More fun afternoon activities, this time on Tuesdays at 3:30 p.m. at the Beverly Hills Library. Click here for flyer.
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A lot of us enjoy the Butterfly Pavillion in Exposition Park (see previous post). However, visiting costs money, and if you are traveling with the entire family or a group, the price can add up.
In Orange County, there’s another place to see butterflies and much more: the Environmental Nature Center of Newport Beach. I’d recommend checking out the website in the hypertext above for exact hours and directions. You’ll find a Butterfly House and light hiking in shady woods, picnic areas, a small museum, and educational programs for the whole family–and it’s free! Today, our family took a lovely stroll at the Redondo Beach Wilderness Park. This is a medium sized park with lots of shady trees, a delightful ocean breeze, creeks, two ponds stocked with koi, turtles, and ducks, several picnic areas, tadpoles (you could see some getting their limbs!), butterflies, dragonflies, and several species of waterbirds. The trail is short--not serious hiking for grown-ups, but fun for the kids.
Beware of blackberry brambles (they've got nasty thorns) and the challenging entrance/exit (you can only get in facing one direction). I'd map the trip before going. My husband has long been a fan of the book Manifold Destiny. For those who've never heard of it, I'll explain. Years ago, Chris Maynard and Bill Scheller wrote a book about the pleasures of cooking on your engine block while roadtripping. The book was enormously popular. Unfortunately, the publisher declared it out-of-print while there was still demand for the book. At that point, the book went on the resale market, often selling for upwards of 50 bucks. For a paperback! The authors eventually updated the book to stay current with today's tastes and automotive technology, and my husband finally got his hands on his very own copy.
We've finally begun to experiment with the techniques devised by Maynard and Scheller. They have whole meals you can make, but our ride today wasn't going to be that long, and we were nervous on our first time out, so we did the easiest thing possible. 1) Find a nice flat place on your engine block. 2) Triple-wrap in foil a pita stuffed with shredded cheese. 3) Place it in the space you found on your engine block. 4) Drive to the zoo, to the beach, or wherever. We opened up our packet at the zoo and my husband had a warm sandwich with gooey, melty cheese all ready for lunch. Totally cool. Summertime means picnic time. In our house, we keep things simple. We don't even make sandwiches because my kids are the type who peel them apart, eat the filling, and ignore the bread. We usually just toss some protein, some carbs, some veggies and a few fruits in a bag and go.
Favorite proteins: string or sliced cheese, hardboiled eggs, yogurt, peanut butter, nuts, chummus Favorite carbs: rice cakes, corn cakes, mini pitas, pretzels, multigrain crackers, matzah (plain or whole wheat) Favorite veggies: sliced peppers, Persian cucumbers, baby carrots (or carrot sticks), grape tomatoes Favorite fruits: whatever is in season! We usually allow our kids one juice box a day, and I'm a big ice tea lover. This year, I'm planning to try making sun tea in the back of the van--either herbal or plain green! I know some people do things fancier than us. What do you usually pack for your picnics? Please post your ideas below. I stopped by the library today and got the complete schedule for the free summer kids' programs. All occur Wednesday afternoons at 4.
June 27--Bubble-Ology 101 July 11--The Magic of Allen Oshiro July 18--Make your own Pet Rock July 25--Puppet show by Jim Peace "Dream Big, Wish Big" August 1--Make your own cartoons with professional cartoonist, Dave Boatman August 8--Storyteller and musician, Karen Golden--very interactive Additionally, kids 9-14 years old can join the Youth Scrabble Club. It will meet Sundays 1-3 pm on June 17, July 15, August 12, Octover 14, November 18, and December 16! Today, our family had one of those misadventures that's worth mentioning so you don't make the same mistake.
I'm usually a planner, but I felt a bit spontaneous today. Having a craving for some pretty scenery, I told my husband that I wanted to walk the Venice Canal today and go to the little park there to see the ducks with the kids. I can be pretty smart sometimes, but this suggestion was not my wisest. Traffic in Venice on a Sunday is crazed, particularly on a gorgeous, sunny afternoon. There was hardly any parking to be found. We will circled the block many times. Several people performed highly illegal and somewhat dangerous driving manoeuvres. We were frustrated. Our kids dozed off in the car but not before whining, "When will we get there?" In the end, we had to detour to a new destination because the original one had become simply IMPOSSIBLE. I think we will be returning to Venice in a couple weeks. On a weekday. Away from rush hour. LESSON LEARNED: When scheduling family outings, always consider visiting off-hours and on an off-peak day if parking or crowds will be an issue. Rancho los Alamitos is a great place to explore our Southern California heritage. The site has been inhabited for hundreds of years, and the house has many layers to it. My kids loved the old-fashioned Western decor and cowboy memorabilia. My favorite part: the porch where the rancher’s wife fed all the ranch hands.
The barn and much of the outdoors area at Rancho los Alamitos has been under an extensive renovation for a couple years. The job is now complete and we’re all welcome to a grand re-opening this Sunday, June 10! If you don't make it then, find time later this summer--it's really a nifty place to visit. The barn has all sorts of animals for the kids to get up close and personal with. By the way, Rancho los Alamitos was owned by a member of the Bixby family–the brother of the Bixby who owned Rancho los Cerritos, just a few miles away. Visiting the two will give you a fantastic picture of life in SoCal 100 years ago. This advice is from Beth Schoen...
For those of us who keep kosher, print the kosher Slurpee flavors list from CRC and leave it in your car/van throughout the summer. That way, you won't stand in front of the Slurpee machine telling your kids that you don't know which flavors they can have and ending up getting Coke-flavored (again!). image from ClipArt ETC
Here's a post that I originally wrote for my author blog: I'm not a Pinterest fan, but here's a wonderful post by a fellow blogger at the Nerdy Book Club that gives super projects to make summer reading fun in your family. Summertime is the perfect time to develop a love of reading in your kids. Kids can select their own reading material based on their own interests rather than what their teachers think they should be reading. They can also read at their own pace without meeting a deadline. If your family (or your child's camp bunk) go on an interesting outing, they can select books that dovetail nicely with the subject matter. Many libraries have summer book clubs that your kids can join (including Beverly Hills and L.A. city libraries). Just go see the children's librarian for details at your neighborhood branch. |