Travel

To us weekends filled with outdoorsy goodness (namely hikes through Mt. Tamalpais and bike rides around Angel Island) are just what we need to reconnect and recharge from the craziness of the week. Nature calls us and we go knowing all is right when we are out in it exploring, getting dirty and going crazy. Weekends spent outdoors are hands-down our kids' favorite and have been their most memorable ones.

Being recent East Bay transplants via Los Angeles we find ourselves making tons of road trips down south to visit our dearly missed friends and relatives. With our two kids in tow for the long (boring) haul up the good ol' 5 freeway it's really easy to fall into the electronic trap.

My 3 year old daughter seems to be more intrigued by real-life things she can manipulate than the small toy-store-worth of toys sitting in her room. And while the mountains of stuffed animals and miniature figures go untouched there isn't a cap in our home that doesn't get screwed to a plastic bottle, a penny left not clanking into a piggy bank, a pot and pan not hammered with a wooden spoon or a light switch not turned on and off and on and off and on and off and on and off...

Some call Adventure City the "ghetto Knott's" I call it cheap family fun tucked into a pocket-size park. Situated approximately 5 minutes south of Knott's Berry Farm on Beach Blvd. in Buena Park this park is perfect for kids ages 2 to 9 years old. It's the place to go when you're kids are itching for some pint-size thrills but you don't want to break the bank, you're not looking to waste an entire day standing in line trying to deal with jam packed crowds and cranky kids to get on three rides and you value your sanity.

UrbanDictionary.com says that a staycation is "a vacation that is spent at one's home enjoying all that home and one's home environs have to offer."

That's what we did this last 4th of July weekend.