Katie Walsh

Credit: Katie Walsh

Our contributor Katie had the opportunity to check out Shakespeare in the Garden and shares all about the experience. It sounds like the perfect date night or the opportunity to introduce Shakespeare to older kiddos.

I love spending the end of a long Summer day outdoors, enjoying the fresh air and watching the sun go down. Now add a beautiful location and a live performance and you have the perfect date night! My husband and I had a chance to enjoy our own Summer date night last weekend when we attended a performance of Shakespeare’s As You Like It at The Japanese Garden on the grounds of the VA West LA Healthcare Center Campus.

Credit: Katie Walsh

I’ve enjoyed various Shakespeare in the garden type performances in the past, but this one stood out for a couple of reasons. First of all, the director chose to set the play in present day Los Angeles, which really brought an interesting twist to the performance. Secondly, the performace included live music, which is a tradition in The Shakespeare Center of Los Angeles’s productions. I can easily say that was one of my favorite Shakespeare performances.

The play runs Tuesdays-Sundays through July 29.

You can get more info and purchase tickets here.

Credit: Katie Walsh

Here are a few tips if you are lucky enough to be planning your own Summer date night…The Japanese Garden really is beautiful! Plan to get there early to enjoy the surroundings. In fact, bring a picnic…there are a few tables available as well as locations to lay out a picnic blanket. The gates open at 6:30, so you will have planty of time to enjoy your dinner before the 8pm performance. Also, complimentary tickets are available for active military personnel and veterans. For details on these tickets please call SCLA at 213-481-2273. And finally, even though the days are warm, evenings in the garden can get a bit chilly, so bring a jacket or even blankets to cuddle under during the performance.

Enjoy!

Credit: Katie Walsh

I love outings that take us out of our everyday routine and our newest contributor Katie, shares about her fun adventure in Ojai with her kiddos. Here is what she has to say.

I love living in a large city and all the conveniences that come with it, but every once in a while I get the urge to spend a day in the country. Last spring we took a day trip to Friend’s Ranch, a citrus farm in Ojai, CA.

Credit: Katie Walsh

Friend’s Ranch is a working citrus family farm that has been around for over 100 years! The farm offers tours of the farm through the springtime where you can visit with real farmers, explore the orchards, visit the packinghouse and pick a bag of fresh fruit to take with you.

The tour started in the packinghouse, where we each got to mark a tangerine with our initials and then follow it through the sorting and sizing machines. The kids loved watching the machines at work. My favorite part of our experience was the tour of the orchards. The kids ran through the trees playing hide and seek while the farmers explained the differences in the types of citrus and how to tell when they are ripe. We were encouraged to pick and taste as much fruit as we wanted, and we tried many varieties of tangerines, oranges and lemons, many that I had never even heard of.

Credit: Katie Walsh

We filled a bag with tangerines that we picked ourselves and were able to take home. It was quite the treat to enjoy the fresh fruit at home for the next several days. We were done with the tour just in time to enjoy a lunch out in the cute little town of Ojai. It was a perfect day!

Giving my children a chance to run through citrus orchards and pick and taste fruit right off the trees was a treat for this city girl and an outing that we will gladly do again in the future. Friend’s Ranch offers tours every Saturday morning from mid January through the end of April. To sign up for a tour go to www.friendsranches.com/orchard-tours.

Katie is a Ventura mom of two that is always looking for her next adventure.