Los Gatos Weekly-Times Photograph by George Sakkestad Five-year-old Rachel Morpeth enjoys the new playground equipment recently installed at Oak Meadow Park. Los Gatans say the best playground in Los Gatos is the one at the popular park. The Best of Los Gatos 1998 Kid Stuff Kids are special in Los Gatos. Doubt it? Ask the many young families who've made great sacrifices to move here so their children could attend Los Gatos schools. Los Gatos is a town of many parks and playgrounds. It's a town that's invited youngsters to create a mural on the bridge behind Old Town, a town that stages an annual parade where children are the stars. Like kids everywhere, the kids in Los Gatos love to eat at McDonald's--and to play there--and they love their 100-year-old town library, where a grandmother reads the stories they love and regular entertainment includes singers, jugglers and magicians. Best place to Take Kids Vasona Lake County Park The 151-acre Vasona Lake County Park--where sunlight shimmers through eucalyptus and redwood trees, a pied-billed grebe disappears into the crevice of an oak tree and a red-winged blackbird trills atop a cluster of reeds--is a local paradise for everyone, especially children. Mothers push strollers over the paved walkway along the shore while their toddlers enjoy the sights and sounds of nature. Willow tree branches dip into the lake, and the water gently laps at the banks. Nearby squirrels scurry up the dappled bark of sycamore trees; mallards float gently on the lake, slipping their heads under water; and a gaggle of white geese honk and waddle ashore near the children's playground. Benches throughout the playground give parents a chance to watch as their children climb bright blue monkey bars, lumber over blue bouncing bridges and disappear down blue tube slides. The park's shaded knolls and wide-open grassy areas make this a great place to picnic and play volleyball or baseball or a game of tag. The whistle from the Billy Jones Wildcat miniature railroad blows in the distance as it leaves its Oak Meadow station and winds through the north side of the park. There's even a place to rent rowboats or kayaks or paddle boats. No wonder Los Gatans voted this the best place to take kids. Park entrance on Blossom Hill Road between Highway 17 and Roberts Road. Open 8 a.m. until sunset. Best Restaurant McDonald's Los Gatans may not be enamored of chain stores, but they defer to their kids' tastes when it comes to restaurants that please youngsters. At the Los Gatos location, hamburgers and McNuggets are just part of the attraction. On the back patio, kids hurry happily through their gourmet meal so they can dash to the enclosed Ronald McDonald playground. There they take off their shoes and shove them into little kindergarten-like cubby holes, then climb through a maze of winding, blue tubes with plastic windows, bounce in square net chambers, then finally dive into a pool of red, blue, yellow and green balls, where they jump and squeal before they head back through the maze. All the while at a patio table just a few feet away, Mom and Dad chomp through the all-American Big Mac and fries and slurp a diet Coke. McDonald's, 15475 Los Gatos Blvd. Best Day Care/ Preschool Green Hills Pre-School In early afternoon, the children lie on small mattresses, lulled to sleep by soft piano music. Outside, the playground meanders over the two back yards. Tucked under an overhang is a large sandbox with an enormous tire in the middle and yellow pickup trucks lying along the edges. Other sections of the yard also wait for the children to return, with little playhouses as well as big red, blue and yellow plastic climbing toys, tricycles, easels and little picnic tables--a place any little tyke would love to delve into. Patti and Angelo Aguiar bought Green Hills Pre-School in 1979. Parents say they feel at ease there in the homey facilities spread between two houses. The Aguiars believe parents are attracted by the relaxed, stable feeling of a comfortably organized place that values children's emotional and social growth. "We concentrate mainly on the social and emotional development that get the children ready for school," Patti explains. The teachers, for example, are skilled in conflict resolution. They empower the children with tools to resolve their own conflicts and teach them how to be part of a large group. Licensed for 79 children, Green Hills is able to serve 85 to 90 families with its flexible schedule of part or full time. In addition to child care, the preschool offers training in various parenting problems, such as sibling rivalry, by bringing in speakers and making available assorted printed material. An open house is set for Dec. 6 from 10 a.m. to 1 p.m., after which applications for new families for the next school year will be accepted. Green Hills Pre-School, 16195 George St., 356-8911 Best Children's Program Los Gatos Town Library The children's room is separate from the rest of the Los Gatos Town Library, and it needs to be for all the goings-on there. The various story times include songs, finger puppets and flannelboard stories by the librarians. On Mondays from 3 p.m. to 5 p.m. a grandmother makes herself available to read stories to the children. Aside from the stacks of children's books and the story times, at Thursday afternoon at 3:15 p.m., a veritable showtime ensues, with performances by ventriloquists, puppeteers, singers, jugglers and magicians; last year featured a children's version of the opera Hansel and Gretel. When the Snapdragon Puppets come, the whole kit and caboodle moves over to the neighborhood center because so many big and little Los Gatans come out to see it. "Don't miss it," says the lady at the desk. "It has adult humor, too." The quality of all the performers is professional, sought out by Sandy Wee, the children's librarian, and paid for by the Friends of the Library. Los Gatos Town Library, 110 E. Main St., 354-6893 Best Playground Oak Meadow Park Few playgrounds in the nation have a shiny T33A training jet on loan from the U.S. Air Force for kids to sit in and pretend they're whizzing through the sky, and this one's been at Oak Meadow Park for 20 years. The playground is filled with delightful little play areas that trigger a child's imagination and maybe kindle a few dreams for the future. There's the old-fashioned firetruck, a little red engine and a fort with slides for smaller children, and for older children a wooden climbing wall with yellow grips, a whirl-around and a large play structure with four high slides. And, of course, there are the ever-present swings, one set for big kids and another for babies. This playground has been remodeled and painted recently to bring everything up to current consumer safety standards. The ground covering serves double duty, made of material that will cushion a child's fall as well as allow wheelchairs to roll over it without getting stuck. Kids never seem to tire of going to this park. Oak Meadow Park is on Blossom Hill Road between Roberts Road and University Avenue. Open 8 a.m. to 7 p.m. [ Back to Contents Page | Los Gatos Weekly-Times Home Page | Archives ] This article appeared in the Los Gatos Weekly-Times, October 21, 1998. ©1998 Metro Publishing, Inc. All rights reserved.