It's rare the place that looks better every time you visit. Especially an aging children's theme park in an impoverished city. But that's been my experience of Oakland's indispensable Children's Fairyland.
The park is designed, really, for the pre-school set. So with Ada and Michael now aged 8 and 6, yesterday's visit was likely our last. I was glad, then, to find it looking better than it ever has before.
The unique, modest and non-branded attractions -- like Willie the Whale -- all seem to have been freshly painted.
Even the little figures hiding up in the trees were in great shape.
And all the retouching seems to have been done by an artist with real skill this time.
But what was truly extraordinary was the quality of the landscaping. Many of the borders were spectacular, like this one by the carrousel.
The inspired organic, mostly native plantings were fairly new when we first visited six or seven years ago. Now they are all grown in.
The individual plant choices are delightful.
Even small pieces of fill in out of the way parts of the park are full of interest.
The park seems to have some sort of a sourcing deal with local growers Annie's Annuals. Their plants are on sale near the entrance. I bought me a dark red Fairy's Wand, of course. It didn't mention the variety on the label, but I hope it's this one.
Gardens are notoriously prone to atrophy. Who knows how long Fariyland will be able to keep up a landscape (and hardscape, too) of this quality. But it was consoling to take our leave of the place at a time when it's so obviously thriving.