Page 100 - 2015 Travel Guide to California

SANTA CLARA
New Levi’s Stadium adds to city’s theme park fun, history and high-tech
B Y L A U R A D E L R O S S O
LEVI’S STADIUM, the new home of
the San Francisco 49ers, above; an
advertising retrospective display at
the Intel Museum, below.
SANTA CLARA, just an hour south of San
Francisco in the heart of tech capital Sil-
icon Valley, has stepped into the national
spotlight with the addition of new Levi’s
Stadium. The 68,500-seat venue, which is
expandable to 75,000, is readying to host
WWE’s WrestleMania 31 in March, 2015
and the National Football League’s 50th
annual Super Bowl in February, 2016.
Not only is the stadium home to the San
Francisco 49ers, but it also hosts college
football, domestic and international
soccer, concerts and other special events.
Its 20,000-square-foot 49ers Museum cel-
ebrates the team’s history in 11 galleries
and interactive exhibit spaces devoted to
sports history, Super Bowl Championships
and the Lombardi Trophies. The museum
and the stadium are open for tours and
visits year round.
Theme Park Fun, Sports,
Shopping & Festivals
Families find entertainment and thrills at
California’s only combination theme and
water park, California’s Great America,
which offers more than 100 acres of rides
and shows. The park, open late March
through October, is celebrating its 40th year
by expanding the Planet Snoopy play area
in time for its 2015 opening. Three new
rides will include Gr8sk8, an interactive
ride aboard Snoopy’s giant skateboard, a
Peanuts 500 race car ride and Snoopy’s
Space Buggies, which will lift astronauts
high in the air for a lunar landing. The vast
Boomerang Bay water park features water
slides, rivers for tubing and pools.
Elsewhere in the city, sports fans will
find plenty to cheer. The city hosts major
swim meets at the George F. Haines Inter-
98 2015 T R AV E L G U I D E TO C A L I F O R N I A