This past weekend I took a quick trip to the California Bay Area, visiting San Francisco and Oakland. In Oakland, I was a special guest to Children's Fairyland at Lake Merritt. The park is a fantastic experience and is a great park. The sets are fun and whimsical and much of the original park from the 1950's has been maintained and restored. I want to thank Children's Fairyland for the visit and to Randal J. Metz for the tour. If you have not purchased his book on Children's Fairyland,
Creating a Fairyland you should look for a copy and buy it...one of the best books on a single park. The first picture is one of the giraffe lamp posts. Although no longer used as light poles, they still stand and add a touch of whimsy to the park.
Being a sign geek, I had to document the directional signs in place.
Outside of the wonderful Alice In Wonderland tunnels and maze is this pocket watch as left by the White Rabbit. The numbers are characters from the Lewis Carroll book.
One of the original sets is the crooked man, his crooked house and his crooked cat.
Thanks again to Children's Fairyland, my wife and I appreciated the visit.
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9 comments:
I have many happy memories of going to Children's Fairyland as a child in the 1960s. I remember entering the park through the old woman's shoe, riding the Jolly Trolley Train and pulling the dragon's leather tongue to hear it talk. I also remember the plastic keys used to turn on the audio box stories at each scene. Do they still have all that?
Great post today!
Yes all in place although I did not pull the dragon's tongue to make him speak. The shoe is now in front of the entrance with a nice new entrance structure.
I loved Children's Fairyland!!! I loved going through Alice in Wonderland; ending with a maze of cards was brilliant.
I'd forgotten about the Dragon's tongue! :)
Did you find the Hidden Mickey inside the Alice in Wonderland tunnel?
P.T.- yes we found the hidden Mickey. One of my favorites as he is a 1930's style Mickey.
How have I never heard of this place? I'm glad it is still around!
I remember when my 1971-72 Franklin Elementary School Kindergarten Class went there on a Field Trip--I remember Pink Popcorn Bars and buying grain feed for the birds and other creatures there, to feed them--the Alice -in Wonderland maze freaked me out and I remember asking if I could buy the "Little Church" for two hundred dollars! (LOL) I'd REALLY like to get mt hands on a set of Fairyland keys--I would like to brindg my three older kids there to share withe them an important part of my childhood! Maybe we could eat lunch at the Owl and the Pussycat boat with the benches--is it still there?? =D
OH! I am Denise Neal--I did not want to be Anonymous!
This is an interesting stuff as I was thinking about christmas vacation packages
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