Meghan Rose
A mom of twins, Meghan and her family live in Los Angeles and love to explore the city, as well as the world at large together. As national editor, please send her ALL your correction requests and pitches on national parenting subjects and travel at meghan@mommypoppins.com.
Latest posts by Meghan
You know how they say, “You don’t know what you’ve got 'til it’s gone?” Well, we SoCal denizens actually did. We knew we had the best theme parks, all within an easy drive. We took kids for birthdays, soaked up the atmosphere on holidays, and waved our annual passes around like keys to a magical kingdom. When all the amusement parks closed last year, we knew what we were missing.
But now all the amusement parks have reopened, and many of them have spent the past year building and creating. From the new Avengers Campus at Disneyland to the new Lego Movie World at Legoland (and everything in between), here’s what’s new at SoCal theme parks in 2021.
For a long time in LA, ice cream cones meant a $1 Thrifty cone in a weird shape at the local Rite Aid. I’m not knocking it—people who grew up here love them, and now as a mom, I appreciate the ubiquitousness and price. But gourmet, it isn’t. Then good ice cream began to appear; imports like Salt & Straw and Jeni’s, and homegrown favorites like McConnell’s and Sweet Rose. Some of the very best of the local shops are small-batch and freshly churned (or soft-served) mom-and-pop stores. So, if you wanted to try, say the fabulousness that is Ginger’s Divine Ice Creams, you had to trek to their sole location in Culver City.
No more! Ginger’s heard the pleas from the east, and just this month opened a new spot Mid-City. It’s long been a favorite of mine, and I couldn’t wait to check out the new store, and see if it’s just as good as the original. My kids came along to play taste testers. Here’s what we found...
One of the things my family has missed most this past year has been visiting our favorite local library. It’s where kids can play when it’s too hot to go outside. It’s where the whole family can enjoy a free storytime that was guaranteed to be age-appropriate (turns out, librarians know books!). It’s where parents can pick up a steady supply of new books. Books to read at bedtime, books to read together, books for kids to read to themselves, and books parents could curl up with after a long day.
Sure, LA’s libraries compensated with curbside pickup, virtual events, and even dial-a-story offerings, but it just wasn't the same. Finally, many LA public libraries are ready to open their doors. So check out when you and your kids can book it to the library...
Bagels are the best, especially when you have little kids to feed. Plain, inexpensive, portable—perfect. Teething tots can gnaw on a plain one for hours. Picky eaters will devour one toasted with butter. Adventurous eaters might opt for an exotic flavor, paired with an equally daring flavor of schmear. And parents can get an everything bagel loaded with luxurious lox and salty capers. The only problem is, LA used to be a bagel wasteland.
The key here is “used to be.” Several shops have popped up in the last few years, determined to fill that bagel-shaped hole in the LA culinary landscape. And now no less an authority than the New York Times has declared that LA makes better bagels than New York. Look no further: here’s where you can get the best bagels in town.
Super STEM and science summer camps—try saying that 10 times fast! Or you could stop muttering to yourself and just check out our top picks for great STEM and science-focused camps around the Los Angeles area. We've collected a variety of local STEM summer camps for kids—indoor, outdoor, animal-driven, coding, game design, biology, and robot-driven—all of which have been test-driven by parents we trust.
But if your children's summer cannot live by science alone, check out the Los Angeles musical theater and acting camps, horseback riding camps, and preschool summer camps in our Summer Camp Guide and Directory! Still not sure what camp is the best fit for your kids?
A lot of things have changed in the last year. Many shops and restaurants have closed, a few new things have opened. But only one thing completely disappeared: LACMA. Okay, technically the museum is still there. It’s even opening up again on April 1. But the main buildings (the Bing Theater, along with the Ahmanson and Hammer buildings and the Art of the Americas building) have all vanished.
I recently visited to see what’s happening at Hancock Park and learned that while a vast majority of the art is in storage, there are actually lots of reasons to visit the LACMA campus—including outside art, inside art, scientists at work, cocktails in the courtyard, and a whole new museum. Read on to find out why a family trip to LACMA should be in the cards this (or any!) weekend.
Finding an engaging and enriching summer camp that's right for your kid always takes a bit of work. Finding one that's a good fit for your first-time, preschool-age camper can be downright nerve-racking. You want their initial camp experience to be fun, safe, and memorable, but not over-stimulating or overwhelming.
So we searched the city for kid-tested, parent-approved picks for your LA preschooler—ones that will make them eager for camp time to arrive each year. Because the awesome thing is, most of these preschool summer camps grow with your child, accepting kids in elementary school and beyond (which also means your older campers can go to the same camp). For your older campers, check out our Summer Camp Guide, or these free and affordable summer camps and activities for kids of all ages.
Are you ready to get out of town and see some new scenery? Covid cases are falling (yay!) but it’s probably still not the right time to book a flight to a favorite exotic resort or massive hotel. But a road trip to a vacation home rental somewhere in gorgeous, sunny California is just the ticket: meticulously cleaned before you arrive, no crowded spaces, and the chance to be someplace new, different, and fresh.
Since we’re not traveling to packed tourist destinations, we wanted to find the best places to visit where the actual vacation rental was part of the attraction—so here are treehouses, a-frames, cabooses, and space ships (seriously) that are on the beach, in the mountains, in the city, or on alpaca farms. Read on to discover where in California your next family vacation will be.
Pages
