With the exception of Dollhouses, Trains & More, the maximum miniature mega-destination up north in Novato, the miniature shops in the Bay Area are strung along the Peninsula between San Francisco and the suburbs of San Jose. So let's get going! This is a driving trip.Stop 1: San Carlos, Shellie's Miniature ManiaFrom San Francisco or the airport, take US-101 south to the Holly exit. Get in the middle lane, cross Old County Rd. and El Camino Real, then turn left on Laurel. Go three blocks and look to the right side of the street. This shop is closed Sundays and Mondays.Shellie's is the big regional dollhouse shop for the entire area south of the city. About half of the shop space is given over to classes, and Shellie is able to bring in an impressive slate of workshop teachers, including Rik Pierce and Bluette Meloney. As a result, you'll find artisanal pieces in stock, as well as a good supply of dollhouse parts. There is also a small stock of smaller-scale furniture, houses, and materials. I find the stock runs heavier on the Victorian and Bespaq-type pieces than really interests me, but this means almost everyone else on earth will absolutely love it. And then there's Shellie's own masterpiece, a huge Victorian mansion that is fully furnished and embellished. I believe she sells the plans for that one.Detour: If you're gutsy about going north on Laurel, J&M Hobby at 1660 Laurel is a very strange place with the odd (sometimes very odd) find. I have trouble finding them, so don't go as often as I might. I discovered this store when I forgot where Shellie's was.Stop 2: Mountain View, Global BeadsFrom Shellie's, get back on the freeway where you got off, or take El Camino Real south to the next 101 entrance. From 101, take the CA-85 exit. Get off CA-85 at El Camino Real, going NORTH. Turn right at Castro. Once you pass California, the shop will be on your right. Closed Mondays.I love bead stores. Global Beads has a ton of stuff, much of it exotic and weird. I've bought a lot of chickens for Gala's kitchen, and of course there are all the usual beads.What if: Mountain View is the southernmost of a bunch of small towns on 101, all of which are quaint and have little shops. My experience is that Mountain View has the best bead store, the best used-book store (just west of Global Beads), and the best array of halfway affordable restaurants. But there's nothing stopping you from checking out downtown Redwood City or Palo Alto. If you take El Camino Real south from Shellie's, instead of getting back on the freeway, you can stop at every burg in the byte belt.Stop 3: Campbell, D&J HobbyFrom CA-85 (in the Santa Cruz direction), take the Saratoga Ave. (eastbound) exit. Turn right on Cambell Ave. Get in the second lane to the left so that you don't turn left into Westgate Mall but take the left fork around the modern condos, onto Hamilton Ave. At the light for San Tomas Aquino, turn right. The shopping center is on your left and has a fine dollar store as well.D&J is an old-fashioned hobby store that carries tons of supplies to build just about anything. Compared to Michael's (conveniently down the road in Westgate), there are fewer craft supplies, but there are actual dollhouse kits, dollhouse furniture, accessories, dollhouse parts, mission supplies (fourth-graders in California build missions), train supplies (useful for 1:48!), wargame stuff, action figures... there is just a lot of stuff. The dollhouse furniture selection skews toward the less expensive end of the market, though D&J does not carry the least expensive house kits. This is the only dollhouse store where I've ever seen anyone shopping with a child. (A very well-behaved young lady chose a violet-covered bedroom set for her first dollhouse.) I've gotten some decent bargains on Reutter Porzellan, and you can find most of the standard dollhouse-building books here, too. For a while, I was coming here regularly on my weekly trips to teach in Santa Clara. There's a level of serious collecting at which D&J may not be quite your style, but I find it a lot of fun and very reliable.Stop 4: Campbell, The Miniature SceneFrom D&J, take the left back onto San Tomas Aquino. At the first light, turn left onto Campbell Ave. Go past the San Tomas Expressway and turn right onto Winchester Blvd. Go about six blocks and keep your eyes peeled for a strip mall on your left. If you cross railroad tracks, you missed it. Closed Mondays.This is a very small and very cool shop. It's not the place to stock up on basics (though she carries some) -- instead, come here when you want something special and aren't quite sure what. This is where we bought the pirates' palm bathroom set and also where I stock up on mini-Roseville pottery. There are quite a few other mini versions of famous American art pottery lines, plus some remarkable quarter-scale artisanal pieces. This shop also offers a full schedule of classes.What happened to San Jose? Those of us old enough to remember when there were seven, yes seven shops in the San Jose area will be wondering how we skipped straight from Mountain View to Campbell without touching San Jose or Santa Clara. Trust me: things have changed. If you're not from around here, you may enjoy checking out Santana Row, north of the Miniature Scene on Winchester at Stevens Creek Blvd. Otherwise, it's all pretty much the Land O' Malls, enclosed, strip, and occasionally failed.That's your tour of the South Bay mini stores. If you do go up Winchester to Santana Row, there's a big freeway at either end of Stevens Creek Blvd. The one to the right (east) is I-880, which will head off to Oakland. The one to the left (west) gives you a choice of I-280 (the fast, scenic route to San Francisco) or the Lawrence Expressway, which will eventually join US-101 (the slow, grungy route back to San Francisco).But wait! There's a potential detour if you're still feeling lively. From either US-101 or I-280, take CA-92 west (toward Half Moon Bay and away from the Hayward-San Mateo Bridge). Just follow the road to Half Moon Bay and go to the Olde Victorian, which is down at the bottom of Main Street. (It's also closed Sundays and Mondays.) This is a cool shop, stuffed with goodies, some quite unusual. I go there only rarely because HMB is bit of a drive, aggressively quaint, and not near much else; but I always buy something when I do. The selection of leopard accessories alone is enough to rivet the attention.