Gilroy Gardens

About 40 minutes south of us is a small-ish theme park called Gilroy Gardens.  We have known about it for a while but lately I have had a number of friends tell me that I really ought to take Clara there because she would love it.  I finally made it happen this week and I am so glad we checked it out.  We actually even bought a membership that is good for the rest of this year and through next year too for just $35 more than what our ticket cost for the day and it includes parking and a bunch of guest passes and everything so we are looking forward to lots more days at Gilroy Gardens in the future!

 

There is a miniature carousel that had tiny horses just Clara's size.  Clara likes to designate things by "size" these days.  Things are "Clara-size" or "mommy-size" or "baby Piper (or Carter or Adelaide or Graham - these are the babies she knows, although Piper tends to be the most common reference)-size". 

 

Gilroy is known for produce and farming (particularly garlic -  it has a garlic festival every year) so most of the rides at Gilroy Gardens are produce based like the strawberry swings.

There was a "mommy-size" carousel that Clara rode on too.  This girl LOVES carousels.

A couple of the rides are for tiny tots and Clara enjoyed these fish that went up and down and around and around.  I got motion sickness just watching but she squealed and laughed.  The third time she rode this she put her hands in the air (at my prompting) and kept them there for the entire ride while squealing the whole time.

But easily her favorite ride was called "tubs-o-fun" which was a lot like the teacups at Disneyland.  Thank goodness adults weren't allowed on the ride because it would have done me in with motion sickness.  Clara laughed and laughed and laughed and even tried turning her cart around by pulling on the wheel a few times.  I sense that the next time we go to Disneyland I am going to have to man-up and take some Dramamine so I can ride the teacups with her.

The hot air balloon ride was really cool.  Kind of like the giant swings except you are in a big basket. 

Clara liked the "pretty pink flower boats" that floated along a lazy river with topiaries shaped like various animals.

At the end of the day I got a swirled soft-serve cone for us to share but put most of the ice cream in a cup since I knew it would be easier for Clara to eat that way.  I should have kept more ice cream on the cone for myself because Clara did NOT want to share and when I asked for a taste she would block me from sticking my spoon in and declare "MINE!" (her new favorite word). 

Us with the Gilroy Garden mascots. 

We were there from about 11:30 until almost 5:00 and Clara was asleep before we even left the parking lot.