French breakfast uptown + park updates
Plus intentionally getting lost on an early morning tiny hike
Thank you for subscribing and a warm welcome if you are new here! This is where I love to be on Thursday nights - in your inbox. Just a greeting you can count on with some outdoor spots to try.
Here’s how this works . . . we start with the free portion of the email which contains FunOrangeCountyParks.com blog updates usually with park tips and play trips. Just like I’ve been doing for YEARS!
This was a new one I finally put on the blog. I knew it as Uptown Park, but the official name is actually Uptown Newport Park. It was smaller than I’d imagined in the from seeing other photos of it. I think the dolphin might be my favorite part. It almost feels like a private park with the amenities, but it is listed as a public park on the City of Newport Beach website. I kinda have no idea what “uptown” means for Newport, but I like saying it and it feels fancy!
And then I mentioned this one last week in my list of Destination Parks, but I wanted to update the post. So here is the updated post about Box Canyon Park which is an accessible playground in Orange County!
I also am still putting together my Breakfast + Park play trips on Instagram. Here is a list of ones I’ve featured so far:
Huntington Beach: Pattinson Park + The Local Nod Cafe
Aliso Viejo: Acorn Park + CHUPONcito (or I heard that Acorn Park is undergoing renovations so try Ridgecrest Park or Aliso Viejo Community Park)
Newport Beach: Going up on Instagram tomorrow is Uptown Park + Moulin on Bristol (you get to find out about it first!). Moulin is an awesome local French restaurant based on sidewalk cafes in Paris. The food is affordable and yummy!
Tiny Hike Teaser: This week’s hike is one of my favorites in Orange County! We do a different route every time we go. We scouted it out this past weekend and ended up allowing ourselves to get lost wandering around (you can’t REALLY get lost - it just feels like you can)! We also found an unexpected stream/mini waterfall.
To unlock access to this trail guide, you must become a paid subscriber.
Paid subscribers get:
A subscriber-only weekly trail guide written especially for families for locations in south and central Orange County — but you can also use it for date nights or short, not too strenuous outdoor outings with friends. You can’t find these anywhere else!
Access to full Play Trips & OC Tiny Hikes trail guide archives — with 2 years of past Play Trips newsletters and the trail guides which have been published over the past 5 weeks.
Founding members get all that paid subscribers get, plus:
ONE in-person OC Tiny Hike with Michele per year (set up in a small group of adults).
Thank you for being a FREE subscriber because I love sharing play with you each week and knowing that you are out there enjoying the benefits of outside time!