On our last full day in the Bay Area, we got to take the girls to Children’s Fairyland in Oakland! I had heard about Fairyland while we lived in the area and that it was a really great place to take kids, but we had moved away before Mio reached the age where she could really enjoy a mini-amusement park like that. It was the first time going to Fairyland for all of us (even Dan!), so it was a new experience for all of us, and we fell in love with the quaint and charming mini-amusement park from the 1950’s, with its whimsical storybook sets, gentle rides, and friendly animals.
“There was an old woman who lived in a shoe…”
Inside the mouth of a whale!
The girls rode on the ferris wheel by themselves!
It seemed like they weren’t sure what to make of it at first, but they had a good time and Mio wanted to go on it again.
Mio & Mirei dancing in a hut!
Mirei crawling through a tunnel:
Mirei and Daddy by Rapunzel’s tower
Clothesline and windmill:
Mio at the “Fountain of Youth”
There were llamas there!
Sitting on the flower chairs at Fairyland. The girls look elated (especially Mio!) to be on their little petal thrones.
Mio insisted that Dan sit on it, too.
Sitting on the dragon’s back at Fairyland
Mio loved running up the ramp to slide down this giant Chinese dragon slide.
Mio’s the piggy with the straw house in the Three Little Pigs
Mio and Daddy going through the Alice in Wonderland maze.
Train ride at Children’s Fairyland
The girls riding with Daddy
Loved the rainbow of colors on the train ride… 🙂
Snack time. Eating a push-pop is serious business!
Mio is getting better about sharing with Mirei. So proud of her being such a sweet big sister!
They even had a Western-themed town at Fairyland. Here’s Mio going down the spiral slide.
Mio cranking at the well
Mirei riding the carousel
Mio LOVES carousels right now, so she was ecstatic to find one at Fairyland! She didn’t want to get off!
There was even a Japanese tea garden there that can be rented for private birthday parties! I loved that the mural had depictions of Japanese folk tales I grew up with, like Momotaro, Saru-Kani Gassen, Bunbuku Chagama, Kaguyahime, Shitakiri Suzume, and Urashima-taro. Mio recognized a lot of them too, since I’ve read a lot of the stories to her.
Mio looking into the Japanese tea garden:
Bookworms coming out of a wall of books
Daddy reading to Mio in the reading room
Mirei doing some reading of her own
Looks like Miss Mirei is going to be a little bookworm, too!
Boat in the sandlot
This pirateship playground was so neat! I love that Mio is steering the ship.
Mio’s obsessed with Beanie babies right now, so of course she was delighted to find them in the gift shop!
Fairyland was truly magical, and the girls had such a fun-filled day there! Our trip to California had been fairly grownup-centric with all the people and sights we wanted to see and places we wanted to eat, so I’m glad that we could set aside a day to dedicate to doing something that was all about our girls enjoying themselves. It’s too bad we no longer live in the area anymore, as Fairyland is definitely the type of place we would love to take the girls often!
I’d been wanting to take Mio to an amusement park this summer, but as we found at carnivals and fairs in the past, most rides require kids to be at least 36 inches tall, which Mio is just shy of. It’s hard to watch when she gets super excited to get on a ride, and then we have to turn her away because she’s not tall enough to ride, which she doesn’t really understand and then of course she gets confused and upset. I did a little research, and found that Dutch Wonderland in Lancaster, Pennsylvania is an amusement park designed for small kids, 2 to 10 years old. It’s perfect for toddlers, as many of the rides are okay for kids under 36 inches to ride, and there are plenty of family rides too in which younger children can ride with their parents. While it’s a 2.5 hour trek from where we live, we thought it’d be worth it to make the trip up to give Mio a fun-filled day in which she could go on rides to her heart’s content!
The first ride Mio went on was the “Wonder Whip” ride.
It went pretty fast!
Going on the Astro Liner spaceship ride with Daddy
Little astronaut going on her space adventure on the “Sky Rider.”
Cranking along the train on the Choo Choo train… with some occasional helpful pushes from Daddy.
Waiting in line for the Turtle Whirl
Only minutes after this photo was taken, while we were still in line for the Turtle Whirl ride, we had a really harrowing incident. I don’t know what idiot decided to place the designated smoking area right next to a toddler ride when designing the park, but a man started smoking there and the line we were standing in was directly downwind of the secondhand smoke. I was feeling just fine until then, but as soon as the smoke entered my lungs, I felt extremely dizzy and started having trouble breathing. I squatted down against the ground to avoid inhaling any more of the smoke, but then when I tried to stand back up, I lost my vision completely and all I could see was solid bright pink. It became even harder for me to breathe so I was gasping for breath, and could barely manage to sputter to Dan, “I can’t see! I can’t see anything…” and then my legs turned to spaghetti and buckled underneath me. Dan immediately grabbed my arms and moved me and Mio out of the line and onto a nearby bench. Because I couldn’t see anything nor feel my legs, I just heard Dan urgently saying, “Excuse me, we need to get out of this line” to the people around us and then telling me, “Sit down. Sit down, Misono!” and I remember being confused because I felt like I hadn’t moved at all and wasn’t sure if he meant for me to sit down on the ground, right where we were. But I guess Dan had somehow maneuvered me to a bench and once I sat down and got me some water to drink, my vision started returning. I could breathe and feel my legs again, but was really shaken up by what had just happened! It must have all transpired in less than a minute, but in that short time I was so frightened that I was going blind, or possibly going to die from not being able to breathe (I know, it’s dramatic of me, but you never know!). I’ve had times in the past where I’ve had blackouts or lost strength in my limbs because I used to be anemic, but I haven’t had any serious dizzy spells in the past five years, and none of the ones I’d experienced before were like this where I couldn’t breathe and my vision went bright pink. We’re still not sure what exactly happened, but Dan think it’s a combination of several factors — the changes in my cardiovascular system and heart rate due to pregnancy (as your blood volume increases 30-50% during pregnancy), perhaps having low blood pressure and/or low blood sugar, being slightly dehydrated while standing the heat, and the secondhand smoke just triggered the perfect storm. It’s so strange though because I felt completely fine just beforehand! I feel so lucky that Dan was there to help me and take control of the situation; I don’t even want to think about something like that happening while Mio and I are out alone on an outing! Once I regained my composure a bit, we went over to the nearest dining area and got some food in me, and I started feeling like myself again once I sat down for half an hour and ate lunch. I felt awful that I’d scared Dan, and that Mio didn’t get to go on the turtle ride she really anticipated, and I was also really concerned about whether the baby was okay after what had just happened to my body. I’ve felt the baby move since, but I’m going to talk to my OB about it the next time I see her just to be sure everything is fine. Dan’s also filed a complaint to the park about the placement of the smoking area. Smoking areas should be a good distance away from the kids’ rides, not right next to them… otherwise, what’s the point? The smokers might as well be huffing away right there in the line with you.
Anyway, we didn’t want to let that scare affect the rest of our day, so we continued onto the rest of the park…
Riding a log boat in the Dragon’s Lair
Mio spotted the dragon and squealed, “Dinosaur!”
Hugs with Mama
Getting lifted high by Daddy!
Mio kept giving Dan kisses while we were waiting in line for rides.
And then she went in for a smooch on the lips! Getting aggressive, young lady…
She was SO happy!
Dan got to play some games in the park, too.
Dan and Mio on the water slide!
Dan is clearly enjoying it more than Mio.
Onto the splash park!
Mio jumping with joy! She loved the splash area and played there for about an hour.
Cooling down with some Italian ice afterwards.
Dan remembered that one of my favorite rides at amusement parks is the flying trapeze swing, and pointed it out to me in the park. At first I didn’t want to go on it, because Mio wouldn’t be able to ride it and I didn’t want to just go on a ride for myself and make Dan and Mio wait… but Dan kept urging me to go on it, so I got on and it was actually really fun and refreshing! I’m glad Dan was so insistent on making sure I had some carefree fun, too — that’s why I love him! 🙂
Me on the flying trapeze swing.
Mio on the “Panda Party” ride.
The noise on this ride was a little annoying, but Mio didn’t seem to mind it…
Mio on the bulldozer ride. She kept waving at everyone as she went around, including the other parents. They all waved back at her. 🙂 It was cute!
Playing a fishing game, with some assistance from Daddy.
…and she won a pink dolphin!
A very happy Mio as we strolled through the park.
“Mama, come join me!”
Mother daughter picture 🙂
On a horsedrawn carriage
Thank you Dutch Wonderland for a fun-filled day! We’ll be back again.
As we were leaving, Mio kept blowing the dragon in front of the park kisses and giving it air hugs, saying “thank you!” and “bye bye dinosaur!” Such a sweetheart. I was able to catch a little bit of the tail end of it in this video:
A very content Mio!
I’m so glad we made the trip up to Dutch Wonderland! Our whole family had such a fun-filled day, and just watching Mio so excited and happy filled our hearts with joy! She was totally in her element and running around. enjoying every ride, game, and play area to the fullest. The next morning, she woke up exclaiming, “Dinosaur! Fun! Whee!” She must have been reliving all the fun she had in her dreams. We’ll be sure to take you again sometime, Mio! ♥
