Family Vacation in Ventura: ten things to do with toddlers on vacation

Dearest Daughters,

Thanks to your Ninang Auntie Jonelle, who offered us use of her timeshare, we were able to take our first ever nuclear family vacation, unrelated to business travel!

We usually travel in hordes, Lola and Lolopop's brood alone consisting of over twenty people. Or we're accompanying your daddy on his business travel, which don't get me wrong, provides amazing opportunities, but the trade-off is that he's often busy working. Anyway, it's significant. Trust.

We also were able to spend time with Ninang Auntie Katherine who drove up from Los Angles not once, but twice to spend her days off with us!

Also, got to spend some QT with one of Daddy's aunts in Arroyo Grande for a quick road trip layover. That was a very special treat for you girls who were lavished with toys, attention and a humongous and gorgeous home to stay and play in.

Here's a photo recap of our aptly-paced, lazy, beachy, puzzly visit to Ventura. And some advice for vacationing with young children. Some things are Ventura-specific, but could probably be applied to most any vacation.

First peek of the "real ocean". Not the "pretend ocean," by Bel's distinction.

1. Embrace and enjoy lots and lots of hanging out in our vacation accommodations:

(creating family folklore around "Blue" the sea gull who visited us at sunset every evening)

2. Find a couple of low-energy attractions. In our case: Downtown Ventura, the Mission and Ventura County Museum (perfect quick and effortless visits for short attention spans!)

3. Hang out at a local playground. We found Marina Park. Kids don't need nothing fancy on vacation. But, the view of the beach sure helps Mommy tolerate push-swing arm and playground monotony!

4. Try a non-peak season visit! Ventura Harbor, typical touristy over-priced restaurants, but during the non-peak season, lots of space to let Danjo run (careful not to let her run down the boat docks and straight into the harbor.) And a fun arcade and ice cream to boot:

5. MUST FIND WATER! Harbor Cove Beach, not the most picturesque of beaches, but sheltered by two rock jetties, so safe for toddlers to play all day. And a great place to watch various watercraft head out to sea as well as the amazing, dive-bombing Brown Pelicans which are EVERYWHERE in the harbor area:

6. Discover a nature or visitor center! They're small and support our national or state parks systems. Channel Islands National Park Visitor Center, has a small museum, perfect for a pre-nap, no-boat-needed, virtual visit to the islands:

7. Find some transportation to ride or visit. Fillmore and Western Railway, an historic railway about 30 minutes from Ventura. There happened to be a Thomas event during our vacation, but we might have gone anyway to see the small train museum and checkout the trains on the yard.

Whew! And, in between all that exploration, we didn't forget to take time for:

8. long play-baths

9. long walks to nowhere in particular

and

10. much-needed naps

Love,

Comments

[lauren gibbs-beadle]

@amy - it wasn't so much as a "destination" as it was the only available timeshare near the ocean during the week we wanted. Happy coincidence!

@Kate - we cooked all our own dinners in the timeshare kitchen (GRRRREAT set-up for traveling with the girls - I couldn't bear having to eat out every day with Danjo in tow!) We ate lunches of leftovers and sandwiches on the beach. BUT! We couldn't pass the opportunity by for good, cheap Mexican food. So, we ended up at Taqueria Cuernavaca (http://www.yelp.com/biz/taqueria-cuernavaca-ventura)(twice! yum!) for tacos and Corrales for burritos (http://www.yelp.com/biz/corrales-mexican-food-ventura#query:burrito). Burritos weren't bad, but I could've eaten Cuernavaca tacos all week if it was closer to the timeshare.

[Kate]

This is where my Dad lived when I was growing up, so many of those spots feature in my own childhood memories. How was the food overall?

[amy]

I never thought of Ventura as being a vacation destination, but now I do! It looks charming and small enough to be comfortable.