Grijalva Park

Welcome to Grijalva Park!

A parent at M's school recommended Grijalva Park a while back, and when I first googled it, the description went on about a new sports complex, so I kind of wrote it off as a ball field. But I was so wrong!! What a cute park!! The park has huge expanses of green, and really well maintained play structures and gathering spaces.

It is also pretty convenient to our house. We could bike there and we saw several families who did just that.

engineer-in-the-making?

The playground had a tot lot and a structure for bigger kids. It also had a bridge perpendicular to both that separated the two. Kids if all sizes ran back and forth across it. There were swings for kids large and small, too.

Next to the playground there was a sand volleyball court (which M had a great time hitting balls to himself in) and large grassy field where a family was practicing soccer moves.

Oh, there is a large sports field, too, but it is fenced off and can only be used with advanced permission. It adds to the green feel of the park... But you can't actually use it. For our purposes, we had plenty.

I can't wait to go back!!

racing around the fenced-in field

soccer/volleyball

Eisenhower Park

the tot lot

I really wanted to love this Eisenhower Park. We have driven by it so many times and I looked longingly at the big duck pond and expanse of green space. We finally decided to go check it out Memorial Day weekend.

Yeah, Memorial Day weekend. So the park was packed - which is fine with us, except that it was also fairly trashed. I am not sure if it is always this way or just the result of a busy weekend.

The park is SO big. It has great green space to run around in. It doesn't have a ton of shade and Monday was HOT. There were several shady places, but they were pretty well staked out for holiday gatherings. The playgrounds were nice. The duck pond was scummy and had trash floating in it. But the ducks were fun to watch. I didn't see any swings.

more of the tot lot

Also, there were a couple of small, dedicated parking lots for the park, but they were all packed, and the neighboring shopping center had up a fence between it and the park (presumably) to keep

Our toddler had toy envy, and we weren't sure how to handle the situation. Normally we just tell him the toys aren't ours and encourage him to play with the ones we brought or head back to the playground, but my mom was with us and encouraged us to see if the other kids (er, parents) would share. So we let him borrow a ride-on toy we came across that didn't seem to have an owner in the immediate vicinity and kept an eye out to see if anyone claimed it so we could ask permission. Eventually one little girl stared me down and tried to tell me (I think... we were literally not speaking the same language and I had to think back to my high school days to ask her if the toy was hers) that the toy was her brother's. How does your family handle toy envy?

big kid play structure

Anyway, I can't say that we will be planning to return to this park, but one day we may have to give it another try...

Bicycles!!

these are our new special hats, and M's "smile" squinty  face

So I got a bicycle this weekend!!

I haven't owned one in years, and I am having fun just dreaming of all the places I want to ride it. I am not interested in road races or mountain biking, I am just excited to go places under my own power. One of the things I miss most about college was that I could walk to 99% of the places I needed to get to - and that was so liberating! No hassle of parking or getting gas or carpooling or needing directions or waiting in traffic. Hubby and I decided that if we moved West we would need to own bicycles, and this was the weekend we finally got around to it. And in 24 hours we realized how small/ride-able Orange really is.

almost all buckled in!

After we ate breakfast and visited the farmers market (post to follow) in Old Towne Orange, we headed over to Orange Cycle, where the saleslady was soooo patient with us and our toddler (maybe she could see how little we knew about bikes, or maybe she could smell a sale...) either way we were grateful for the guidance, patience, and lack of pressure. We took turns learning about the best bike for our needs (hubby and I wanted different things out of our bikes - me something easy to maneuver and comfortable to ride, and he, something he could maybe off road in sometime) while the other would stay with M while he played on the kids' balance bikes (also very cool, and we will definitely be considering this for his birthday in a couple of months! He took to it very well) and bike trailers. After much education and direction we test drove 3 or 4 models each, and found the ones we liked best.

We got tuneups included with our purchase, so we left the bikes and headed home for naptime. The staff also installed the mount for the baby seat. Later that evening we picked up some helmets from Target, so that we could get up first thing in the morning and ride our bikes to breakfast! I explained to M, that we needed to get some special hats to wear for when he was riding in his special seat on the back of Daddy's bicycle. He was very excited about this idea, and did not mind wearing his helmet on any of our trips (so far). In fact, he likes to point to the bikes in the garage and tell us all about who's bike is who's and where he gets to ride and that he has a special hat, called a "huul-mit."

playing with a balance bike at the store

We did it! Rockwell's is less than a mile from our house, but neither of us had ever really ridden with traffic -and we still stayed mostly on the sidewalk. What are the rules for riding bikes? It seems that people ride on the sidewalks all the time around here (where there aren't bike lanes). We did see a few serious cyclists riding on the road, and I seem to recall that bikes are technically vehicles... Luckily there wasn't much foot or auto traffic out, so we didn't seem to be in anyone's way. We arrived safely at breakfast, figured out our new bike locks (and remembered the combinations!!). M was thrilled with his first ride, and jabbered on about who rode where and that we went fast! I was so glad that he didn't freak out when strapped in, but instead he was very still enjoyed watching things as they passed and patting Daddy on the back.  After breakfast, we figured our first ride was so successful, we'd head another couple miles to Shaffer Park (from the How to Find a Park Near You post) playground before going home.

Later that evening, though, as we were walking to the car after doing our grocery shopping, hubby remarked on the beautiful weather and how nice some Oggi's pizza would be on their outdoor patio. I asked if we could ride our bikes there, he said yes, and so we did! We unpacked our groceries and headed back on bike.

In summary, this is how I feel about my new bike (also this is one of our favorite videos to watch on our YouTube apps when we need entertainment in a pinch):

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How to Find a Park Near You: Shaffer Park

ride on animals

Our Sunday morning plans went bust (our dog picked a fight at the dog park, so we promptly left, tails between our legs), but we wanted to find someplace to get our energy out between rounds of unpacking boxes. We didn't have a lot of time, because, those boxes were still a' callin' and we certainly hadn't researched a backup plan with all the craziness going on lately.

The Tot Lot

So I opened up the maps app on my smartphone (which I have lived by since moving here, learning my way around and getting directions from here to there), found our current location, zoomed out a little and looked for a patch of green. There were two rectangles relatively close by, and one was named Shaffer Park. We weren't sure what we were going to get, but we have had pretty good luck with this method before, so we steered the car a few blocks away and found this little gem of a park.

There were two play structures, one for big kids and one for littler ones, each with their own swing set, and plenty of mulch padding. There were picnic tables and a covered shelter, lots of grass and shady trees, and a baseball field that was not being used at all. And the best part was that it was less than 1.5 miles from our house - so in the future we could walk, or better yet RUN, there, get a break while M played and then walk/run home.

baby swings

There are an abundance of parks in our area (to make up for the fact that no one seems to have much yard), but I can't help but wonder if this method would work in other areas too? Granted, sometimes, you really just end up in a big green field, which isn't bad if you happen to have a ball in the car (and we always seem to have a couple different sizes). But sometimes you get a real gem that you would have never found otherwise! I do a lot of asking around for suggestions, and following of a few local outdoorsy-parent blogs and Facebook pages for activity ideas, but have still found a good percentage of parks with this simple method of living in the moment (and capitalizing on technology). What can we do from where we are right now?!

What's the best park or activity you've stumbled upon? And how did you end up there?

Tot Lot structure

lots of green space, and a baseball field

the bigger kids' play area

Ruby's Diner

a choo-choo speeding by!

Ruby's Diner is a Southern California chain (though there are locations across the country), with an 1940's diner feel, waitress uniforms and all. We have been meaning to try out a Ruby's location for a while and decided to go for it one sleepy Friday evening when no one felt like cooking. We weren't sure exactly what to expect, except that Ruby's is a diner... so probably good hamburgers? I was pleasantly surprised when the waitress's opening sentence was, "Can I start you with a milkshake?"

Our nearest location's theme was a train station (Orange, CA). We usually like to sit outside at dinner (given the kid's table manners and great SoCal weather), which turned out to be a front row seat for the choo-choos (and also where all the other families with young kids chose to be, so we felt right at home)!  We saw about 5 trains go by during our meal, both passenger and freight. Some seemed to scare M, but others he was thoroughly excited about. Each location has a local theme (including WWII aircraft, and surfing) so we will have to try them all in our travels!

enjoying a cereal bar appetizer

The food was yummy (hubby and I both enjoyed our burgers), and I was surprised that they even have many options for lower calorie or low carb fare (to offset the milkshakes, of course). I even felt good about sharing some of my sweet potato fries with M, and he happily ate his chicken-finger-and-apple-slices kids' meal, too!

Definitely a thumbs up for a family meal here.

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