First stop was the Huntington Beach Adventure Park. I got the idea for this excursion from a friend of mine, Brenda Ponnay aka Secret Agent Josephine. She has a great blog and is a uber-talented gal.
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| Opening up the place |
We showed up right at 10am when it opened (ok, maybe we were 10 minutes early), you know cause that's the way I roll. Admission was only $3. and let me tell you that this may be the best $9 I spent all summer.
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| Huckleberry Finn anyone?? |
There is a medium size pond with a bunch of rafts the kids can take out. Now, before anyone gets too excited let me say that at the deepest point the water came up to the kid's thighs. So not too deep, but deep enough for fun.
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| Mom! Mom! Mom! Mom! Watch me!! |
Besides rafting, the Adventure Park also has a building area. A serious building area - you know like where they hand out nails, hammers and saws.
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| Building a shelter, we may be moving in :) |
Son 1 was in heaven, he got busy collecting wood and finding extra nails to use. The kids only get issued 3 nails and if you want more you have to turn in either trash or old, bent nails. The quest to get more nails seemed to be half the fun.
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| Lunch break |
I brought a chair for me and a picnic lunch for the kids. I ended up moving my chair around depending on what the kids were doing.
At 11am they opened up the "Mud Slide". Can I just say that this slide is aptly named and a whole bunch of fun - for the kids at least.
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| Daughter and Son 2 covered in muddy water |
Luckily I had read the website information on the park and came prepared. Because this is what the kids' shoes looked like when they changed. Disgusting. The park recommends you bring extra clothes and wear old shoes. Yep, that was some good advice.
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| Shoes ready for the trash |
I would go one step further and wear clothes that you can throw away when you get home, because honestly I don't think these clothes will ever be clean again.
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| Mud slide casualties - those are white socks and shorts |
But honestly the HB Adventure Park is all about having old fashioned fun and getting dirty. Something we don't always get enough of.
Right next to the Adventure Park is the Huntington Beach City Library - and what a library it is. We stopped in to use the bathrooms (the ones at the Adventure Park are Porta-Potties) and looked around. I didn't get a chance to look at their programs but it would be worth going back and spending some time there.
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| Circular ramp - Central Library was built in 1974 |
Next on the agenda was a visit to the Bolsa Chica Wetlands Conservancy. The driveway is easy to miss as there isn't much of a sign and only a small building on site. Small packages can be deceiving though, because the visitor center was packed full of interesting exhibits for the kids and had the added bonus of being free!
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| Sea bird exhibit |
Outside there are 2-3 miles of trails to explore. We didn't get to walk the whole thing because Son 1 and Daughter went on strike, much to the disappointment of Son 2. We are going to plan a second trip here with Nadim on a weekend.
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| Wetlands trail |
The Santa Ana Zoo was also on our hit list this week, but to be completely honest it was the most expensive thing we did and the most boring. Not a good combination really. Admission was $10 for me and $7. for each kid. I would have liked the zoo more if the tickets were half the price.
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| Bald eagle nest |
We did enjoy seeing the Bald eagle nest and the Bald eagle. The nest was huge! The Pampas grass exhibit was one of the nicer ones along with the collection of primates. We saw the whole Zoo in about an hour and then spent an additional 45 minutes at the playground - yep, $31 was too much.
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| Lamas, emus and camels - oh my! |
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| Ready for some adventure! |
The Nature Center was loaded with hands on science and nature activities. The microscopes were particularly popular with Son 1 and Son 2. Daughter was happy with the giant basket of animal puppets and coloring sheets.
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| Looking at a moth's wing |
We started out on the Chaparral trail and headed up to a view point. Along the way we saw a coyote and raccoon tracks along with a whole bunch of scat (otherwise known as poop). Who knew poop could be so exciting? I guess I'm to blame since I'm the one who purchased the scat identification chart. Yes there really is such a thing :)
Son 1 wanted to keep on hiking into the wilds of the Cleveland National Forest, but there was more to see back at the Sanctuary.
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| Water break |
Once down the hill we wandered the trails in the Sanctuary itself and saw an abundance of wild life. There were bird and squirrel feeders set out to draw animals and the most exciting thing we saw was a covey of quail and a woodpecker. This was hands down the best outing of the week.
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| How much longer?? |
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| Fairy garden display, I love the living roof |
If you love Story Book Land and Casey Jr rides at Disneyland (which I do) then you will LOVE M&M. Even the boys got into it.
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| Checking things out |
M&M has a beautiful display of fairy gardens and bonsai, trust me that if you take your kids you will wind up with a fairy garden of your own.
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| Daughter's favorite garden |
We did. We came home with some plants and have started our own fairy garden in the backyard. I'll post some pictures of it another time. Inside their store, M&M sells all the miniature buildings that really turn the garden into something special.
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| Son 2 and Daughter checking out the largest garden |
How's that for some summer fun?? I don't think we could have done any more - well and remained sane that is.
Let me know if you try any of the places I've mentioned out :)
Have a great week!
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