Girsh Park and the Lemon Festival

Santa Barbara, CA Print   Leave a comment

Description

Girsh Park is where families gather each weekend to watch their little squirts play soccer and baseball. Meanwhile, brothers and sisters climb the playground. The playground is hard for kids younger than 3 1/2 to navigate because the steps up are too high. But older kids will enjoy the two slides, monkey bars, and captain's wheel. There are hills below the playground where wild kids can roll free. Beside the playground is a circle with benches, roses, and small boulders. There are restrooms and plenty of picnic tables.
On windy days, pick a different park because it's not sheltered here and it gets cold. Dinosaur Park is a good alternative.
The third weekend in October, the Goleta Lemon Festival is held here, and the park comes alive with color. There are carnival rides and games, stalls selling lemonade and lemon bars (yummy), booths with community information and free frisbees, and best of all, there's Safety Street, a street filled with fire engines (where you can get a free fireman hat), a school bus, a bomb squad robot, a green forest service fire engine, and "the bear" (a swat team vehicle that looks really scary). Kids can climb in and pretend to be drivers. There are also characters like Smokey the Bear greeting kids. The Lemon Festival is hard on the wallet when you have older kids because each carnival ride costs about $5 but with little kids you can enjoy all the free fun at Safety Street.
In September there are free End of Summer concerts with local amateur bands on the lawn in front of the playground, Sundays at 4pm.
The atmosphere is always great in this well-cared-for, sunny, open park.
If you're hungry, head over to Anna's Bakery for a delicious muffin or donut. Or in the same shopping center you could try Kahuna Grill, with its yummy chicken kebobs and great kids meals. Some people walk across Santa Felicia Drive to Costco and grab a hot dog and soda for only $1.50 to bring to the park for a picnic.
For a long walk to sand dunes and a great beach, visit Coal Oil Point. Also very nearby is the groovy college town of Isla Vista, a fun place to eat at Woodstock's Pizza and walk around, taking in the scene.

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Photo Gallery

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The flowers at Girsh Park.	The shiny curvy slide.	Kids dance around at one of the End of Summer concerts in September at Girsh Park, Sundays at 4pm.
Autumn in Girsh Park.	There are many lovely deciduous trees at Girsh Park.	The helicopter arrives at the Lemon Festival in 2003.

Directions

Girsh Park is located at 7050 Phelps Rd. Goleta, CA 93117, call (805) 968-2773.
Exit Highway 101 at Glen Annie/Storke Rd and head towards the ocean. After Camino Real shopping center, turn right on Phelps Rd. Turn right into the second parking lot and the playground will be in front of you.
There are restrooms and soda machines.
Anna's Bakery, 7018 Market Place Dr, call (805) 968-5590.
Kahuna Grill, 7010 Market Place Dr, call (805) 685-3711.

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Visitor Ratings

Overall Visitor Rating:

Jim 10/15/2009 20:41	I'm coming for the lemonade!
Adrian 10/09/2009 20:21	Nice place. Beautiful clouds. Looking forward to the Lemon Festival next weekend.
Cherry 10/01/2009 13:42	I sure wish I could be there....Have a GREAT Lemon Festival.
Debra 09/02/2009 21:28	Great site! We have a couple new professors starting this fall - I shall pass your site on to them.

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