Are you a bubble person? You know, when you pretty much stay within a very short radius of your home and frequent the same spots over and over? Hand raised here! Craig and I are incredibly guilty of being bubble people and that had to stop. After two never ending months of house wide sickness we were both itching to get out and do some San Diego exploring beyond our normal bubble.We drove down to Waterfront Park, which I had heard was pretty great for kids in Kayla’s age range.
Most of the equipment is age graded for 5-12 year olds. Of course there were a ton of toddlers and preschoolers having a blast. There is a giant hill that is outfitted with two slides wide enough to accommodate a few friends or siblings sliding together.
For the first 20 minutes Kayla insisted she couldn’t make it up the hill and was scared. Then when she finally did it, realizing that it wasn’t actually scary we started in with a fear of the slide being too fast. It was one of those moments that made me truly question our parenting. Have we I created this fearful child? I’ve definitely tried to step back in the last couple of years and shut my pie hole whenever the words “be careful” or “you might get hurt” feel as though they’re making their way to my lips. Still I worry that the helicopter parenting I almost certainly did when she was younger seems to have lasting effects. First child…please forgive me. Amateur mistake.
Maybe it’s her personality too. She’s always been more of a cautious child where as it’s clear that Blake has little fear. Whatever it is, she got past it and started having a lot of fun. Thank goodness. Once Kayla relaxed we all did.
There were even a few people well over 12 years old thoroughly enjoying the park. I’m not going to name names or anything. If you’re a “grown up” and head to Waterfront Park I highly recommend giving this low tech surfboard a try. It definitely takes some work to balance and I saw plenty of teens and adults trying it out.
There are a bunch of nice climbing walls too. Blake was thoroughly interested in seeing if we were headed for urgent care after Craig’s attempt at climbing one.
There is a central giant climbing structure with lots of neat elements. A few were reminiscent of the park along Mission Bay and the playground at Westfield UTC. Too complicated for Blake, but he didn’t care. He was very content running around, chasing pigeons and being a stage 5 clinger.
Meanwhile Kayla enjoyed a cool swing built for a group. A modern take on the tire swing.
Then we packed it all in and strolled/scooted over to a new restaurant I’d been following on Instagram and wanting to try. The Crack Shack which renewed my faith in Richard Blais. I always loved him and rooted for him on Top Chef. When Juniper and Ivy (next door) opened, Craig and I went for what we felt was a disappointing date night meal.
The Crack Shack on the other hand is far more casual and I honestly felt the food was awesome. I ordered the Brick House which is a sandwhich of epic proportions and boasts caper mayo, pickled onions, arugula and some seriously good fried chicken. It was big enough that I had to take half home for dinner. Kayla and Blake had their kids meals called the Little Clucker. It was chicken fingers, a choice of carrot sticks or fries, a drink and a cookie. The cookies were way better than I expected. Some kind of cake batter funfetti deal that normally I would write off as gross but were actually delicious.
The Crack Shack has a bocce court which doubles as a child entertainment center when not in use. There were a few families with young kids roaming the court while waiting for their food and we all felt grateful for its existence. As you can tell, The Crack Shack has quite a nice view of incoming planes about to land at Lindbergh Field. So does Waterfront Park. Since Blake is obsessed with airplanes this was a total win and we’ll be back to both spots.
Between a trip to the zoo and then off to the Catamaran the day before and our busy morning out and about, Craig and I were exhausted Sunday night but in the best way. It felt really good to leave the bubble.
