Nut Tree and The Jungle

Beep beep!

Last weekend Jack and I met with cousins-in-law Kerrie and Amber for lunch. We met at the Nut Tree which is right off the I-80 freeway and halfway between San Francisco and where they live in Sacramento.

The Nut Tree is somewhat of an institution in these parts. It was originally a fruit stand in the 1920's and presumably as the interstate became more heavily trafficed, its popularity also rose as the state's first major roadside stop. Richard Nixon and Queen Elizabeth II, among other celebs, visited in its heyday. It closed in 1996 and reopened a decade later in 2006. The Nut Tree is now a booming retail area with a kids' area complete with mall-type rides for a quarter, a train and a carousel. Even an airport.

We ate Mexican for lunch nearby and then topped it off with ice cream at another Bay Area institution, Fenton's, which opened its second location at the Nut Tree.




Dessert at Fenton's

After lunch, Jack and I drove to an indoor playspace called "The Jungle". It's one of those germy rundown indoor playspaces that has seen better days but Jack certainly worked off his icecream. The Jungle is multilevel with a series of interconnected tubes and an arcade upstairs. Kids can walk up ramps (see video below of Jack walking up one of the ramps), walk through a series of tunnels/tubes, and slide down more ramps. The tubes are mostly opaque so I paniced a couple times when I lost sight of Jack and the place is a zoo with all of the kids amped up. Lots of older kids were sliding down the slides and onto the younger ones. But Jack held his own and had a blast.

Climbing up one of the tubes

Watch Jack climb up one of the ramps:

And "play" Dance Dance Revolution (one of those video games where you are supposed to dance by stomping on the floor panels as they light up). Jack just had fun watching the monitor and jumping up and down instead: