New Adventure

On a whim, when we were already out of the house, we decided to go to the Atlantis Playcenter (Tom's Friday off). I mention that it was a whim, because that's why we didn't have the camera with us, thus no pics to post.

We'd been wanting to go for a while, but Lukas wanted to check out a park in our neighborhood that he'd seen while driving by. We went to the park and it wasn't that great, so we decided to make a trip to Lee's Sandwiches (which is just around the corner from Atlantis) for takeout lunch and then go to Atlantis. I love getting a baguette sandwich from Lee's because they bake their bread fresh, on site, every day. I hadn't brought any lunch for Natalie (since we were planning to go home after the first park), so I had to choose something from a sandwich bar that she could eat. She ate most of a serving of flan, and little pieces of cheese, tomato and avocado from my sandwich.

The park was great...lots of climbing things with an Atlantis/Waterworld-type theme. It was interesting because we've talked to friends who were young kids in OC 30 years ago and remember playing at Atlantis, so we were apprehensive that it would be old and unkempt. But they've kept it well maintained, so it was quite nice to be in. It's completely fenced in, and the $1 admission fee keeps the homeless people out, but is very affordable for everyone. The one challenge, as Singletasker mentioned (she visited it yesterday, by coincidence!) is that the play areas are a little spread out, so moms can't sit in just one place and talk while watching their kids...they have to be prepared to walk to a new place at the whim of their child who tires of sliding down the whale slide and wants to climb on the pirate boat, slide down the dragon slide, or swing in the swings (Natalie's favorite thing to do).

The ironic thing was that today the park admitted special needs kids from the local school district for free, so there were probably 50 high-functioning kindergarten-age kids running around. Tom and I were impressed with the way the caregivers handled the wayward kids who were constantly running off...it's one thing to deal with a typical child, but dealing with a special needs child who wants to run off from the group is a new challenge that we anticipate facing when Natalie is mobile.

Lukas was very tired, so very ready to go home when we were ready. Fun day with Dad!