautiful while sitting on the grass listening to beautiful live opera! San Jose Opera came to The Row to give a free outdoor performance. We had a great group of people who brought blankets and snacks to hang out and have an opera picnic. The performers were amazing, and I thoroughly enjoyed it. I only wished I would understand what they were saying! However, at one point the song “If I were a rich man” from Fiddler on the Roof came on as an example of America Musical Theater & I LOVED it. The audience really got into it! Our group started clapping along and singing the words! Afterwards we headed to the quaint little wine bar and got to know each other. The best part was at the wine bar where we discussed all the places we would like to travel and some of the weird paranormal places you could go… There are so many cool places to travel to! 

Events and Adventures San Francisco