Tour De 580

We took Juliet for her first trip to Children's Fairyland on Lake Merritt in Oakland. It is a land of storybook sets that the kids can touch, run around, and explore. It's a cute place in an old, funky way. Juliet had a blast looking at the animals and running around (they make a mean PB&J too). She rode the carousel (twice) and went through the Alice in Wonderland house and maze. We had to get a photo in front of the big whale, since that is what my parents both remember from when they were children visiting Fairyland. The place definitely looks like it has been there since 1950, but I think that is part of its charm.
Here is Juliet going down the slide with Daddy in the Alice in Wonderland house.




Note her clutching the storybook key. She carried it around all day and is pretty close to figuring out how to insert it and turn it the right way to start the music and storytelling.






We left Fairyland hoping that J would fall asleep in the car so that we could pick up lunch somewhere and make our way to the Little Farm at Tilden Park, but no such luck. She would NOT fall asleep, so we went out to lunch instead (risky, but it worked out), then we took our tired little trooper to the Little Farm sans nap.


I had intended to stop for lettuce or celery since I had studied up and knew that either can be fed to the animals at the farm, but we didn't get around to it and showed up looking like a couple of rookies with no veggies for the animals. I think we were the only ones to show up empty-handed. We got a couple of lettuce donations and along with some foraging for discarded pieces of celery, had stuff to offer the cows and goats (who, by the way, want nothing to do with the mini center pieces of yucky celery, so don't even try it).


Juliet especially liked the rabbits at the farm. I think it might be because there were grey and white ones like Nina. We practiced "what do the rabbits do?". I scrunch my nose like a bunny, but she just breathes in and out of her nose loudly, thinking that she is doing what I am doing but not moving her face at all. It's pretty cute.

We definitely got our money's worth out of the bridge toll and Juliet slept like a log through the nightmarish traffic on the way home. A successul venture all around and sunny to boot.