Create-Celebrate-Explore

Orange County Great Park

I've blogged very briefly before (or should I say, shared photos) of the Great Park in Orange County.  I attended an Instameet - you know an Instagram meet-up, where you spend hours snapping Instagram pics of cool things, with even cooler people.

Anyway, after attending that my kids had been wanting to go there and ride in the big orange helium balloon.  So after scouring their website and choosing the perfect date, watching weather forecasts and wind speeds for two weeks, we settled on going last weekend.

The weather report was wrong, it rained all the way there, and it was too windy for the balloon.  Thankfully though I'd chosen a date where there were loads of other activities going on so that there would be plenty to keep the kids busy.

We started our day going on the carousel a couple of times, ventured over to the park where there is free sports equipment to use in the grass area, and then wandered to the Terrace Lawn where the Bark in the Great Park was just gearing up. There were dog safety talks for kids, a Disc Dogs demonstration, a doggy fashion show, and lots of dogs attempting to make their way through obstacle courses. Of course there were crafts too. From there we headed to the Farm and Food Lab where they were telling the Three Sisters Garden story. The kids then made little seed packets and brought home corn, squash and bean seeds to plant.

Lastly, we headed to the Farmer's Market for some fresh fruit and veggies, shaved ice and kettle corn. I love food trucks and I tried the yummiest Chicken Bacon Fries for lunch. They were so good. Really!

High Tea in Seal Beach

If you are looking for the perfect location for a girls day out, head to Seal Beach in Orange County, California. 

In the downtown area you will find vintage and re-sale stores, art galleries, and lovely places to get a meal, or enjoy an ice-cream. A short walk away is Seal Beach Pier, which is apparently one of the longest wooden piers in California.

I had recently come across a Groupon deal for McKenna's Tea Cottage - the deal was for their Queen Mum's Tea (for two people). They had me at 'mum', and of course indulging in high tea is on my bucket list this year so I immediately snapped it up, and then contacted a couple of friends who have daughters and we made a reservation for mother/daughter tea together.

Of course I didn't think to take my camera to high tea, but thankfully when you have a friend who is a photographer she is bound to remember, and capture some beautiful shots like the few below. Normally I hate being on the 'other side' of the camera, but for shots like this I'm more than happy to be.

Photograph by: Mandy See

They have quite a lovely selection of tea to choose from, and for little girls who don't care for tea, there is pink lemonade, in a tea pot of course. 

From the tea, to the soup in a tea cup, the finger sandwiches, delicious tiny cakes, and scones with jam and cream,  the meal was delightful. I really need to bake scones at home. There's nothing like indulging in a cup of tea and a warm scone topped with freshly whipped cream and homemade jam (which of course I need to learn how to make).

Photograph by: Mandy See

My beautiful little high tea date had a lovely time too. She loved dressing up, refilling her tea cup with her very own teapot full of pink lemonade, and having other little girls to giggle with.

Photograph by: Mandy See

And although I didn't capture beautiful photographs like my friend Mandy, I did get a few happy snaps that I posted to Instagram.

The only suggestion I have, is to arrive early if you have a reservation, parking can be a little difficult to find on the weekend. You are better off arriving nice and early and wandering down Main Street to the pier.

You can find more about McKenna's Tea Cottage on their website, including their menu, and reservation information (which is highly recommended).

Black Star Canyon Guided Hike with Kids

Last weekend we were invited to join in a hike through Black Star Canyon with Joel from Naturalist For You.

If you have never been on a guided hike, you must add this to your bucket list immediately, especially if you love hiking with kids.  Joel (from Naturalist For You) is amazing, and my kids (who love to hike), not only got to spend some much needed time outdoors, but loved learning about the plants, birds, and critters we came across.  I enjoyed hearing about some of the myths (particularly ghost stories), not that you will ever find me hiking there after dark, but the stories are fascinating to hear.

Yes Joel hikes barefoot. Through mud puddles. Into creek beds. I'm surprised my kids didn't immediately whip off their shoes and insist I carry them.

We hiked roughly 3 miles, it was actually quite a busy spot, with quite a few people out running, biking, and walking dogs.  Apparently there is a waterfall further into the hike, it's about a 6 mile round-trip and can be quite a hike, especially for kids. You can see where we went on the map below.

map of route via Runkeeper

I'm going to do my best to share some of the things we learned on our hike, although note taking on my cell phone whilst kid wrangling and juggling a camera didn't go as well as I had hoped.

For example, look at shelf fungus and moss we found growing.

Have you seen mistletoe out in nature, and not just above your door at Christmastime?  On a recent hike to Los Penasquitos Canyon Preserve we came across it and we had no idea what it was at the time.

The second photograph is of milk thistle. Apparently it can be used as a natural antidote if you accidentally eat a poisonous mushroom.

Flynn's favorite part of the hike was learning about trapdoor spiders and how to spot their burrows.

Can you see the letter 'D' below?  That's the trapdoor leading into the burrow.

Now look when it's opened.

We found a few of these that were just burrows, the doors had dropped off, but we did find a couple that still had the doors intact.

As you can see, between spotting trapdoor spider burrows and looking for frogs in the creek the kids were over the moon with this trip ... and the fact that it had been raining recently was even better, because there were plenty of mud puddles to jump in.

Now, do you know what poison oak looks like?  If not, here it is.  Right alongside it is mugwort, which is apparently a natural antidote to poison oak.

"Leaves of three, let them be.  If it's hairy, it's a berry."

Joel is a wealth of information about the vegetation in the area.  In the first photograph below there is Black Sage, which apparently makes for a great natural sage to cook with.  The second photograph we have a plant that has died back due to the recent frosts and hail storm.  These plants are a good indicator of where citrus trees won't grow well.

And last, but certainly not least, we have a turkey vulture soaring overhead.  There were actually three of them circling above us, but it was difficult to photograph them with power lines in the way.

If you've hiked at Black Star Canyon before I'd love to hear your thoughts.  I'd love to go back there again (not at night), and tackle a longer hike, hopefully to the waterfall next time.

The Antique Capital of Southern California

If you love antique stores, tea rooms, and re-sale shops, then you will love Old Towne Orange; also known (apparently) as the Antique Capital of Southern California.

As you know I spend a lot of time scouring thrift, antique and re-sale stores for items for our house, so having the opportunity to spend a day wandering around this area for the first time with my friend Natalie as part of the SoCal Social made me giddy with delight.

You can see on the map below the stores we visited. I plan on heading back here as soon as I can so I can re-visit a few of my favorite stores from this trip.

One of my favorite stores was Country Road Antiques.  There is a huge selection of antiques throughout the store, and each vendor has put together an amazing display that makes you want to purchase everything.  No really, I wanted to purchase everything. 

Another favorite was Paris In A Cup, which is a divine little store and tea room.  We enjoyed lunch there complete with French macarons and did a spot of shopping, they sell lovely jewelry and accessories as well as French tea and gourmet items.

Here are a few more photographs of the lovely things we saw (and tasted).

It's truly an amazing area to spend a day antiquing. 

Catalina Island with Kids

I've been a little skeptical about taking the kids to Catalina Island with me, but it was one of the items on my 40-by-40 list so I was on a mission to conquer it.  To me very few places I want to go are truly off-limits with kids, I'm willing to give almost anything a go, but I wasn't sure how they would do on the long boat ride.  Then being without a vehicle once we had arrived on the island I wasn't quite sure how I would keep two five year-olds entertained and be able to sightsee for about 10 hours before our boat ride home.  Normally I would stay overnight and thus be able to justify taking car seats with us as we could leave them in the hotel whilst doing other activities, but we didn't want to be stuck carrying them just for a day trip.  However my fears were quickly put to rest, we were able to spend a whole day sightseeing and it was much easier than I thought.

My husband had already been on Catalina Island for a couple of days playing in a rugby tournament, but we wanted to ensure that we could get in a full day of sightseeing with my parents while they were visiting and once the tournament was over for my husband.  Unfortunately though he sent me a text message as we boarded the Catalina Express to say that he'd landed in hospital, they thought he may have broken something in his knee the previous day playing rugby (which it turns out he has) and he was on crutches. He managed to keep up with us though.

Unfortunately the boat ride over was a little rockier than any of us would have liked and we all arrived feeling a tad queasy.

There are a number of methods of transportation once you arrive on Catalina Island.  You can rent bicycles, hop on the trolley, go on a boat or land tour, rent a golf cart (which is the primary mode of transportation), get in a taxi, or simply walk.   One thing you need to remember though is if you have children under the age of 6 (or under 60 lbs) by law they must be in a car seat (this specifically applies to renting golf carts).  We had no problem catching taxi's, or jumping on the trolley though, which is only $6 per person for a day pass and you can hop off at various stops to sightsee.

After taking a walk down the main shopping and restaurant strip (mainly to get our land legs back), we hopped on a trolley, which the kids absolutely loved, and took a little tour of the island. 

We hopped off the trolley half way around the loop at the Wrigley Memorial and Botanical Gardens.   I have to admit that if we had a golf cart, this most likely would not have been high on my list of things to do, however given our limitations, I was prepared to risk going to another botanical garden full of flowers.  It was far from that though and I was so glad that we hopped off at this stop.  The gardens are beautiful, there are lovely paths to stroll on, and many, many native plants, including a cactus garden.  Some of the plants are endangered and very rare.  At the end of the gardens the magnificent Wrigley Memorial stands.  Walking up the flights of stairs to the very top leaves one a little out of breath, but the spectacular view is well worth it.  The memorial itself is something to see, with the elaborate tiling, bronze doors, and tower.

We made it back to the trolley stop with about 15 minutes to board the next trolley.  There was another younger couple taking a rest on the bench before heading back out on their bike ride.  As they left they gave the twins a bubble blower. I love the kindness of strangers.  This certainly kept the little ones amused until the trolley picked us up.

The trolley took us back down to the town and we had the opportunity to scope out where we would spend the rest of the day.   First stop was to meet my parents (who had been on a bus tour of the island) at Rosie's Fish and Chips on the pier.  The fish tacos were great.  We perched up on bar stools overlooking the bay and enjoyed a quick meal, before heading out on a glass bottom boat tour of the bay hosted by Catalina Island Adventure Tours. 

After returning from our tour, I suggested we walk to the Descanso Beach Club which we had spotted from the trolley.   We stopped along the way at Big Olaf's for ice-cream, which was a good thing as the restaurant was closed at Descanso Beach, however they were serving beverages and chips and salsa to those who wanted a little something while soaking up some rays.   We made ourselves comfortable in some chaise lounges on the sand, changed the kids into swim gear and while they played at the waters edge, the teenager skipped rocks and watched the boats and parasailers. 

From here we enjoyed dinner at a restaurant in town and then wandered back to the ferry landing to catch our boat home.  The sun was setting as we left, and worried about another bout of motion sickness we bundled up in coats and took to the open deck.  I won't lie, it was cold, but it was such a beautiful sight watching the sun setting over Catalina Island, and the fresh air did us the world of good, nobody felt queasy and the twins slept the entire boat ride home.  It was dark by the time we returned to Dana Point, so watching the lights appearing over the horizon was a welcome sight, and a beautiful one too.

Spring Break: Duffy Boat Rental Newport Beach

On Thursday we headed north to Newport Beach and rented a duffy boat from Newport Fun Tours to take out on the bay.  We rented our duffy boats for 90 minutes and cruised around Lido and Balboa Islands.  You can take food and beverages aboard, so we stopped on our way and picked up cheese, crackers, fresh fruit, and beverages for everyone to snack on as we cruised around the bay.

First order of business was to get the little ones into life jackets.

And it was all aboard our little blue boat.

The kids were absolutely beside themselves with excitement.  We of course used this fun afternoon as a chance for a little education too, explaining the different types of boats, birds, and other sea life, as well as why the water looks different colors. 

We even let the kids steer the boat which they absolutely loved.