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San Diego Magazine /  August 2008 /  The Best of San Diego 2008 /  Kids & Families

Kids & Families

Chirps for Li’l Twerps
At Date Street and Ninth Avenue, Tweet Street is a collection of quirky birdhouse interpretations with a children’s playground atop Cortez Hill. Birdhouses in the shapes of traffic lights and sheepishly grinning cats provide temporary shelter for bluebirds, wrens, finches and hummingbirds. Purple trailing lantana, torch lily, magnolia and other birdfriendly flora also draw a smattering of brilliant butterflies (urbantrail.com).

Kid Exercise
The kids will be fast asleep in the backseat after a day of pedaling around Mission Bay in a paddleboat. Boats can be rented for $20 an hour at the Hilton San Diego Resort (1775 East Mission Bay Drive, 619-275-8945). The resort also rents kayaks, WaveRunners and Aqua-Cycles, 10 a.m.–6 p.m. weekdays and 9 a.m.–6 p.m. week - ends.

Place to Disco with the Diaper Set
Nightlife doesn’t have to end at conception. Parents and tots can get some quality time on the dance floor during Baby Loves Disco events, September. 7 and November 9, 2-5 p.m., at Aubergine (500 Fourth Avenue, downtown, 619-232-8100; babylovesdisco. com). A deejay spins music as bubbles waft over the dance floor. Parents and kids can get their groove on with shakers, billowing scarves and balloons. There’s even a chill-out space with cushy pillows, stuffed animals and books for tuckered tykes.

Gardening Classes for Kids
Hoping to instill a passion for gardening and a few Latin plant names in children, ever-patient botany expert John Noble of Coastal Sage Gardening (3685 Voltaire Street, 619-223-5229) offers classes in plant identification at the Point Loma Native Plant Reserve and other sites. He recently teamed with the World Beat Cultural Center (2100 Park Boulevard, 619-230-1190) to teach children’s fairy gardening, plant propagation and other courses in the center’s ethno-botanical garden.

Place to Play a Theremin
At the Museum of Making Music (5790 Armada Drive, Carlsbad, 760-438-5996; museumofmaking music.org), there are hundreds of vintage and contemporary instruments on display and audio samples of great American music, past and present. But one of the coolest exhibits is the Interactive Area, where grownups and kids can hear everything from electronic drums and a digital piano to a haunting Moog Etherwave Theremin. Fortunately, the sounds can be heard only in headphones, attached to each performance station.