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!
One of my good friends from college came to visit this past weekend. Mimi is a couple years older than me and has always been like the older sister I never had — when I kept getting sick freshman year, she always brought over soup or jello to help me feel better, and she would frequently invite me over for yummy home-cooked Korean meals. After she graduated, I hadn’t had many chances to see her, and it’s even harder to meet up now that we’re on opposite coasts. The last time I’d seen her was over a year ago, at my wedding. This time, Mimi and her friend Cindy decided to take a trip out here for a little over a week to go hiking and camping around Yosemite and Tahoe, making stops at Santa Cruz and Monterey along the way. They arrived on Friday night and spent Saturday with us before embarking on the rest of their Northern California adventure Sunday morning.
I’m always uncertain about where to take friends when they visit the area, since for having lived out here for two years, I still don’t know the area too well, especially San Francisco. But Mimi made things super easy for me because she did a whole bunch of research and talking to Bay Area natives back in Richmond, Virginia before she flew out. When she got here, she had a whole list of places to go and things to eat before I even had to come up with suggestions. She’s been to the city before, so she knew the streets of San Francisco much better than I did!
We spent a good amount of time in both Berkeley and San Francisco on Saturday, making it a full day. It was fun being a tourist in our own city! Here are some photos…
Breakfast at Bette's Oceanview Diner in Berkeley
corned beef hash and cream scone... a satisfying start to the day.
pie in the sky: a giant pie hanging from the ceiling
reunited with Meems!
Indian Rock in Berkeley... never heard of it until Mimi told me about it.
Enjoying breathtaking views of the bay from Indian Rock.
The ladies on Indian Rock! (It was rough scaling that rock in a dress.)
Big thanks to Mimi for telling us about this place!
Cindy and Mimi meet Diesel for the first time.
Ice cream stop at Ici.
Enjoying refreshing treats from Ici... my current favorite is the raspberry lemon ice cream sandwich, flanked by gingersnaps.
Driving in the Russian Hills in San Francisco.
The zigzagging roads of Lombard Street. This was actually my first time there! I've always wanted to see it.
Visiting friends always want to stop by the Japanese Tea Garden in Golden Gate Park.
obligatory Japanese bridge photo.
Dry-fried chicken wings from San Tung on Irving Street.
They were seriously the best chicken wings I've had in my entire life.
Shrimp and leek dumplings... delicious.
Spicy seafood noodle soup (Cham Pong) - pretty hot but soooo good.
Back in Berkeley, finishing off the day with bubble tea from Tapioca Express in downtown.
(See more photos of our Berkeley/San Francisco excursions on Flickr.)
Dan and I had a great time with the girls (although Dan only accompanied us for the Berkeley portion of our adventures), and we wish them a safe and memorable trip around NorCal before they return to the East Coast.
