3901 Land Park Drive, Sacramento CA

I’d like to start this, my first review on this site, with a short story. In the summer of 2008, my mom and I found ourselves six hours into a 10 hour drive with my three kids when we became desperate for somewhere fun to stop. The eight-year-old was squirmy, the six-year-old was getting carsick, and the three-year-old was…being a three-year-old. It was about 2 pm, but despite the 95 degree heat as we rolled through Sacramento, CA, we were ready and willing to break free of the confines of the air-conditioned car for a break. Any break.

I remembered that I’d once heard from a friend of a friend that somewhere in the vicinity was a park to die for: splash pool, huge climbing structure, the works. The problem was, we didn’t know what it was called, so our map and navigation system could only tell us so much. We could see that there were three parks within a ten-mile radius, but without knowing anything about the area, we could only guess which one might be the one we were looking for, or failing that, at least shaded and in a safe neighborhood. We ended up wasting precious time and energy traversing suburbs seeking out a place to stop…and by the time we gave up, the kids were about ready to revolt.*

We ended up at a tried and true favorite for more than one generation of our family: Fairytale Town. …read more»