Fun at Victoria Gardens

I got to play with Tyler and Jaden yesterday at Victoria Gardens in Rancho Cucamonga. I had told them that our destination was a surprise, but as we were driving I heard their escalating expectations as they were guessing things like Disneyland, the beach, etc. Yikes! I figured I'd better lower expectations quickly. "Nothing too exciting," I said. All of a sudden, Tyler noticed the surroundings and said, "I know! Is it the place with the train?" "Yes!" I said. "Victoria Gardens. Let's just see what's going on there today." Then Tyler said, "Man oh man--that's the BEST place ever!!!" Whew!

We started out at Barnes & Noble, where we hung out for awhile, grateful for the air conditioning, since it was about 105 degrees outside (I'm so done with summer already!).

They always have to ride the Choo Choo Monga Express (get it? - the train in Rancho Cucamonga). I was wondering if Tyler was getting too big and "cool" to still enjoy it, but both of them were quite enthusiastic about it. Rode twice, in fact. It is the coolest little train. In fact, Tyler says maybe when he grows up he might like to be the engineer. We'll see...

We then went looking for their second favorite thing at Victoria Gardens, the Thomas the Train store. We were shocked and sad to find it is CLOSED! I had the guilty thought that maybe it closed because everyone else was like us. We usually just go in the store, let the boys play for 20 minutes or so with the train tables, look around, and leave without buying anything. Maybe we should have bought a few more items!

Then it was California Pizza Kitchen for lunch--again grateful to get out of the hot sun.

The boys ordered... what else? Is there any other kind of pizza?

I had the crab cakes appetizer. It was just enough, and was pretty tasty.

I had the most fun, though, in conversation with my lunch companions, and watching the seriousness of their work on their various puzzles, mazes, and tic tac toe games while we waited for our food.

They were excited to go for their second ride on the train. They had held their own tickets, and were proud to show me they still had them when we finished lunch.

We walked around the Gardens some more, but soon were done in by the heat. We finished up our outing with a visit to Golden Spooon. I'm told, by those who know such things, that there's nothing like gummy worms on frozen yogurt! I'll have to take their word. Thanks, boys, for a fun day!