Dennis the Menace Playground

My biggest recommendation when traveling with kids is to research local public parks in the cities that you are visiting. Museums, shopping districts, historic sites and cafes are fun ... but kids need space and time to play and run.

And if you plan to visit Monterey, Calif. along with a trip to the Monterey Bay Aquarium, you should schedule a visit to the Dennis the Menace Playground. Opened in 1956 it was a collaboration between the City of Monterey and Frank Ketcham the creator of the comic strip. We haven't been to enough parks in California to claim it as the best park, but it certainly is up there.

A couple of weeks ago my neighbor and I took our kids to the park an hour from our house to beat the heat. My boys squealed with delight when we pulled into the parking lot. The first thing you see is a retired black Southern Pacific steam engine.  The boys happily boarded the train, and pretended to drive it. It isn't play equipment, so you will need to closely supervise your kids.

The park also includes a long suspension bridge, a Sun stairway, a long red roller slide, three wavy green slides, an old fashion metal slide, tunnels,  mazes,  climbing structures ... you name it, it has it. The red roller slide was also a favorite of the kids.

There a many great photo opportunities as well. The water fountain is a large lion, so your kids have to put their heads in the lion's mouth to get a drink of water. And bronze Dennis the Menace sculptures decorate the grounds. Totally fun!

The only draw back to the park is a so-so snack bar, and the closest food is in touristy Cannery Row.

Every time I announce a trip to the park they now ask if we are going to the "park at the beach" (their name for the Dennis the Menace Playground). We will definitely be heading back there soon.

I Love A Parade

It finally feels like fall. There is a nip in the air every morning, and the leaves are starting to change color (as much as they do in Northern California). It is also time for Willow Glen's annual Founder's Day Parade.

I love a good parade. Especially a laid back community parade complete with high school marching band, classic cars, and girl and boy scouts. This year's Founder's Day Parade didn't disappoint.

The parade started at 10:30 am on Lincoln Avenue, our neighborhood's main business street. We walked to the parade, and found a spot near the beginning at Willow and Lincoln. We brought the double stroller, but the boys happily sat on the sidewalk to watch. No pushing, shoving or piles of people to ruin our view.

Caleb's favorite part was a car that looked like blue Mater (from the movie Cars), and Xander's favorite part was the mounted police.

If your neighborhood has a Founder's Day Parade seek it out. It was such a wonderful way to kick-off Fall.

Stopping Off in SLO

Everything in Santa Barbara was booked. We found a hotel an hour and half North in San Luis Obispo. Jonathan and I have always liked SLO. It is a charming college town, and great stopping off point on any trip to Southern California. We have never stayed there before, and aside from some consistently good cafe experiences, we didn't know what to expect.

After our recent visit, I think SLO is also a cost-effective, family-friendly weekend get-away. It is close to Morro Bay, a beautiful seaside town, it has some great restaurants, and plenty of hotels less than $100 a night.

We stayed at the Vagabond Inn. We called directly and got the AAA discount. It was a clean serviceable hotel, and we all enjoyed the shower and the bathtub.

We arrived there at 6 pm, and then after getting cleaned up headed to a taqueria recommended by the person working the front desk. Our dinner was great, although Caleb insisted on acting up, and he and I ended up in the car for most of dinner.

The next morning we woke early and went to the Apple Farm Restaurant & Bakery, which was refreshingly kitsch. The restaurant is a popular place for traditional brunch fare, but as long as you arrive before 9:30 am, the wait isn't too bad. After 9:30 am it is a 40 minute wait.

The restaurant had a treasure chest for the kids, coloring at the table, and the service was really quick -- all good things for dining with small children.

I think we'll plan a future trip to SLO where it is the focus instead of the stopping off point on the way to Southern California.

Fun in Santa Barbara with Kids

Dusty from our camping adventure, our day in Santa Barbara was marvelous. We could have planned a couple of components of the day more efficiently, still we all had fun.

We started our day at the Santa Barbara Farmer's Market. The plus side of the market is that the Santa Barbara Certified Farmers Market website is wonderful. It allows you to easily find a Market any day of the week in Santa Barbara County. The negative is that many of our Northern California farmers markets are much better. The Market had a lot of fresh produce, and flowers ... but lacked in food vendors and butchers. I had hoped to buy our dinner fixings there, but came away empty handed.

From the Farmers Market we headed to the Santa Barbara Roasting Company for breakfast. It is a crunchy, granola coffee house, with tasty pastries and excellent coffee. Our boys were less than well behaved, so we had to cut our visit short, and finish our breakfast in the car. 

We then headed to a State Beach. I had picked El Capitan State Beach, 10 miles North of Santa Barbara. However Jonathan and I didn't discuss where lunch was located. He had found a kid friendly restaurant that we thought was in Santa Barbara, but was actually 10 miles South in Carpenteria near Carpenteria State Beach ... see the lack of efficiency.

It was a cloudy but mild day in Santa Barbara. The temperatures were in the mid 70s, which had two benefits -- first, we were very comfortable at the beach, we didn't even need to bring out our umbrella, and second, there were very few people at the beach. After splashing in the waves, and playing in the sand, Jonathan, Xander and Caleb then took advantage of the outdoor showers to soap up and remove some of their camping dust. I used the sink to wash my face, and untangle my hair.

We then drove twenty miles to The Beach Grill at Padaro which is the best kid friendly restaurant we have ever been to. I am not understating how wonderful this place is for families. It is right on the beach, and has plenty of outdoor picnic seating. It has a bridge over a river of sand. In the river of sand it has tons of beach toys, shovels, buckets, dump trucks and bulldozers. The boys gleefully hopped between playing in the sand, and eating lunch at the picnic table.

The food was great. Often when a restaurant targets families, the food is not the highlight ... but both Jonathan and my "pub fare" lunches were crave worthy.

The other surprise, is that the train runs right next to the restaurant. So, at the end of lunch when the Amtrak train rushed by, both our boys screamed with joy.

We called our trip short, and headed to a hotel in San Luis Obispo on Saturday night. We are still figuring out how with better planning we can do this trip again soon. It might be camping at a private campsite, or it might be booking a cheap hotel, but the wonderful day we had in Santa Barbara was worth repeating.

Los Padres National Forest - What No Showers?

Before the boys, Jonathan and I called ourselves the slowest of the elite hikers. We climbed mountains, clung to the sides of cliffs, hiked under waterfalls, trekked through the wilderness in any weather -- of course the real elite hikers always passed us on the trail. We camped in the outback, carried 50 lb backpacks, purified our water from a stream, cooked our dinners, left no footprints, and came out of the woods greasy haired, dirty, but happy.

Boy those days are over. Last month we went on our first car camping trip with the boys. I called it a success, and then I happily planned our trip to Los Padres National Forest. We stayed in Los Prietos Campground, a beautiful location in the Santa Ynez Mountains near Lake Chumash, and only 23 minutes from downtown Santa Barbara. Even better, I was able to reserve on a weekend only a month out.

Well, so you know there are no showers, paid or otherwise, for the Santa Barbara Ranger District, and there are no sinks in the bathroom, and some campsites don't have access to water. It never occurred to me that a shower (even five miles from our campsite) wasn't standard issue for any campground. No wonder there was availability.

But we are tough, rugged, experienced campers...

With two boys under five, one still not potty trained, we apparently are not. We stayed only one night at Los Padres National Forest. The location was awesome, we didn't even mind the black flies at all, and our boys (especially Caleb) loved it.

But Saturday after a day at the beach with scummy teeth, covered in saltwater, sand and camp dust, we gave up on camping and found a hotel. On Thursday I'll write about our fun in Santa Barbara. But lesson learned, car camping with kids requires certain amenities, and those amenities are not always a given.

Road Trip

Before kids, one of Jonathan and my favorite things to do was to go on a road trip. We even drove from San Francisco to Washington, DC when we were in our early twenties. We used to make mix tapes, and plan our stops along the way, exploring small towns and the countryside.

Tomorrow we head to Santa Barbara for our camping trip. It will be the boys' longest road trip to date. With two boys under five, we are planning for a slightly longer trip than the estimated five and half hours.

We figure a road trip is like flying, except that you can make a lot of pit stops. We plan to leave between 10 and 11 am, and we hope the boys will nap along the way. We are taking Highway 101 which is pretty boring between Salinas and San Luis Obispo. We plan to stop in San Luis Obispo for a break. Wish us luck.

Take the Kids Out to the Ballgame

Xander was turning 4 this summer, and Kate and I decided that it was the right age to take him to his first San Francisco Giants baseball game. When it came time to choosing which game he would go to, I had an alterior motive: May 18th was Tim Lincecum bobblehead day.

Tim Lincecum is by far the most impressive pitcher that I've ever followed as a fan. He has a consistent 94 mph fastball, a phenomenal curve ball, and a 74 mph change-up that makes batters look foolish. He's only in his third season and there is the potential for Lincecum to have one of those rare, legendary careers. I wanted a Tim Lincecum bobblehead, and with Xander there we'd have two.

From a kid-friendly game perspective, this wasn't the best choice however. The game was sold out - so very crowded and no room to move around at our seats - and we needed to get there early. If you are going to take young kids to a major league game, it's best to look for games that aren't sold out and are a little less hectic. Often times there are mid-week afternoon games, especially on the West Coast (giving teams more time to get to the next city after the game is over), and those are good choices for the kids.

A good decision we made was to go for bleacher seats. In the outfield, there is a lot of open space to walk around, there are things to see and do such as hopping on the SF Cable Car...and then...there's the Coca Cola slide. Since we got to the game early, we had some time before the game started and I introduced Xander to the slide. Within that neon green and red Coca Cola bottle in left field there are actually two slides. One is high up and goes straight down, and the other is shorter and is twisty. However, Xander is only tall enough for the twisty slide. We must have gone down the twisty slide about 8 times.

When the game started, Xander had his hot dog and coke (I was trying to buy a water from the coke machine, but a coke came out instead) and we were ready to go. The only problem was that Xander didn't have much of an attention span for the game. I expected this, to an extent. I knew we wouldn't make 9 innings, but thought we could at least get through 2 or 3 innings before he would lose interest and would need to take a break. He made it through 1. Back to the slide we went. We also walked around the stadium, and he did enjoy that. Rather than go back to our seats, we went to the standing room only area and watched some of the game from there. Including a lot of walking around and playing, we made it through 6 innings and left. Although he wasn't interested in the game itself, he had a great time.

Another great choice for kids is Minor League Baseball. We are very fortunate to live just a few minutes from where the Single A (lowest level, whereas AAA is the highest) San Jose Giants play, and last weekend I took both Xander and Caleb to a game. We went with their best friend, Jonas, and his dad.

Minor League Baseball is very affordable and it's often easy to get free tickets, and it's very kid friendly. There is plenty of room to move around, all of the seats are great, and there are lots of things for the kids to do. The kids got their picture taken with the San Jose Giants mascot, and for a few extra dollars they got to jump around in the bouncy houses and hit beany softballs off of a tee.

There's also something to be said for the atmosphere, which is very unique to A or AA minor league baseball. While I did not partake, especially since I was minding two little boys, my favorite in-game promotion was the "Beer Batter". If the SJ Giants got the designated "Beer Batter" out, all beer was 1/2 price for the next inning. Sure enough, the Beer Batter struck out. Everyone else seemed to make a break for the concessions, which just opened up more space for us.

Here again, we didn't watch more than 2 or 3 innings, but both boys really had a great time at the game and are asking when they get to go back. I'll look forward to taking them both to more baseball games next year, especially when they will be a year older and can appreciate the baseball just a little bit more.