Steve Hall ABR, CDPE, GREEN, SFR

The ECM Mission
The mission of the Escondido Children's Museum is to inspire children to learn about our world through exploration, imagination, and experimentation.

The Escondido Children's Museumis a wonderful place of inspiration for young children. The 4500 square foot Children's Museum is located the Grape Day Park at 380 N. Escondido Blvd and is open 5 days a week. Tuesday, Thursday, Saturday: 10 am to 3 pm Wednesday,Friday: 12 noon to 4 pm (closed Sunday and Monday)

The Museum has many different interactive exhibits that help to teach our youngsters. There is an indoor Wildlife treehouse with exhibits of native plants and animals. There is also an "Understand the Fires" exhibit, which presents information about fires in an educational and non-threatening way.

In addition to the indoor exhibits, the museum includes the "California Courtyard." Featuring plants that are either native, waterwise or of historic importance for the region, the garden also has a raised bed for children to participate in gardening activities. The is an adobe exhibit with hand-on props to help children imagine life during the Mission period in California.

BIRTHDAY PARTIES The ECM can be rented out for children's birthday parties and includes two options. For my money, option 1 is the way to go since the museum provides a Party Coordinator that helps to plan AND run the party. The museum has several different themes to choose from or you can simply create your own theme. The current available themes are:

The Escondido Children's Museum has only been in existence for 8 years but has made an impact in Escondido and the surrounding communities. I am sure that their goals and visions will continue to grow with their newest team member, Steve Kildoo. Steve has taken on the awesome task of being the museums Executive Director and is a great fit due to his long history in North County with non-profit organizations. Steve has the experience, tenacity and community connections to help change the lives of thousands of children though the ECM.

Mark your calendar and set your alarm!

The San Marcos Sheriff's Station and the City of San Marcos in partnership with the Kiwanis Club of San Marcos will be hosting the 11th annual Pancake Breakfast Fundraiser. All proceeds this year will benefit the Boys and Girls Club of San Marcos.

Date: Thursday, November 06, 2008

Time: 6:00 AM until 10:00 AM

Cost: $5.00 donation

Place: San Marcos Community Center, 3 Civic Center Drive, San Marcos, CA 92069

The Boys and Girls Club of San Marcos offers the following:

On August 15th a petition was filed with the CPUC by Assemblyman Martin Garrick and several Chambers in the area, including Carlsbad, Encinitas, Escondido, Oceanside, San Marcos and Vista.

Today the CPUCreversed the mandated split of the 760 area code. The new 442 area code will now be an overlay within the same boundaries as specified for the new 442 area code. The mandated change of the area code for North San Diego County would have been a heavy burden on the businesses within the change area. By using a 442 overlay instead of a complete split of the area code for all of North San Diego County, the businesses in the area will avoid spending thousands of dollars to modify their advertising and marketing information.

The City of San Marcos has just opened the first of several new parks being built within the City limits.  Hollandia Park is a 30+ acre park that has many ammenities:

• Two lighted softball fields
• One lighted multi-purpose field that is big enough for soccer events
• Several picnic areas (one of which can be used for large parties of up to 100 people)
• Large tot lot for smaller children
• A climbing wall adjacent to the tot lot
• Horseshoe pits (3)
• Amphitheater that seats roughly 150 people
• Dog park that features a small dog area and a LARGE dog area
• Skate Park
• over 1-1/2 miles of walking trails

San Elijo Hills in San Marcos is the City's newest master planned community with over 3000 homes. The Towncenter is a 90 acre, mixed use area that offers San Elijo residents a place to work, shop, play and relax. San Elijo offers single family neighborhoods, retail, office and multi-family units, which are all spokes surrounding the hub at the Towncenter.

The community offers miles of wonderful multi-use hiking trails. San Marcos has over fifty miles of hiking trails, which includes the 18 miles of trails in San Elijo Hills. Take advantage of the trails on Nov 1st, 2008 and participate in San Marcos Trials Day. From the parks and trails within San Elijo Hills you will find spectacular mountain and ocean views.

One of the newest additions to the San Elijo Hills area is the San Marcos City Fire Station #4. The fire station was created as a high performance GREEN building and is the City's first certified LEED building. The stations photovoltaic system (pictured below right) produces 85 to 90% of the power needed to run the station. (UPDATE One of only 4 LEED Gold Certified fire stations in the country)

During the day there is no need to use electricity to light the apparatus floor due to the type of doors seen in the photo. Of course, I took these photos on one of the three non-sunny days in San Diego County so they had the lighting on.

Speaking of fire; I noticed a sign near one of the many parks that must mean that, in all of San Elijo Hills, there is only a 30 foot circle in-which one is allowed to smoke.