Danville Farmer's Market and Tilden Park

It sort of hit us last weekend that we are actually moving. We had wanted to do all these things in the Bay Area and we just didn’t take full advantage of our time here. Life gets in the way, you know. So for our last 2 weekends we sort of made a mad dash to do as much as possible while still leaving room for moving tasks. Last Saturday we met up with friends at the local farmer’s market. Why we haven’t been coming here every Saturday for the past 2 years is a big mishap on our part. It was fun and full of delicious samples. Forest had a blast sampling the produce (the blueberries were his favorite and now he insists that all blueberries be “farmer’s market blueberries”) and playing with his buddies on the train.

Whenever we meet up with his friends Eli or Ryan at the park, I often get questions about if they are twins/brothers. Having them all 3 together in a crowded farmer’s market was a tad unnerving because they all have similar wardrobes and look like triplets so at a glance I never knew which one was mine. Luckily they are reaching an age where they stay (a little) closer and listen (a little) better and we were able to keep them happily corralled on the train for 15 minutes while we actually got to enjoy coffee, donuts, and uninterrupted conversation. Bliss! 

The next morning we decided to cross Tilden Park off of our Bay Area bucket list. Tilden Park is a massive regional park in Berkley right on the bay. It had gorgeous views and tons of trails. 

We mainly wanted to check out the ‘Little Farm’ which is a quaint petting zoo where the littles can feed the animals celery and lettuce. 

Feeding farm animals is Forest's love language, so we weren’t surprised that this was a big hit, but I was a little surprised that the even bigger attraction was simply climbing on bales of hay. 

 
Tilden Park also boasts a steam train which takes patrons on a 12 minute ride through the park and offers some pretty fantastic views. We caught the first train out of the station and Forest loved it, especially going through ‘TWO TUNNELS!’.   

While waiting for our train to depart, Forest made some comment about Thomas the Tank Engine so I said ‘yea, it’s sort of like Thomas’ and he pointed down the hill and said- ‘No , there is Thomas!’, and sure enough there was a little Thomas model on some miniature tracks about 100 yards away. We promised that after disembarking the train we would go hunt for Thomas, hoping that he would forget all about it. Nope! As soon as we pulled back into the station after our 12 minute ride, Forest exclaimed ‘Ok, now go find Thomas!’. 

We walked down the hill only to find out that Thomas was housed inside a private train club’s headquarters. There were tons of elderly men in conductor outfits tinkering with model trains. One man briskly told us that it was private property and we said ‘Ok, our son just spotted Thomas from the train and wanted to see him, but we can just lift him up to see him from here.’ Well, at that the man’s demeanor totally changed and he said ‘Sure- go on in! I’ll find Thomas’s owner for you to show you how he works!’, and everyone was so friendly to Forest and showed him all sorts of things that are amazing to a 2 year old boy. 

Farm animals and trains are right up Forest’s alley so needless to say, he has been talking about the whole Tilden Park experience for days...