What a lovely park. We have family in town that we often visit and I've always driven by this park when I venture out to get my Amped Coffee (yum!), so we decided to come back and bring the little one. We came here on Friday when there were very few people and we really enjoyed ourselves. If you have young kids...hot tip: Stop at the grocery store before coming here and buy a cheap loaf of bread to feed the birds. As a parent, I think that was the highlight of the visit.
Feeding the birds: SO MUCH FUN! We brought a $2 loaf of bread and spent some time feeding the birds. My daughter shared with many other kids and boy, it was a joy to see them all light up and enjoy this activity. The birds will flock to you so it's a really fun activity for the kids.
The playground: My daughter has not played on a playground since March when covid shut everything down here in San Diego/Carlsbad. So, after wiping down a few bars for her to climb on, she was in heaven climbing and being a kid. Maybe it's COVID fatigue or just the pure joy seen on my 5 year olds face, it was enough for me to be a bit more relaxed. I didn't have enough Clorox wipes to wipe down the entire playground...but sigh...the chances we take. She had fun going up and down that 3 story slide.
The Train: For non-residents, we paid $4/each to ride the train and for a parent, I'd say it was ok. My daughter absolutely loved it though. Perhaps it was because they had the sprinklers going and we got really wet. Even though it was chilly, it made it more fun - maybe they should do that regularly. = ) It was a very short ride but a nice little 10-15 minute ride for the kiddos. I can't imagine kids over the age of 7 being thrilled about it but for my 5 year old, she loved it! During COVID, they block off every other seat/train car so you are safely distanced from others. We also brought plenty of wipes to wipe down seats and parts of the carts that we touched, like the railings etc. I did not see them do this in between rides.
We didn't spend more than 2 hours here but it was a great way to spend the afternoon. We had so much fun, we returned on Saturday but there were far more people than the day before. We weren't really comfortable with the huge crowds so we just fed the birds and rode the train again. It was still tons of fun for us. At the very least, I'm sure we'll be back to feed the birds when we are back in the area. read more