Gilroy Gardens

After a night in the hotel and a gigantic breakfast as only Embassy Suites can do, we drove to the grand finale of our weekend celebrating health-- the coolest park we could find, Gilroy Gardens. How to describe this incredible place? Think Disneyland...aimed at kids under the age of 5...with an agricultural theme. So the parents don't go crazy watching the youngin's spin around kiddie rides all day, there are also amazing gardens, a rock maze, monarch greenhouse, waterfalls, shows and attractions the whole family can do together. Perhaps this will tell you what an excellent time we had: we stayed for every single minute of the 8 hours the park was open! And we had nothing but giggles and squeals of joy from the kids, not a single meltdown or whine!

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I'll start with the rides. They were so cute! Some we could ride with the kids, some they could ride alone. Almost all had a fruit or vegetable theme. The favorites were ridden 2 or 3 times. These are just a few: above is the Flying Strawberry ride, below is the Garlic Twirl, next is the Artichoke Dip.

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The ferris wheel didn't have a food theme, but it did have purple "carriages." Ella took some time out from pretending she was Cinderella going to the ball to pose with Delia and take this great picture of her parents.

The hot air balloon ride was another favorite because we could ride as a whole family. It lifted us up and let us really take flight!

Delia said her favorite part of the day was the "vegetables singing." This Musical Market Show was performed by fruits and vegetables that sang songs about eating healthy to the tunes of oldies ("Keep Away from Runaround Fruit" and "Salad USA" for example). The best was the sunglasses-wearing, wise-guy Jack Nicholson tomato. Look at that smile from Delia!

Of course, the kids were all about the rides, but while walking the park's loop, we'd run into beautiful gardens and waterfalls every once in a while. Again, the theme of Horticulture in the Central Valley was really played up. We learned all sorts of cool things about the fruits, vegetables and flowers we are famous for exporting.
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There were a couple different water features and a variety of boat rides to take on them. On a fairy boat we floated and bumped around a rainbow garden's lazy river. On these duck paddle boats we were set free on the park's big central lake.

We could have never done this park last year when the kids were so timid about rides. Delia delighted us by getting on every one she was tall enough for and loving them. We nearly died when Ella announced one hour prior to closing that she was ready to try the roller coaster! This Timber Twister roller coaster was pretty tame, but still the highest and fastest thing she's ever ridden on. Once she discovered the thrill of sitting in the front by the rattlesnake's head and putting her hands in the air, that was it. Guess where we spent the last hour at the park?

This day was such a pleasure to share as a family. We laughed and smiled so much. The kids were sooo happy and Ella even announced that it was worth getting so sick to get to have that much fun. What a celebration of health, what a treat for all of us!