Page 74 - 2018 Travel Guide to California

SANTA CLARA
Silicon Valley city with NFL and theme park fun, history and high-tech
B Y L A U R A D E L R O S S O
SANTA CLARA UNIVERSITY and Mission
Santa Clara de Asis, above; Gold Striker at
California’s Great America, below; Levi’s
Stadium, home of the San Francisco 49ers,
opposite top; fun at the Intel Museum,
opposite bottom.
SANTA CLARA, just an hour south of San
Francisco, lies in the heart of tech capital
Silicon Valley, an area firmly focused on the
future but with a history that stretches back
to the founding of California.
The opening of Levi’s Stadium in 2014
and its subsequent hosting of Super Bowl
50 in 2016, put Santa Clara in the national
spotlight. In January 2019, the stadium will
be the venue for the College Football Playoff
National Championship game.
Not only is the 69,900-seat stadium
home to the San Francisco 49ers, it is the
venue for college football, international
soccer, Taylor Swift and Beyoncé concerts
and more. Its 20,000-square-foot 49ers
Museum celebrates the team’s history in 11
galleries and interactive exhibit spaces
devoted to NFL history, Super Bowl Cham-
pionships and the Lombardi Trophies. The
museum and the stadium are open for
tours and visits year-round.
Theme Park Fun, Sports,
Shopping & Festivals
There’s much more to see in Santa Clara.
Families find entertainment and thrills at
the state’s only combination theme and
water park, California’s Great America,
which offers more than 100 acres of rides
and shows. Last year the park introduced
Patriot, a floorless roller coaster that whips
visitors 91 feet into the air and then drops
into a 360-degree loop. More thrills are on
tap in 2018 with the new RailBlazer, a single-
rail coaster that riders straddle as they speed
over twisting track, rising to 106 feet before
they fall face down at a 90-degree angle.
Children enjoy the park’s Planet Snoopy
where they ride aboard Snoopy’s giant skate-
board, take a Peanuts race-car for a spin and
hop on Snoopy’s Space Buggies, which lifts
them high in the air for a lunar landing.
The local dining scene is booming with
new restaurants Prime 109 Steak and Liba-
72 2018 T R AV E L G U I D E TO C A L I F O R N I A