LA County Fair Giveaway!

Spending hours at the county fair was something I always looked forward to as a kid.  Sure, the $20 I would bring as my spending money doesn't go as far anymore, but the county fair has sure changed in what it has to offer!

At this year's LA County Fair you can experience everything from the famous deep fried PB & J to the LA in Ice exhibit (where you can see some famous Los Angeles landmarks carved out of ice) to checking out the Our Body: The Universe Within exhibit to the traditional county fair rides.  Did you know you can partake in trapeze lessons at the fair?  I sure didn't!  I also heard there are going to be life sized dinosaurs...

So who wants to win a family four pack of tickets?  I've got a family four pack of tickets to giveaway!  This one ends quickly, so don't miss out!

The giveaway will go until Saturday September 4th, 2010 at 12 am midnight and is only open to residents of the contiguous U.S. When leaving comments, be sure I have a way to contact you, I reserve the right to pick another winner if I am not able to contact the winner in a reasonable amount of time. The winner will be picked using Random.org.

Mandatory first entry:
Tell us what you are looking forward to most about the LA County Fair this year!

Additional Entries:
•Subscribe to email feed or other feed subscription for OCMomActivities.com (or if you already are, just say that)



•Become a Fan of OCMomActivities or LA County Fair on Facebook or say so if you already are (1 extra recommendation for each friend you recommend OCMomActivities)


•Follow OCMomActivities or LA County Fair on Twitter (1 extra entry)


•Mention/link this giveaway in a blog post or tweet about it (1 extra entry each allowed once per day until the giveaway ends)


•Go comment on another post on OCMomActivities.com then come back and comment on this one saying you did it (this is an unlimited number of extra entries as long as you do the extra commenting!)

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Walking with Dinosaurs - The Live Experience is a must see!

As you know... my youngest is a huge Dinosaur fan (and has been for several years now).  Two years ago when the Walking with Dinosaurs The Live Experience came to the Honda Center in Anaheim, we of course went.  There really is no way to explain how absolutely amazing the show is.  There are no seats that are bad seats because the Dinosaurs are HUGE.  The "journey" you are taken on is educational as well as visually amazing.

If you haven't gotten tickets yet, this is the time to do it because it will be doing it's final tour through Southern California in the next two weeks (it will be at the Honda Center September 1-5th and at the Staples Center September 9th -12th).  Tickets can be purchased at ticketmaster.com


Here's a clip I think you'll see how amazing this show really is...

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San Diego Natural History Museum

Summer is winding down, but we managed to sneak in a trip down to the San Diego Natural History Museum in Balboa Park.  It was actually a last minute detour after a trip to the San Diego Zoo (they are right next to each other).  My youngest is a huge fan of anything Dinosaur related... so the Dinosaurs: Ancient Fossils, New Discoveries Exhibit was on his list of things he wanted to do this summer.  Hurry though because the Dinosaur Exhibit ends September 5, 2010.  There are giant dinosaurs, small dinosaurs and everything in between currently on display.  The Dinosaurs Alive! 3D experience was amazing and we all loved it. (All 3D films are included in the price of admission).  They are currently running Ocean Oasis, Mummies Alive! 3D and Wild Ocean 3D in addition to Dinosaurs Alive! 3D.

Also on display is the All That Glitters - The Splendor and Science of Gems and Minerals exhibit was also pretty neat (ok... so I loved it and the kids thought it was ok, but their heads were so full of dinosaur thoughts they didn't notice how enamored I was with all the gorgeous jewels on display).

Be sure to head on up to the 4th level to see the breath-taking photography, and you can even buy some!

A couple of tips for heading to the museum in the summer... go early.  Really early.  And take the first parking spot you find.  Parking is free and there's plenty to do, so Balboa Park is a huge destination for locals and tourists alike.   But it was well worth the hunt for a parking spot, my boys loved exploring the museum.

We had such an amazing time exploring that we purchased a family membership (less than $100 for the year) and plan on returning to see more of the 3D movies and upcoming exhibits (Snakes & Lizards: Alive! - opens October 16, 2010 and Ends of the Earth: Science North - opens May 12, 2011).  The museum also runs a number of group member activities like whale watching.

Quick!  They are running a Summer Special and you can purchase in advance (go here)  at a 40% savings (adults $10, kids $8). 

Have you been to the San Diego Natural History Museum with the kids yet?  What did you think?  Any tips I missed?

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San Diego Wild Animal Park - Part 3

Part 3



(You can find part 1 here and part 2 here)

What I found most complicated about the San Diego Wild Animal Park (& Zoo actually) was it was really hard to figure out what is included in the cost of your ticket and what you had to pay extra for. The Wild Animal Park in particular has a large amount of extra cost adventures you can take that can add a ton of cost to your day (Segway Tours for example can add an additional $70 per person, but also have age minimums). There is the Flightline (Zipline ride), Wilderness Ridge Mule Ride, Savanna Safari and Ride on the Wild Side, Roar & Snore (overnight onsite camping), Balloon Safari and Zoowerks – The Ride. All of these cost extra and will definitely enhance your day, but quickly add up. If you’re interested in any of these activities, you can research them on the website and do be aware that many do have age minimums as well. Also feel free to ask at the Safari Booking Station (at the entry) for any tips about what adventures would be right for your family. They are very friendly and happy to help you.


This time we came prepared! I’d checked the weather forecast, grabbed several water bottles, the kids had our water spray fans (picked up at one of our many Disneyland trips), tons of sunscreen, everyone had sunglasses, ultra light clothing and a plan.

We arrived at the park at about 9:30 am and headed straight for the Journey into Africa tram. A ticket is required for this, but if you paid regular admission to the park or have a membership (great value especially because you also get membership to the San Diego Zoo!), it is included. Doing this first in the morning was great timing because it wasn’t too hot and all the animals were still active. The views are awe inspiring and leave you with the feeling you have truly just been on an African Safari!

After the Safari ride, we mostly followed the Kilimanjaro Safari Walk for the rest of the day. The Jameson Research Island was another cool stop on our walk. There are several feeding dispensers (bring quarters!) and you can feed the birds along the floating bridges. The birds definitely knew what was up and as soon as they heard the dispenser, they began coming towards us. The boys loved feeding the birds! There’s also a misting station for the kids to get wet and a Dino Dig area.

Instead of following the Kilimanjaro Tour to the left (west) of the Lagoon, we went to the right wanting to see the Lemurs again. As we were walking past Lemur Island, I saw one of the Zookeepers parking her cart and pulling a large bucket out of the back, I knew it had to be feeding time for something. We followed her to the overlook area just in time to see her feeding small fish to all of the birds. That was really neat because we got to see a lot of the birds come up close to us and it was just plain entertaining watching the birds steal from each other and do fly-bys! I’d highly recommend taking note of which animals are being fed when and making the effort to watch. In the couple of times we have gone to the Wild Animal Park now, we’ve seen several different feeding times and have always really enjoyed them.

Our family’s favorite find of the day without a doubt was the Animal Care Center. My kids could have spent hours there alone! Three baby cheetahs were running around the playrooms having a ton of fun. They were hilarious to watch and so cute!

If it’s your first time at the park, I’d highly recommend taking the “Kilimanjaro Safari Walk” as your main route for the day (veer up to check out the Tigers if you’re ambitious and it’s not a hot day). Due note that The Kilimanjaro Safari Walk is a 2 mile walk, but the park is quite accommodating for strollers and joggers, so if you have you have kids under 5 I’d highly recommend bring something for them to sit in!

I can’t emphasize enough how much easier it makes your day to arrive at the park early… when we arrived we were able to park at one of the first few aisles, but as we left the park (just before 2pm), people were still arriving and they were parking at the bottom of the hill! The Wild Animal Park handles crowds very well. We were actually really surprised to see how many cars had arrived after us because the park just didn’t feel that busy. Taking a few minutes to prep ahead of time made our day FANTASTIC!


Have you been to the San Diego Wild Animal Park? Any tips I missed?

Family Travel Tips
San Diego

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San Diego Wild Animal Park Part 2

Part 2
As I have mentioned before on here, we recently purchased season passes to the San Diego Zoo and the San Diego Wild Animal Park (fantastic deal and I’d recommend it to anyone!). You can read about our first trip to the San Diego Wild Animal Park (here is part 1), but I wanted to wait until we had another chance to go back before writing a post about the park. I’m so glad I did that because I’ve completely validated why it is so important to spend a few minutes prepping before going to these parks! I made the mistake of thinking that I was a theme park veteran and that with sunscreen, we’d be fine. Ha! Was I wrong! Learn from my mistakes so you can have a fantastic time because it really is a fantastic park if you do a little prep/planning. I’ll be writing about this park in several parts because I’d like to share what we did wrong the first time in part 2 and what we did right the second time in part 3. Part 1 is about Dino Mountain specifically.

When we went to the San Diego Wild Animal Park, our main goal for the day was to go see the Dino Mountain exhibit (because of our little Paleontologist in training!), we didn’t take the time to check the weather forecast (click here to do that now). Really big mistake in the summertime! We arrived at the park just before 10 am on a Sunday just as the day was getting warm. Parking was a piece of cake and we walked right in. Just after entering the park I coated the kids in the usual sunscreen spray. That was about the only thing I did right that day. I dramatically underestimated the amount of walking we would be doing for the day in the heat. We easily found the Dino Mountain exhibit and went there first. We loved it and I wish it were to be a long term exhibit, but unfortunately it closes September 7, 2009. After we finished I took a quick peek at the map (view map here) and we decided to wander over and look at the Tigers. It looked like a short walk. Little did I know it was a long walk in the now scorching sun!


I’m glad we had decided to purchase a couple of the very over priced water bottles for sale at the exit of the Dino Mountain (I made a mental note to buy water bottles before entering the park next time because they don’t seem to be concerned about how much water people bring in the park) - between the four of us we finished off the waters in not time. The Tigers were apparently smarter than us because they were sleeping the shade.

After heading over to see the Tigers there was really only one way that made any sense to head and that was towards the Lions and Journey into Africa area. What is really embarrassing to me is that I didn’t realized this was the loading for the free safari tour (you can read about this in Part 3 of this post). This would have been a perfect break in the day. The kids were exhausted by this point and we were all super hot. We were basically ready to head home (even after a few minutes spent in the Savanna Cool Zone water area).

After lunch at Samburu Terrace, we took the Great Lift Rift back up to the other area of the park. We LOVED the Air Conditioning, mist and elevator ride. Without it, the walk up the hill would have not been fun.

On our way back to the exit I managed to detour us enough through the waterfowl area. I immediately knew we’d made a critical mistake in our day, we did the hot long walks first. We did manage to walk by the Meerkats at the perfect time – Lunch! That was hilarious to watch the interaction between the zoo keeper and the Meerkats!

Mental Notes I made for next time:
-Bring lots of water
-Ultra Comfortable walking shoes a must
-Follow the freeway signs to the park, not the Google App directions
-Bring the water bottle fans we purchased at Disneyland to help keep cool
-Check the weather forecast, it is a good 10 degrees warmer that most of San Diego, so keep that in mind. It was 103 degrees as we got in to the car at 1pm.
-Go absolutely as soon as the park opens on a Saturday to avoid crowds and traffic. The animals are more active in the mornings when it is cooler.

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Dinosaur Park aka Laguna Hills Community Park

Did you know that the Saddleback Valley is built on some of the richest fossil grounds in the country? I sure didn’t! We found this park a few years ago nestled next to the Laguna Hills Community Center, and until we parked and walked back in we had no idea how cool it was! We call it the Dinosaur Park, but it is officially the Laguna Hills Community Park.

This is a very large park and really lends itself to bringing a picnic lunch or take out dinner. There are plenty of covered benches and restrooms on site. It will be tough getting the kids ready to go home, because of how much there is to explore!

We love the large amount of dinosaur themed activities at the park including a full sized skeleton of a Dinosaur for kids to play on and in. There’s a full sized wooden jeep for the kids to play in, three large turtle fountains, diggers, tunnels, baby play areas as well as big kids play structures. This really is a park for kids of all shapes and sizes.

The park is located directly across from the Ralphs and Starbucks at the corner of Paseo de Valencia and Alicia in Laguna Hills. (25555 Alicia Pkwy, Laguna Hills, CA 92653-5341)

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Dino Mountain at the San Diego Wild Animal Park

Part 1
Dino Mountain at the San Diego Wild Animal Park

Because of the sheer size of the San Diego Wild Animal Park, I’m going to break up my posts about our Adventure today in to three posts. I wanted to start with the special event occurring now through September 7th. If you have a Dinosaur fan in your household, this is absolute must see! Hopefully, the weather will cool down a bit before the exhibit ends, because the heat at the park today was definitely a challenge with young kids… (As we got in to the car at 1:30pm to leave the park, we clocked the temperature outside at an anything but cool 102 degrees!!!)

Because of our recent membership purchase, we got a discount for entry in to the Dino Mountain area. I was a bit skeptical at first, (I must admit) as to whether it was really going to be worth the extra $3/person ($4 for non-members) to enter the special exhibit, but I was pleasantly surprised! What is not captured in the pictures is the realistic movement of the Dinosaurs and the sounds each of them made. Very cool!

The exhibit was nicely tucked away under tree cover and provided a nice escape from the trees. Just beware for the spitting Dinosaur! Each of the kids was given a small passport to collect the stamps of the different Dinosaurs they saw along the path. This is a great educational bonus, because it really encourages the kids to not just look at the Dinosaurs, but associate the names with them. It caused them to really stop and pay attention to each Dinosaur.

I am very glad we made this our first stop for the day, because as the day went on, the heat became a major factor/challenge. Be sure to dress in very light clothing, bring plenty of water (unless you want to pay $4 a bottle. Yes, it is a large bottle of water though.) and as always, be sure to wear plenty of sunscreen!

Stay tuned over the next couple of days for Part II.

Helpful Links:

http://www.sandiegozoo.org/dinomountain/index.html
http://www.sandiegozoo.org/wap/index.html

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