Tilden Park ~ Little Farm

Ok, we all know Tilden Park is awesome: steam trains, carousel, farm, etc. if it would just be a little easier to get around. The signage is not very helpful as you maneuver through the Berkeley hills which makes things even more frustrating, but if you can manage to find what you're looking for, I guarantee its worth it! So this day, we decided to hunt down the Little Farm. I had heard about it numerous times and although my sense of direction is pretty good, I was not sure I could find it on my own with the kids. So, I decided to wait till my husband who has an amazing sense of direction could go with me.
Although we had directions that seemed pretty clear, it still took a few wrong turns and a stop at the Lawrence Hall of Science to ask for directions, but we did eventually find it! Yeah!!!! Again, it was around lunch time when we arrived, so we sat at a picnic table and had lunch before venturing to the farm. What an great place! I had read on the website that we could bring lettuce to feed the animals, so I grabbed a bunch of romaine we had in the fridge before we headed out and the kids really enjoyed feeding the animals food that we had brought ourselves as opposed to buying something there. There were cows, goats, chickens, etc. The farm is built against a large hill and you climb the hill to get to the goats, etc. We wandered around the farm for a bit, reading about the animals and feeding them. After enough wandering, we walked back across the path leading to the farm and hiked a loop through some gorgeous greenery of the park. It was a very easy, flat hike that the kids really enjoyed. The path loops a small pond where we saw some ducks and turtles. The kids are always excited to see any kind of wildlife, so this was really fun. Some of the path was dirt and some was a wooden path that sat on top of marshy ground. It probably took us an hour to hike the loop, but we took our sweet time and studied lots of cool animals, plants, etc. The Little Farm is another gem where the kids can discover, learn and just as importantly, be kids!