The unofficial start of summer, and I’m itching to be outside, so we took a trip today to one of my favorite places, El Dorado Park in Long Beach, CA. This is a real outdoor gem in an urban area. There are ponds to fish in, an archery range, bike trails, plenty of picnic spots, a little train ride, and a nature center. Anything someone might want to spend time outdoors. One of my favorite parts of Long Beach this time of year is the jacaranda trees, which are spotted throughout the park. According to my grandmother, jacaranda was a word I liked to say as a toddler.
Speaking of my grandmother, the park is nostalgic for me because I spent hours there with my grandparents as a kid. They would take me and my brothers there to feed the ducks. My grandma would save the heels of bread loaves in her freezer to take over to the park, I guess no one really likes that part of the bread. Over the years it seems like the geese have taken over and on this trip we saw a species I have never seen before, according to Google image search, these are Egyptian Geese. They were very pretty and much less aggressive than the white geese that used to chase us for break crumbs.
We love to use the bike paths here because they are nice and clear, unlike the sandy bike paths at the beach. I feel safer here where there isn’t slippery sand. There are about four miles of bike paths throughout the park, and we’ve found a one-ish mile loop that we like.
Today, however, my husband, who isn’t generally thrilled with outdoor activities, was hemming and hawing about loading up the bikes, so I assumed that we would just relax at the park. Then we passed the bike and surrey rental stand, and I decided to indulge a long requested wish from my older daughter to rent a surrey.
Rental was $39 for an hour and we managed two loops in an hour. Peddling this thing was so much more work than a bike! But we all had fun. Definitely worth the cost and the work.
After biking we headed over to the nature center, a fantastic space to make you feel like you are really out in the middle of nowhere, even though the 605 freeway runs nearby. There are three trails here, a quarter mile loop, a one mile loop, and a two mile loop, as well as visitor center with some information on the wild and plant life in the center. Today we just walked the one mile loop, which is was nice and shady, and not too crowded. It’s definitely an easy stroll.
The busiest wildlife today were the squirrels, who were pretty aggressive and not at all scared of people. There were many signs letting you know not the pet or feed them, so I guess there must have been some incidents. The turtles were also out and sunbathing, this little guy was hanging out by himself on the bank of the stream by himself.
My favorite animal spotting ever in the center was a family of baby bunnies. We just happened to see them because we were quiet, looking at a bird or something, and the bunnies hopped out to see us.
This was definitely a great way to spend the day and kick off the start of summer.
On the way to the park my daughter told me she needs to be at the beach tomorrow by 9:30 am with a rotisserie chicken for a video she is filming for a school project, so a guess a totally different type of day awaits us tomorrow!
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