Kids love animals. And my two sons are no exception. The trick when you live in a big city is finding good places to spot them. Here’s a selection of our favorite places in Los Angeles to see the wild things. 

 Best place for up-close-and-personal animal encounters: STAR ECO Station

STAR Eco Station is an 18,000-square-foot wildlife rescue center for illegal, abandoned and abused exotic wildlife in Culver City. Your visit involves a volunteer-led, small-group guided tour, which lasts between 45 minutes and an hour. Expect to see fish and turtles, big cats, reptiles and tropical birds galore. During the tour, guides usually take out an animal or two for your group to see up close and even touch.

What I like about the ECO Station is that every visit feels like a personalized tour. Volunteers are extremely knowledgeable and talk at a kid-friendly level. Guests learn a ton about why the animals are there, why they don’t make great pets and what we can do to protect them.

Best place to see fishes: Aquarium of the Pacific

The Aquarium of the Pacific in Long Beach is one of the largest aquariums in the United States with more than 500 different species of sea creatures native to the Pacific Ocean. In addition to glass tank enclosures, the Aquarium of the Pacific provides plenty of hands-on activities – from feeding lorikeets to touching sharks, rays and horseshoe crabs. There are also educational talks, presentations and an outdoor play area just for kids.

Our favorite thing to do at the Aquarium is to go on a treasure hunt. The Map & Visitor Guide you receive when you enter comes complete with a circle-shaped embossing space on several of the pages. Find each of seven embossing stations throughout the Aquarium, emboss the Guide and discover the image.

Warning: This place is popular and pricey. To beat the crowds, try to avoid a summer visit when tickets are doled out on a timed entry basis. And to cut costs, seek out discounts online.

Best place to see endangered animals: America’s Teaching Zoo

America’s Teaching Zoo is the training ground for students at Moorpark College’s Exotic Animal Training and Management Program. Although this is a no-frills kind of place (there isn’t a petting zoo or even a concession stand), it’s a great place for kids to get up-close views of several engendered animals they might not otherwise see. During our visit, we saw a Galapagos turtle, Bengal tiger, gray wolf, African lioness, spotted hyena, mountain lion, howler monkey, macaws and more.

The Zoo isn’t that big – we were able to see the entire thing in about an hour. We especially liked watching a free, 15-minute animal presentation where we learned that hissing cockroaches can live up to two weeks without their heads!

America’s Teaching Zoo is only open on the weekends and can get incredibly hot during summer months, so bring plenty of sunscreen and water.

Best place to see kid favorites: Los Angeles Zoo

The Los Angeles Zoo isn’t my favorite zoo by any means, especially when compared to the likes of the San Diego Zoo just a few hours south. But it’s the spot in L.A. to see most of the kid favorites, including lions, bears, giraffes, elephants, rhinos, gorillas and more.

There’s a petting zoo, tram ride (albeit, an archaic one) and even a playground at the top of the zoo. To cut costs, we bring our own lunch and enjoy it at the tables next to the giraffe exhibit (my 5 ½ year old loves giraffes). The place gets hot and there are plenty of hills, so try to avoid visits during hot weather and be patient with little legs. When it’s warm, keep an eye out for wasps – they swarm around trashcans.

Best place to see farm animals: Underwood Family Farms

Sure, you can probably see farm animals at a petting zoo. But I prefer taking my kids to a farm instead. Our favorite is Underwood Family Farms in Moorpark, about an hours’ drive from L.A. This is a working farm where not only will you see chickens, cows, goats, sheep, pigs and the like, but you can also pick your own fruits and veggies.

You can purchase feed to give to the animals through long tubes. This is a great way to prevent the deluge of hungry animals that scare off my kids in petting zoos. The animals here aren’t just babies, so kids get a chance to see what a grown cow, goat and sheep look like. Combine your visit to the animals with some produce picking and the kids will be begging to come back!

What about you – where’s your favorite spot to see animals?

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Shows and parades:

First of all, props to the performers.  The first parade we saw was “Celebrate! A Street Party”. I know these performers do the same routine time and time again each day. From the way they interact with the kids waiting on the sides of the parade and with each other, these performers were as into it as anyone there. The floats are extravagent and amazing, but the characters who ride in and alongside them really bring everything to life.

From my earlier research, it seemed that California Adventure was getting poor reviews. Our day there was one of the best days on several levels. There are multiple shows there. This means shorter lines (since you can get more people into a theatre) and longer entertainment (much more than a two and a half minute ride). Besides the shows, there were fewer crowds and more characters. Though my kids wouldn’t go near anyone/thing in a costume, it was still a thrill to see them walking around the streets. The eletrical light parade is also held there, which is something our kids will remember for a long time!

Though people begin lining up to see the biggie shows waaayyy ahead of time, make sure to see Fantasmic (around 8pm) and the fireworks show at 9:30.  Apparently if you get some kind of package deal through AAA, you can get into this reserved seating section for at least some of the big shows. After trying to entertain the kids for over an hour of waiting for a show, I think I would pay good bucks for that kind of ticket. Worth looking into. 

What to know about the rides:

A FASTPASS is free and available at many of the popular rides. At the entrance to the ride are some Fast Pass machines where you put in your Disneyland ticket and out pops a FASTPASS ticket that says you get to go to a much shorter line if you come back at a designated time. The FASTPASS time often has a one or two hour window, but coming after that window is no big deal. Once you’ve punched in for a FASTPASS you can’t get a FASTPASS to another ride until after the window time to your original FASTPASS ticket has begun. There are ways to beat the system, but frankly it looks like more work than it’s worth.

Here’s a tip I wish I had known: Adults with kids don’t have to stand in line if the ride is for adults only. I tried twice to get onto Space Mountain trying to coordinate the FASTPASS window periods with times that we would be in the park. After each attempt, by the time I got there the ride had shut down for some reason. Apparently if you show the guy who runs the ride that you are there with your family, you get to wait in the shorter line.  Also, if both parents want to go on a ride without kids, one parent can ride while the other watches the kids, then the second parent gets to ride right after the first.

Most people start with Tomorrowland and go counter-clockwise. If you start at Adventureland and go clockwise, you get shorter lines. This tip came from a very helpful website that I wish I had found before my trip.

Places worth focusing on with young kids:

• Bug’s Life at California Adventure. I’d say this offered the most for the under kindergarten crowd
• Fantasyland – some of the rides they will remember the most are here: Its a Small World, Dumbo, Pinochio, Alice in Wonderland, etc.
• Adventureland: Jungle Cruise, Tom Sawyers Island, and you can ride both a huge Pirate Ship and the Mark Twain Paddle wheel. There are also canoes that I would have liked to paddle, but at that point we were ready to go.
• Tomorrowland: my oldest LOVED Autopia where he got to “drive” a car (on rails) and the huge rocketship ride. There is also a cool “Jedi Training Camp” show at the Terrace Stage that is pretty cool for any star wars fan.

There is a Toon town that seemed cool in concept but didn’t seem to hold enough interest to warrant staying long.

Other Random Tips:   Bring your own stroller (s). There is a lot of ground to cover and for any kid younger who can fit into a stroller, it’s a good idea to have one handy. A stroller costs $12  per day to rent. Double strollers are not available. If you have a Disneyland Visa Card, you can get up to two stroller rentals per day for free.

For more travel photos visit Delicious Baby and check out Photo Friday. For more Disneyland tips see Family Adventure Guidebooks.

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Three priorities I looked at when considering hotels were proximity, cost, and comfort.  I hoped to be in walking distance of Disneyland so we wouldn’t have to deal with waiting for trams, finding parking spots, folding and unfolding the stroller, etc.  Fortunately there is  a row of hotels directly across the street from the Disneyland entrance which include budget hotels: Travellodge, Doubletree, Howard Johsnsons, Ramada Inn, and the one we chose, Best Western. Here is a good map of what Disney calls “good neighbor hotels.”  The Disney resorts were running a special of staying three nights and getting two nights free, but at over $200 per night, this option still ended up more costly for us than paying full price at a hotel across the street. Another option worth considering, particularly with a large group, is to rent a house for a week. I’m including a link for reference to one website I liked, but I can’t speak to whether this site is any different from the other gillion vacation home rental sites on the web.

Another factor that I called my “comfort consideration” was finding a suite. A suite, or sometimes called family suite, offers a bedroom and another family room area separated by a wall or tall divider to give privacy.  The family room often has a bed or pull-out sofa. It is especially nice to spring for this kind of room if you have an afternoon napper, so that one child can sleep without everyone having to tip-toe or exit the room during naptime. 

With those conditions in mind I thought I struck gold finding the Best Western Park Place Inn and Mini Suites. It is about as close as you can get to the gates of Disneyland. The price was not bad for the area: 5 nights for $800 which included two queen beds in one “room” and one pull-out sofa. The reason I put quotes around “room” is that what we learned is that a mini suite does not mean the second room is mini. There really wasn’t a second room, there was a waist-high ”mini”- partition that divided the sofa area from the two queens. Though it was nice to have a little extra space in the room for a couch, it offered very little in the way of privacy from light or noise for those sleeping on the queens. Perhaps this was a misunderstanding on my part about the definition of a mini suite, so I am trying to be explicit for anyone considering hotels for the area. If your intention is to be able to play cards or watch tv in another room while the children sleep at night, a mini suite will not fill that bill. I have since found a list of hotels near Disneyland that advertise full suites.

As for a review of the hotel, I would put it at about a 3 of 5 stars. A few things we noticed; the pull-out bed was far too lumpy to sleep on. The courtesy of the staff lost points in my eyes when the desk clerk who helped me was also answering the phone mid-conversation as I was trying to see what other room options were available to me. (I had waited in a sizeable line to talk with someone, I would then appreciate not having to compete with the phone as well for attention!) Another thing I hadn’t considered was that since we were so close to Disneyland, each time the fireworks went off at 9:30 it sounded like they were being lit in our parking lot. The boom had a surprising echo. Most of the time we were out watching the fireworks, so that wasn’t an issue. But the first night we arrived and one other night when we turned in early, the sounds were off-putting to our two-year-old. The last thing worth mentioning is that most of these hotels offer “continental” breakfast. Captain Kidd’s, a restaurant next-door to our hotel, offered a buffet of donuts, other pastries, and some bagels with cream cheese for hotel guests. Paying restaurant guests could enjoy the buffet in another room, with eggs, potatoes, and other more adult breakfast choices.  It may be better to bring your own granola bars for breakfast.

So what would I do differently? After a little more snooping I noticed a Howard Johnson’s a bit farther down the street which had a huge play pirate ship on their property. Tripadvisor.com also has very high reviews of this hotel, so I think I would look into the cost of that hotel. It is the farthest on the strip mall of hotels from Disneyland, but this means only about an extra five or ten minutes of walking and perhaps a more muted echo of fireworks (but perhaps not).  Since we planned to only spend half-days at Disneyland and then rest for chunks of time during the day, the pirate ship water park at this hotel seems like a nice option to have for older siblings while the younger one naps. (Our hotel had a unheated pool that for me was uncomfortably cold. Luckily our eldest didn’t seem to mind.)  I must say I have no experience with this Howard Johnson’s and am not benefitting from mentioning them. I just thought it worth saying since that’s what I would do differently.

I should also say that I had put a high importance on finding a suite when I planned for this trip. I envisioned my husband and I relaxing after the kids were in bed, playing cards or taking in a movie. What ended up happening was we all stayed out much later than usual and I was ready to pass out shortly after the kids finally fell asleep. My little one was way too excited to take a nap most days, so in reality the room arrangement ended up being just fine. I do think that there are trips where creating space away from the kids helps maintain everyone’s sanity.  But  on this trip we had very little energy once we reached our room. All we ended up needing was a soft pillow to land on at night and good black out shades.

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We made the trip by car so that we could stop at a few key places on the way back. Getting there meant being in the car essentially all day. I knew this was a tall order for a five year old and two and a half  year old so I had planned for a long stop about three hours into our trip. It was a kids’ water park and family fun center, which I hoped would wear them out enough for a nap to follow as we continued driving. My youngest was understandably afraid of the water slides, so I took him to the very mild kiddie rides there. Here, I figured, was a great introduction to the fun that will follow in the next few days. We started slow, a train that went on a track the width of a small kitchen. Only seconds after the train began its mellow journey poor Josh was in tears. It just then occurred to me that my youngest doesn’t really like rides, my oldest hates characters that walk around, and my husband hates crowds. How in the world did I think this would be the greatest vacation ever? It may take a pound of pixie dust to get us through the next week together.

Fast forward, we did have a good time and I learned a lot, which I plan to share in the next post or two. But that moment of panic gave me a good lesson about weighing what’s important for the whole family when you decide a vacation destination.

For more fun travel photos, visit Photo Friday at Deliciousbaby.com.

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