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Other Bay Area Parks The San Francisco Bay Area is home to two other popular parks: California's Great America (in Santa Clara) and Six Flags Dis- covery Kingdom (in Vallejo). Great America, next to the new Levi's Sta- dium, is all about rides. Diversions range from scream-inducing (Flight Deck, a roller coaster, has one 360-degree loop and a zero- gravity roll) to family-friendly (the Carousel Columbia is the world's tallest double- decker carousel). In the summer of 2013, the park opened the Gold Striker, the tallest and fastest wooden roller coaster in Northern California. The coaster climbs over 108 feet and sends passengers shooting at freeway speeds of up to 54 m.p.h. The vibe at Discovery Kingdom is more eclectic. In addition to rides such as the Medusa roller coaster and SkyScreamer (a swing ride), the park also is home to a number of animals, including Jocko the walrus, who starred in the 2004 movie, 50 First Dates, and Brandon the reticulated giraffe, who was named after San Francisco Giants slugger, Brandon Belt. In 2015, park officials are expecting to add Dare Devil Chaos Coaster, a roller coaster that takes passengers upside-down in both forward and backward directions. San Diego Area Parks San Diego and its surrounding suburbs also comprise a great region for theme parks; two family favorites are SeaWorld and Legoland. Out near Mission Bay, in San Diego proper, SeaWorld is a sprawling homage to dozens of different species of marine life, including dolphins, sea lions, walruses, polar bears and beluga whales. It also is one of only two places in the world where emperor penguins are kept in captivity. In the nearby community of Carlsbad, Legoland is dedicated to tiny plastic bricks (dubbed "Legos"), and boasts mind-bog- gling Lego replicas of famous architectural icons (the Statue of Liberty and the Taj Mahal among them) as well as dioramas of seven areas of the U.S. The park incorpo- rates rides and eateries, and is home to the Model Shop, the headquarters for the park's 10 master builders (a window allows guests to witness these professionals at work). In the summer of 2013, the park also opened a hotel; the lobby has a giant pit of Legos with which children can play. CityPASS Once you've decided where to go, try City- PASS for saving some money: In Southern California, it knocks as much as one third off the price of admission to Disneyland, Disney California Adventure Park, Universal Studios Hollywood and SeaWorld. The Southern California CityPASS is a single- admission card that's good over a 14-day period and allows you to skip most ticket lines. In San Francisco, CityPass offers sim- ilar discounts (for attractions such as the California Academy of Sciences and the Exploratorium), and is good for nine days. Buy your CityPASS at any of the above attrac- tions or online at citypass.com. 58 2 0 1 5 T R A V E L G U I D E T O C A L I F O R N I A CA.THEME PARKS ยป FIND YOUR FANTASY Children's Fairyland fairyland.org Universal Studios Hollywood universalstudioshollywood.com Disneyland disneyland.disney.go.com California's Great America cagreatamerica.com Six Flags Discovery Kingdom sixflags.com/discoverykingdom Legoland California california.legoland.com SeaWorld seaworldparks.com/en/ seaworld-sandiego Knott's Berry Farm knotts.com CityPASS citypass.com GOLD STRIKER ROLLER COASTER at California's Great America, Santa Clara, below. SANTA CLARA CVB