Great Skate - Glendale

Best. Skating. Ever.....

....according to my 11 year-old daughter, Erica, and her 11 year-old friend, Kaylee, at the conclusion of the Glow Skate evening at Great Skate in Glendale last night.

I had bought a Groupon (Groupon deals for Great Skate seem to come up frequently) for $16 as Kaylee's birthday present from us.  The deal included two admissions, two skate rentals, two slices of pizza and two sodas.  It did not include the $1 charge for a spectator.  Great Skate does, however, take that $1 you pay to go in as a spectator and gives you a $1 voucher for their "cafe".

The reason that the word cafe is in quotes is because I don't consider it a cafe.  You can buy things like pizza (microwave quality), nachos, pretzels, Slushees, and cotton candy.  When I think of a cafe, I'm thinking about sandwiches.  Nonetheless, since I didn't have my youngest daughter with me, I didn't ask about whether or not an exception to the "no outside food" would be made for people with food allergies.

That being said, we arrived early for Glow Skate and still ended up standing in a line.  We made it inside, and Erica got the rental skates.  The girls headed off to the rink while I made myself comfortable at one of the many tables.  Great Skate offers "trainers", which are basically like a walker on wheels, to rent for those who are unsteady on their skates.  The music was pounding, and certainly would've been better (in my never-to-be-humble opinion) on Sundays when they play Christian rock.  The lights were flashing.

I'd brought along some work I'd hoped to get done while the girls were skating.  Stupid me, I wasn't thinking about the volume of the music or the number of times my table would end up getting bumped by skaters careening into it.  Great Skate has free WiFi, but it was simply too loud and too chaotic for me to concentrate.

After a while, Erica and Kaylee came back....hungry.  They took their vouchers and went for their food.

Like any entertainment complex, Great Skate offers an assortment of coin-operated games that spew out tickets, which can them be redeemed for prizes.

And these were their prizes....

The evening came to a close too soon for them.  Adults and kids of all ages had fun out on the rink.

PlayGrounds Fun Zone

Honestly, I cannot believe there aren't more places out there in Arizona like PlayGrounds Fun Zone in Glendale.  This place is fantastic for the under-8 crowd!

PlayGrounds is a brightly colored, clean, 3500 square foot indoor play space for young children, including a special place set aside just for toddlers.  Admission is free for adults and babies under 1.  Your first child is $10 and subsequent siblings are $8.  My friend and I brought our 4-year-old daughters and turned them loose to play while we visited.  We hardly saw them!  They were so busy climbing, sliding, and zipping around in Little Tikes cars.

It's more than that, though...It's also a cafe that offers free WiFi. Even better, the food is good, much healthier than places like McDonald's that have small play areas for kids, and affordable.  I ordered a $4 breakfast croissant sandwich and was pleasantly surprised by how good it was.  My daughter has food allergies and they allowed me to bring in her food.  My friend and I saw our girls when they would zip back to the table for a drink or a bite....

So, moms and dads....grab your laptop, your Kindle, or a good old-fashioned book and bring your kids here.  You can sit and read or work while they play in a gated play area.

Arizona Science Center - Sesame Street "Body" Exhibit

I bought a Living Social deal for the Arizona Science Center recently.  I decided to treat my 4-year-old, my friend, and my friend's youngest daughter to a day at the science center.  The science center has several permanent exhibits and typically one or two special exhibits.  Right now, the special exhibit is Sesame Street's "The Body".  Being Sesame Street, Nikki and I opted to leave our oldest children at home and let this outing be for our preschoolers.

The outdoor water play area is the first thing that kids see as they walk into the museum.  It has all sorts of fun things to do.  Below, Jillian and Kayden are making music with pulses of water striking different spoon-shaped things.

One of the permanent exhibits centers around architecture and building houses.  There are tubs of blocks, tables full of shaped tiles, a child-sized house just for little ones, pipes to take apart and put back together, a shower, and the beams with the level....

I was really impressed with the Sesame Street exhibit for something fun and different to do with Jillian.  I was really glad I'd left my older two at home.  There were many hands-on and age-appropriate activities for the little ones.

The girls had fun with this one.  Pedaling, kicking and jumping made the Sesame Street characters move and light up.

This was another big hit.  You can make a trail light up by walking on the feet (to the left in the picture), rolling the wheelchair, or rowing.  Jillian and Kayden made it a race.

There were magnetic pieces of clothing to peel off and place on Elmo throughout different seasons, and a big pair of shoes to tie....

Finally, a restaurant and a big market to encourage imaginative play and healthy eating habits.

Now for the Low Down From Becky....

My kids always love going to the science center.  I'm generally less enthusiastic about it for several reasons.

The first is cost.  Without a membership, admission is steep and doesn't include any of the special exhibits, the planetarium or any IMAX movies.  For example, if I wanted to take Jillian to the science center and the Sesame Street exhibit, and I didn't have the Living Social deal I'd purchased or a membership, it would cost me $14.95 for general admission for me, $11 for Jillian, $21.95 on top of general admission for me to take Jillian into the Sesame Street exhibit, and $18 for her admission into the Sesame Street exhibit.  For those who aren't counting, that is nearly $60 for one adult and one 4 year-old!

If I had a membership, which ranges in price considerably depending on who the membership is for (a student, an educator, a lone adult, a grandparent, a family) and how many people are on the membership, the Sesame Street exhibit would still cost me $10 for both of us to go in.

If you can find them, many local libraries offer something called a Culture Pass, which gives holders a week to use usually 3-4 free admissions.  That would be general admission and would not include the special exhibits or extras.

The second reason I'm less enthusiastic than my kids are about going to the science center is that there's only one of me and three of them...and guaranteed not a single one of them will want to be in the same exhibit at the same time.  Keeping track of more than one child in there is not easy.  And having a play date there? Forget it.  Not fun.

You will see adults and kids of all ages at the science center.  My personal opinion, having been there when my older two were as young as 7 and 4 themselves and several times between then and now (they are almost 15 and almost 12), going to the science center is considerably more fun - unless the special exhibit is geared toward little ones like the Sesame Street exhibit - with children who are at least 9 or 10, and considerably less fun with kids under 6.  Too much of the museum just goes right over the heads of the little ones.

Parking at Heritage Square is convenient.  It cost me $8 for...mmm...I think we were there for 4-5 hours. The science center validates parking as well.

The center has a restaurant on site.  Nikki and I brought our own food and water, though.  We picnicked just outside of the museum entry.

Wild Wonders

Before we left for San Diego, I perused Groupon and Living Social, looking for deals on fun and perhaps out-of-the ordinary things to do in the area.  I found one:  Wild Wonders.  Wild Wonders is a wildlife education, rehabilitation, and conservation center that works to benefit endangered animals all over the world.  Since we weren't planning on spending the money to visit the San Diego Zoo this time, Wild Wonders was perfect for my animal lovers.

The grounds are very steep and I would not consider them to be wheelchair or stroller friendly.  When you go, make sure you wear closed toe, sturdy shoes.

Folks who have visited the World Wildlife Zoo and Aquarium in Litchfield Park, Arizona will find a similar look for animal housing here.  Each type of animal has its own enclosure.

The highlights of this tour were the animal encounters.  The tour guide was incredibly knowledgeable about each animal - right down to quirks and characteristics of each individual animal.

I would highly recommend this as an "off the beaten path" kind of outing for families to take in the greater San Diego area.

San Diego Botanic Garden

Without a doubt, the highlight of our recent trip to San Diego was the San Diego Botanic Garden.  We loved it, and had I known how much my kids would enjoy themselves, I would have allotted more time to spend there.

The grounds are immaculate and simply gorgeous.  Paved trails lead visitors through the various thematic gardens.

Whimsical sculptures appeared in random places throughout the gardens.

My kids loved looking for toads, frogs and turtles in the pond.  See if you can spot them in the photos below....

This is also a "working" garden...

The San Diego Botanic Garden also has two areas designed specifically for children.  In the "Seeds of Wonder", the kids are free to explore lots of sculptures, sand play areas, a water pump with plastic sea creatures to play with, a kid-sized clubhouse, a miniature railroad, and they even get to pot their own cactus to take home.  I know my youngest would have loved more time to spend here.

We moved on so we would have some time at the other children's area in the garden.  My jaw dropped when we arrived.  We could easily have spent the entire day here - indulging in all sorts of imaginative play. The feature attraction is a gigantic tree house.

Right next to the tree house was an area for arts and crafts, and a huge expanse of sand, building logs, and sand toys.  My teenager ended up with a following of little kids as he built a house out of the logs.

Also in the children's garden was a section dedicated to music with all sorts of hands-on noisemakers, a hummingbird garden, an alphabet garden, and a small stream with boats.

We happened to come on a day when the Garden was hosting a special summer evening event.  We got to enjoy a musical performance from Disney princesses and a meet-'n-greet afterward.

If I lived locally, I would definitely buy a membership to this place.  We'll put it on our itinerary, but give it a full, long day, the next time we go to San Diego.