Girsh Park and the Lemon Festival

Santa Barbara, California Print   Leave a comment

Description

Playground, Sports Fields, Summer Concerts
We call this park Lemon Park because it's where the Goleta Lemon Festival is held each year. The park is officially called Girsh Park because of the generous Girsh family who donated it. There's a nice playground and a little circular area with benches and rows of white flowers, as well as little hills by the playground where kids can roll around. There are sports fields galore, some with artificial turf. The sky often looks gorgeous above this park. On windy days, pick a different park because it's not sheltered here and it gets cold. Dinosaur Park is a good alternative.
The playground at Girsh Park is hard for kids under 3 to climb up, but most kids can do it. In September there are free End of Summer concerts with local bands on the lawn in front of the playground, Sundays at 4pm.
Lemon Festival
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, booths with community information and free frisbees and things, and best of all, there's Safety Town, a street filled with fire engines, 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 going around and greeting the kids. There are stalls with treats. The homemade lemon bars are the yummiest part. The Lemon Festival is a bit 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 Town.
You can always enjoy the atmosphere in this nice, well-cared-for, sunny, open park.
Places to Eat
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.
Things to Do Nearby
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.
Further away but still in Goleta check out the small redwood forest at Stow Grove Park. For a great swimming beach with a wonderful oceanfront restaurant, check out Goleta Beach Park. In winter don't miss out on seeing thousands of monarch butterflies in a magical eucalyptus grove at Ellwood Butterfly Preserve. For a pretty walk amongst wildflowers to a pebbly beach, visit Bacara Resort Beach.

Photo Gallery

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

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

This is an interactive map, you can zoom and move it.

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.