He's having so much fun right now and is in his own little world, I actually feel bad tearing him away, as much as I know he'll love the beach. Here goes...
I went into the woods because I wanted to live deliberately. I wanted to live deep and suck out all the marrow of life...to put to rout all that was not life; and not, when I came to die, discover that I had not lived. ~Henry David Thoreau
Tuesday, August 31, 2010
The Last Day
This is it. Our last day of summer. Sob. This morning I woke up with the most insane neck pain EVER. I can barely move. But this is it...so we're packed up and ready to go to the beach anyway. Well, I am, anyway. He is not:
He's having so much fun right now and is in his own little world, I actually feel bad tearing him away, as much as I know he'll love the beach. Here goes...
He's having so much fun right now and is in his own little world, I actually feel bad tearing him away, as much as I know he'll love the beach. Here goes...
Hometown Tourists: Alice's Breakfast in the Park, Huntington Central Park
Hey. I'm back. I'd ask if you missed me, but my guess is no because a) you have a life; b) Ben is a great writer (although upon reading his posts I noticed a lot of grammar mistakes, which I'm not going to fix because I don't feel like it, and you can't judge him anyway because he's two and it's pretty remarkable that he typed anyway). But maybe you did miss me...I'm witty, talented, and quite good looking.
Anyway, it's time to cover our next Adventure: Alice's Breakfast in the Park, a restaurant seated on the lake in Huntington Central Park. Ben and I have been to the park before, but I've been really wanting to try the restaurant for quite some time. I had a roommate in college that worked there; she never actually said what it was called, I don't think, I just remember her mentioning it was in a park and that you could bring your dogs.
It's a beautiful setting. they have a great menu for people, and there's one for dogs, too! The food is reasonably priced, and the service is reasonable as well. We ended up sitting inside because there was no one sitting outside and I was too chicken to ask if we could sit out there. I was kicking myself later because as we were leaving some other people, who did have guts, asked, and they got to sit right out in the grass. It's cooler than a regular restaurant's outdoor seating because it's in the park--so you're right by the lake, on a picnic-style table, and there are no boundaries. So, had I not been a chicken, Ben could have run around and chased the ducks and played in the grass and thrown sticks into the lake while we were waiting for our food instead of climbing the chair and table and walls like they were a jungle gym. That would have been helpful. And please don't ask why he wasn't sitting in a high-chair or booster. He refuses. And since he wasn't hurting anyone (except for maybe my image, which, let's be honest, hasn't been in tip-top shape since my mom neglected to tell me in sixth grade that I was supposed to shave and the boys called me "Pits"), I put this one on the list of "battles I don't care to fight." Besides, it was kinda cute, and all the little old ladies in the restaurant (which was every person in there but us) and our server were kinda in love with him. I got the egg breakfast with biscuits and gravy (I'm a big fan) and Ben got pancakes, which he ordered himself, although he says "cancakes," which sounds a lot like cupcakes, which is what the server thought he was ordering. The food was pretty good, although the biscuit was pretty hard and not that great. But otherwise we really liked it.
After breakfast we roamed the park. We didn't make it far from the restaurant, though, because all Ben really wanted to do was hang out at the dock like 100 feet from the place and collect sticks. Whatever. He was happy. And crazy adorable.
The Journey: Well, it's pretty deep into Huntington, so while we're just seconds away from the city, it's a pretty long drive for us, especially since no freeways really go there. But the park is awesome, so it's worth it for the occasional treat.
The Price: Meals range from $7-$9, so it's pretty reasonably priced. You can find the menu here. Note: they only take cash.
The Highlights: They have what is apparently an extraordinary bakery (according to themselves). However, the only baked item I had, the biscuit, wasn't very good. I'm hoping the cinnamon roles, etc. are much better. For me, though, the highlight is the park.
The Downsides: My lack of social skills, which inhibited us from sitting outside. And that biscuit. I was pretty disappointed, if you can't tell.
Note: I overheard a conversation the server was having with another patron. It sounds like the restaurant is actually closing inside of a month. So if you want to try it, you gotta do it soon.
Anyway, it's time to cover our next Adventure: Alice's Breakfast in the Park, a restaurant seated on the lake in Huntington Central Park. Ben and I have been to the park before, but I've been really wanting to try the restaurant for quite some time. I had a roommate in college that worked there; she never actually said what it was called, I don't think, I just remember her mentioning it was in a park and that you could bring your dogs.
It's a beautiful setting. they have a great menu for people, and there's one for dogs, too! The food is reasonably priced, and the service is reasonable as well. We ended up sitting inside because there was no one sitting outside and I was too chicken to ask if we could sit out there. I was kicking myself later because as we were leaving some other people, who did have guts, asked, and they got to sit right out in the grass. It's cooler than a regular restaurant's outdoor seating because it's in the park--so you're right by the lake, on a picnic-style table, and there are no boundaries. So, had I not been a chicken, Ben could have run around and chased the ducks and played in the grass and thrown sticks into the lake while we were waiting for our food instead of climbing the chair and table and walls like they were a jungle gym. That would have been helpful. And please don't ask why he wasn't sitting in a high-chair or booster. He refuses. And since he wasn't hurting anyone (except for maybe my image, which, let's be honest, hasn't been in tip-top shape since my mom neglected to tell me in sixth grade that I was supposed to shave and the boys called me "Pits"), I put this one on the list of "battles I don't care to fight." Besides, it was kinda cute, and all the little old ladies in the restaurant (which was every person in there but us) and our server were kinda in love with him. I got the egg breakfast with biscuits and gravy (I'm a big fan) and Ben got pancakes, which he ordered himself, although he says "cancakes," which sounds a lot like cupcakes, which is what the server thought he was ordering. The food was pretty good, although the biscuit was pretty hard and not that great. But otherwise we really liked it.
After breakfast we roamed the park. We didn't make it far from the restaurant, though, because all Ben really wanted to do was hang out at the dock like 100 feet from the place and collect sticks. Whatever. He was happy. And crazy adorable.
The Journey: Well, it's pretty deep into Huntington, so while we're just seconds away from the city, it's a pretty long drive for us, especially since no freeways really go there. But the park is awesome, so it's worth it for the occasional treat.
The Price: Meals range from $7-$9, so it's pretty reasonably priced. You can find the menu here. Note: they only take cash.
The Highlights: They have what is apparently an extraordinary bakery (according to themselves). However, the only baked item I had, the biscuit, wasn't very good. I'm hoping the cinnamon roles, etc. are much better. For me, though, the highlight is the park.
The Downsides: My lack of social skills, which inhibited us from sitting outside. And that biscuit. I was pretty disappointed, if you can't tell.
Note: I overheard a conversation the server was having with another patron. It sounds like the restaurant is actually closing inside of a month. So if you want to try it, you gotta do it soon.
Sunday, August 29, 2010
Hometown Tourists: Atlantis Park
Subtitle: "A Comedy of Errors"
It's me, Ben, again. I woke up at 4:15 this morning, so I have some time. I wanted to tell you about a recent Adventure we had at Atlantis Park in Garden Grove. It was one of my favorite's so far. But it was also a challenge. But hey, let's be honest here--I'm two, so everything's kind of a challenge.
We drove all the way to Garden Grove on a crisp August morning. I say "all the way" because I don't like being in the car for more than 10 seconds, so for me it was kind of far. The directions were kind of strange, asking us to turn left onto a street when there was a concrete divider in the middle of the road. Since it apparently breaks some kind of law to drive across those things, we had to make a few turns and find our way back to the street we were supposed to turn left on. We were obviously at some kind of park, but we couldn't see the Atlantis Play Center anywhere. While we'd never been there, the park we were looking at didn't look anything like what we were expecting based on descriptions. So we drove around for a while and never actually found what we thought we were looking for. But again, since we'd never been there (or even seen pictures), we thought maybe we were misled. This looked like just a regular park. After a solid 15 minutes, we gave up and parked next to a little playground. There was an enclosure off to the side that was under construction, so we suspected that maybe that was the cool part and that it was off-limits for the time being. My mom was getting kinda frustrated and annoyed that we drove all this way for what was pretty much the same park as we have across the street, but I didn't really care. I just like parks. So we got out, grabbed the camera, and walked over to the playground. After a minute the battery died on the camera, so we walked back to the car to change the battery. I was perfectly content with playing in this little playground, but my mom was positive there had to be more to this lame park than just this little playground. So she decided to walk a little bit to find it. I didn't want to walk, so I made her carry me.
Well, we found the cool part! It was all the way at the end of the road on the backside of the park. After walking about a half mile to it, in my mommy's arms of course, we saw that it cost $1 to get in. Well, we didn't have our money because it was in the car, which was of course on the other side of the park. So mommy said we had to walk all the way back to the car and drive back here. I thought that was ridiculous. I wanted to stay and go in because I'm two and I have no concept of money. I also didn't want to walk back to the car. So I made my mommy carry me. She wasn't too happy about that, especially since she had the big camera in her pocket and it was making her pants fall down because she's lost some weight and the camera is heavy (and so am I).
Well, eventually we made it back to the car. My mom strapped me in and we drive down to the park. So did a big yellow bus full of day-campers. Turns out there were a lot of day-campers there that day. Oh well. I love watching big kids play and trying to be like them. So we paid our $1 and went in.
It was heaven. There were several play areas with fun sea creatures to climb on, slides, grass to run and play in, a boat, a giant sea-serpent slide, and an awesome bridge with a tunnel underneath. I love tunnels. I just ran and ran and played and played. Coolest. Park. Ever.
The Journey: Not too bad. It probably would have only taken us 15 minutes from door to door if we hadn't explored the entire city of Garden Grove first. Just make sure you drive all the way to the end of the street that you can't turn left on.
The Price: $1. I think it's kind of silly to have to pay to go to a public park, but whatever. It's only $1.
The Highlights: To whole dang thing. But my favorite part was the wild bunny that I got to chase around for a while. I love bunnies. Also the Neptune statue. I wouldn't sit on his lap, but I liked to sit at his feet.
The Downsides: All of the walking. But that's not really Atlantis's fault--that's all my mom.