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.

Cabela's

I'm not sure if it's just my kids who get giddy at the prospect of going to Cabela's in Glendale, but I had to share it here simply because:

1. they are ALWAYS thrilled to go (especially when their daddy takes them).

2.  like my 4-year-old was saying in the video above, they have sno-cones...and what can beat that?  The sno-cones at Cabela's are a special "daddy" treat; I don't buy them when I go.  So....our kids always prefer to go with my husband.

3.  it's indoors, and you can go without spending any money.  It's a nice, local, "beat the heat" field trip.  Folks in Arizona can appreciate those.

4.  besides the items Cabela's has for sale, there are lots of things to look at.  My littlest used to call it the "dead animal store".

Those are two of the big displays in the store.  There are heads decorating the walls all around the store.  They even have a small wildlife education museum.

And, going back to the video at the beginning, they have the "talking deer".  It does!  It talks to you.

5.  there are actually things you can do there (besides shop).  They have a very small indoor archery range, a laser target shooting game, and even a cafe (which is not pictured).  Kids can have birthday parties there (my oldest daughter actually had her 10th birthday party there) and enjoy a scavenger hunt.

Glendale, AZ Watermelon Festival

I took my kids and two of my oldest daughter's friends to the Watermelon Festival in historic Glendale this weekend.  The farmer's market area was nearly microscopic.  There was a small corner of inflatables, which all cost extra money.  There were some artists displaying wares.  And...there were the watermelon games.  $1 per game or all seven games for $5.  The hands-free watermelon eating contest was definitely the highlight, and made the trip there worthwhile....

One of the antique shops also had a fun, free, watermelon-themed craft for the kids to do...

Pratt's Pets

On our way to Pratt's Pets, my 9-year-old asked me if there would be kitties and dogs.  We were going to a pet store, so I said that there undoubtedly would be kitties and dogs.  I've never in my life been to a pet store that didn't have cats and dogs...until we got to Pratt's Pets in Glendale. 

It seems as though Pratt's has nearly every pet imaginable, except for cats and dogs.  They have their mascot, a rooster, that roams freely around the store.  They have bunnies, gerbils, snakes, frogs, chicks, exotic birds, geese, ducks, tortoises, and even a pig.

We were met at the entrance by one of the employees, who took us from potential pet to potential pet and told us a little about each one.  When possible, he did let the kids touch and/or hold the animals.

This was a short field trip.  We were in and out in just about an hour.  The elementary-school aged kids seemed to really enjoy it.  The preschoolers and toddlers had their moments of delight with the critters, but didn't seem to have nearly as much fun as the older kids did.

The Glendale Police Museum

Today's field trip was to the Glendale Police Museum.  It is housed in the Glendale Public Safety Building.  We were met by Dan, the delightful curator of the museum.  He is a 25-year veteran of the Glendale Police Force, having served undercover, on patrol and in the DARE program during his working years.  He has amassed an interesting array of Glendale police memorabilia and displayed it well.

Dan led our small group from display to display, and shared his memories and what he just happened to know about each cluster of items.  We began with the wall of chiefs.  After that, there were displays covering SWAT, bomb disposal units, K-9 units, women in the department, the motorcycle, uniforms, shields and badges, the Memory Wall (in 100 years, only two officers have been killed in the line of duty), police lights, technology, and a few others.  Dan regaled me and my children (currently 12 and 9) with his tales and information.  My kids peppered him with questions.

We ended up spending 90 minutes there - 30 beyond what we were scheduled for, because we were so interested in what we were learning about!  This is a free museum display.  Docent-led "tours" (like the one we had) need to be arranged ahead of time, but you can just go in and browse on your own.