Mini Staycation Part III

Wine tasting was actually part I. Trip to the city was part II. Yesterday, we decided to explore the northern part of the East Bay.
I found this cool free event at Dimond Park in Oakland: Circus Bella.
Oh my gosh, so much fun! I was really impressed by the quality of this event. I always go with an open mind, especially to free events because, well, they're free. It's not fair to expect the moon and the stars when you're not paying, right? I thought, at the very least, we could get some sunshine and warmth (as opposed to our fun yet freezing trip to the city).
The Man and I bought non-healthy treats at the market in the morning (shame shame, Mama & Daddy!), packed three blankets and The Bun's tricycle. We picked up Sister & the boys (my nephew and my Sister's nephew) and met up with our cousin and his son. We trekked over to Dimond Park in Oakland which had to be one of the cutest little parks I've seen in a while.
It was a little tricky finding the actual location of Circus Bella because you can't see where they are from the parking lot. Luckily I found a person in the rec center who said it was near the tennis courts.
Side note: As cute and wholesome as this park was, the bathrooms left a lot to be desired. It was my first time (seriously - ever!) to use a restroom with no doors. Look, I get park and rec bathrooms. I can understand steel bowls with no lids, I can even understand no toilet seat protectors. Maybe even no toilet paper (although you have to have one or the other. It's not pleasant but you can use toilet seat protectors as paper and vice versa). But no stall doors? Yes, that's right. You knew if the stall was occupied because you could have a full view of the person using it. Thank goodness I only had to do the liquid business! Heaven help you if you were trying to do something else!
Anyway ...
Circus Bella was so good! It was a one ring circus with top notch performers. While the view is easily obstructed if you have folks taller than you sitting in front of you (which we did) but hey, it's free! I loved it. It felt like we were at some small town event. Everyone seem to have a little picnic going on and kids were excited for the circus to start.






Love, love, love.
Afterwards, we decided to go to locally famous Fentons Creamery in Piedmont. Well, what do you know? Fentons was celebrating its 118th birthday with face painting, animals to pet and just a fun little part. How lucky were we?






We filled ourselves up on ice cream and walked around Piedmont Avenue. While cute, not too much to capture three boys' attention. Cousin and his son wanted to go bowling so we decided to join them. The boys played three games and we partook in the unhealthy treats of a bowling alley. Collectively, we had nachos, cheesy fries, mozzarella sticks, a corn dog, and a burger. Oh boy! What a gluttonous day. I've got to do some sort of cleanse after this!

By the end of the day, we had exhausted but happy kids. And parents!
I treasure these moments. It's so easy to get caught up in chores, work, going to this or that. It's so nice to spend a wholesome, albeit junk food laden, day with family.