- Experience The Best of OC with fun-filled and kid-friendly activities -
DUBAI, (July 23, 2014) — Orange County, California is as kid-friendly as a destination can get! Attractions like Disneyland and Knott's Berry Farm (home of Camp Snoopy) top the list plus endless beach activities like kayaking and other water sports and park recreational activities. There are also a lot of water parks, skate parks, interactive museums and discovery centers, go-kart racing, bowling alleys, ice skating & roller skating, shopping malls, kids concerts that are perfect for a fantastic family getaway!
Beyond
amusement parks and beaches, Orange County offers lots of fun-filled
experiences for children and their families. Here are a few ideas:
Hands-On Discovery: OC
offers some great interactive museum experiences for children. Santa
Ana's Discovery Science Center features 120 hands-on exhibits, including
the world's first interactive dinosaur adventure. Just down the street,
the Bowers Kidseum introduces children to cultures around the world
through hands-on arts experiences. For very young children, Pretend City
in Irvine and the Children's Museum at La Habra offer fun opportunities
to explore, play and stretch the imagination.
Marine Life: Take
your young explorers to the Ocean Institute in Dana Point for a great
introduction to the marine life found in local waters. (Reserved for
school groups during the week, the Institute is open to the public on
weekends.) If you're interested in experiencing marine life in the wild,
check out the variety of family excursions offered throughout the year
on Ocean Institute vessels. Whale watching takes place year-round in OC,
with migrating Gray Whales appearing off the coast from November
through April and Blue Whales from May through October. Multiple
operators depart from Newport and Dana Point Harbors. If you'd like to
see seals and sea lions up close, head to the Pacific Marine Mammal
Center in Laguna Canyon, where pinnipeds rescued along the OC coast are
being nursed back to health for release into the wild. Excellent tide
pooling can be found in Crystal Cove State Park, the rocky coves of
Laguna Beach and at the base of the Dana Point Headlands.
Nature & Animals: OC's
zoos are more intimate experiences than others in Southern
California-offering terrific introductions for younger visitors. The
Santa Ana Zoo offers a particularly strong monkey collection. The OC Zoo
in Irvine Park showcases animals that are found in the wild in Southern
California. And San Juan Capistrano's Zoomar's is a fun petting zoo.
Learn about the plants and animals that inhabit the Southern California
ecosystem at the Environmental Nature Center
in Newport Beach or the nearby Muth Interpretive Center, part of the
Upper Newport Bay Ecological Reserve. Or check out the guided hiking
experiences designed for families and children offered by OC Parks and
the Irvine Ranch Natural Landmarks.
OC History: For
a window on Orange County's history, take a tour of the Mission San
Juan Capistrano; a walk around San Juan Capistrano's historic downtown
is a great way to get a feel for the county's earliest history. The
interactive tours and excursions on the Tall Ships at the Ocean
Institute tell young visitors about the early seafaring days along the
OC coast. (If you're in town in September, be sure to hit the Tall Ships
Festival!) While there are many remnants around the county of OC's
agricultural era, the Heritage Museum in Santa Ana is one of the most
accessible, providing young visitors an idea of what life was like in
the late 19th and early 20th century when agriculture was king. And
Heritage Hill Historic Park in Lake Forest spans a number of
periods-Native American inhabitants to the original Serrano Adobe (from
OC's Mexican rancho era) to the school house, church and citrus ranch
house (from the early settlement era.)
All Aboard! Trains
were an important part of OC history, bringing settlers to the area and
helping farmers reach faraway markets. There are two places in the
county where train enthusiasts young and old can ride on miniature
trains: Fairview Park, Costa Mesa (3rd Sat. & Sun. each month) and
Irvine Regional Park (daily). Or plan a day trip on a real
train-multiple OC cities are served by both Metrolink and Amtrak. Three
historic downtowns are close to railroad stations--Fullerton, Old Towne
Orange and San Juan Capistrano--offering lots to see and do on foot once
you arrive. You can also hop a train to take in an Angels game in
Anaheim (the station is in the stadium's parking lot.) Or head to San
Diego or Los Angeles for a full day adventure.
Farm Experiences: Want
to help your kids understand where their food comes from? Check out the
Centennial Farm at the OC Fair & Event Center in Costa Mesa, the
Orange County Great Park's Farm+Food Lab that makes the farm-to-table
connection (while you're there, don't miss the opportunity to rise above
it all in the Great Orange Balloon); or Tanaka Farms in Irvine, a
working family farm and farm-stands with special seasonal events where
visitors can pick their own pumpkins, strawberries or watermelons.
Intros to the Arts: A
number of OC performing arts organizations offer regular programming
specifically designed for children and their families - check out
Pacific Symphony, Segerstrom Center for the Arts and South Coast
Repertory to see what might be happening during your visit. Laguna's
summer art festivals offer hands-on visual arts workshops and
experiences for children. The Annual Street Painting Festival (May) is a
fun, accessible way to see artists creating masterpieces before your
eyes. And, OC has a number of festivals that provide great creative
experiences for children and families including the Imagination
Celebration (April/May), the Festival of Children (Sept) and the OC
Children's Book Festival (Oct).
Active: OC's outdoor, active lifestyle is perfect for active children and their families. Visit OCVA’s website: www.visittheoc.com
and go to Outdoor Activities section and check the places to bicycle,
hike, kayak, surf, or learn stand-up paddleboarding. For the
skateboarding enthusiast, there's Van's Skate Park in Orange or Etnies
Skatepark of Lake Forest. Or try an ice skating experience at Anaheim
ICE, the practice facility for OC's professional ice hockey team.
Horses: For
young children, the pony rides at Irvine Regional Park might be the
perfect place for a first horseback experience. Older children would
enjoy guided trail rides offered at three facilities: Huntington Central
Park Equestrian Center (Huntington Beach), Country Trails Horse Rental
and Riding School (Orange), or Ortega Equestrian Center (San Juan
Capistrano). Both of the latter offer less urban trial experiences in
the county's beautiful backcountry.
For Sports-Enthusiasts: OC
offers a number of opportunities to expose young athletes to talented
collegiate and professional sports experiences. OC is home to
professional sports teams and competitions including: Angels (baseball),
Ducks (ice hockey)-both in Anaheim--and multiple pro surfing events
(Huntington Beach and San Clemente.) It is also home to the U.S.
Swimming finals (Irvine) and Olympic Volleyball teams (Anaheim), major
equestrian events (San Juan Capistrano) and highly-ranked college sports
teams at CSU Fullerton and UC Irvine.
Fossils: There
are two great places in OC to check out the creatures large and small
that inhabited Orange County millions of years ago-and the OC finds have
been impressive. Both facilities have extensive displays of the rich
fossils discovered nearby. Head to the Ralph B. Clark Interpretive
Center in Clark Park (Fullerton) or to the Laguna Hills Community
Center, which offers audio tours and a self-guided Paleopack Program for
children ages 2-9. Check out http://www.gotfossils.com/ for a preview of the array of creatures that have been found at the Laguna site.
Old Fashioned Amusement: The
OC Fair tops the list for old-fashioned amusements; it takes place
mid-July through mid-August at the OC Fair & Event Center in Costa
Mesa. Other year-round options include: the Balboa Fun Zone (Newport
Beach), Adventure City (Anaheim) and Boomers (Irvine.)
