Knott’s Date Night – Knott’s Summer Nights

Our goal is to have a Knott’s Date Night at least once month, especially during school days, when we’re able to get on all of the big rides. We’ve made it about 4 times solo this year. One of those solo trips being for the Boysenberry Festival.

Since the summer rush and the heat we made our Knott’s trip a night time adventure. Right now Knott’s has two amazing events going on. During the day you can experience Ghost Town Alive and at night the all new Summer Nights. We made it just in time for the hoedown. Since we didn’t have our kids I wasn’t quick to jump in and participate — until I was told, there’s still time to join it. You don’t have to ask me twice! I marched around with the rest of the residents of Calico.

When all the fun of Ghost Town Alive comes to an end the Summer Nights fun begins at the Calico Mine Stage. To me it looks like a giant block party — picnic tables under strings of lights, fire pits for roasting smores, and food booths. There are free games to enjoy like; tiki toss, cornhole, giant beer pong, giant checkers, giant connect four, hole-in-one. As well as your friendly neighborhood characters dancing to the live band; dad cook, town drunk lady, boy scout, neighborhood watch. When the band stops playing there’s a DJ on the roof of Charleston Circle.

Now, let’s talk about the tasting card. Just like the Boysenberry Festival the tasting card comes on a lanyard with 8 pull tabs for 8 tasty treats located at the adorable booths around Calico Mine Stage. The treats we chose this round were; Cookiewich — boysenberry ice cream smashed in between two chocolate chip cookies. You could also choose vanilla ice cream, snickerdoodle cookie, boysenberry cookie. Next up was the chili in a cornbread bowl. Knott’s Berry Farm are always super generous with their portions. The bowl is a full meal that can leave you stuffed or shareable. On the side — a shrimp and sausage skewer loaded with bell peppers and onions. We finished off our eating festival with the Farmer’s Market Shortcake with a mountain high pile of whipped cream. The winner for this tasting card — the chili.

Our ride list — Montezooma’s Revenge. Supreme Scream — always seems like a bad idea once we get to the top. Finally took a ride on the new Calico Rapids where I only caught a glimpse of Big Foot in the steamy foggy cave. Finishing off the night with Ghostrider which is WAY scarier at night.

You can catch Ghost Town Alive daily from now until August 11th. Weekends starting August 17th – September 2nd. Ghost Town is active from open until the hoedown at 5:30. There’s a lot of interactive action and contests going on in the streets of Calico.

Summer Nights is happening daily from now until August 11th. The action starts at 6 until closing. Tasting cards are $35 and are easy to buy throughout the park. We bought ours at the booth right when you step foot in the park.

See you at Knott’s!

Vernola Family Park

There are a lot of parks surrounding the little area we live. Seppe has done ballet & tap at one, football recently at one, and starting soccer at another. We decided to try out one that isn’t as close, but still in the area, and much bigger.

Giuseppe thought we were in some dream land when we pulled up. The kiddie section, which doesn’t look so kiddie, looks like a pirate ship. With a few small slides, lots of area to climb, and even a sitting area inside the ship. There’s also a little crawl through hut area for the kids to sit and have a chat. The big playground looks like a prehistoric getaway. Lots of climbing action, rock wall, and multiple slides. They had a 3 section slide that was a big hit. Kids liked to race, usually the biggest kid in the center — which was a straight down drop of doom. Underneath it all were more places for kids to sit and chat with each other in the shade. Giuseppe found the secret map of the park. The biggest hit with G was the climbable Triceratops.

After all that play the kids took a ride on their scooters. There’s a perfect trail to go around without getting in anyone’s way. There’s a big shelter to hang out under but I also loved how there are a lot of benches. The nice part was a lot of these benches were placed under trees with plenty of shade. There’s also a wall all around the park so even if you don’t find a bench to sit on, which is unlikely, then there’s plenty of low wall space. As well as a lot of shaded grass area.

Vernola Park is located at 5211 Wineville, Jurupa Valley. For more information about the park visit www.jarpd.org Where you can find information about all the other great parks in the area — including parks with free splash pads. Or visit their Facebook page www.facebook.com/JARPD1984/ where you can see pictures of the parks and upcoming free activities in our neighborhood.

Nightmare Before Christmas Sing-A-Long @ Fox Performing Arts Center – Riverside

Jack Skellington and his gang in Halloween Town are some of Giuseppe’s favorites. It’s why we always take our November trip to Disneyland so Seppe can give him hugs and visit the Nightmare Mansion. It was an amazing surprise that we won tickets through Riverside Live.

We have been to the Fox once before for Daniel Tiger Live. It’s still easy to get in. With an entrance at the front door and an entrance on the side. There are three separate bars on your way into the theater — one of them is also a concession stand — obviously a hit with the kids.

They had a spooky tree decorated with a Jack Skellington topper. Everyone was stopping to pose. Costumes were encouraged and of course Jack “Giuseppe” Skellington went in his best costume. There were a lot of Little Jack and Sally’s and most adults were sporting their tees and accessories.

Our seats were in the back for this one, let me tell you, there isn’t a bad seat in the house. Seppe laughed nervously and uncontrollably when the lights went out and the music started. The whole room roared when “This Is Halloween” started up. This mommy loudmouth couldn’t control herself. You said sing-a-long — OKAY! Everyone even cheered when the folks from Halloween Town cheered. The next few songs had less people singing along. I think everyone may have been a little shy.

We took a little water break between songs and someone asked if they could take a picture of Seppe and then someone gave Seppe their Christmas hat. He wore the hat proudly.

It was great seeing Nightmare Before Christmas on the big screen. It’s definitely getting us excited for our Disneyland adventure.

I love seeing my favorite movies on the big screen. If you do too then you might like to check out their upcoming showings —

July 27th – Kill Bill – The Complete Saga – $14

August 3rd – Pee-wee’s Big Adventure – $14

August 24th – Frozen – $11

Visit riversidelive.com for tickets to these showings as well as Disney Jr Live, Nick Jr Live, and live performances by popular bands/artists.