We recently had one of those weekends where it either rained or drizzled continuously from Friday morning through Sunday night. While my wife and I consider rainy weekends “heaven on earth”, our two young children seem to disagree. After a weekend of being confined to the house, our playroom had turned into the Thunder Dome.
Since the rainy weekend came at the end of the month, we were also semi-broke. Thus, a $100 family trip to the movies or a trip to a sit-down restaurant were out of the question. With our options limited, we decided to just go cruise the mall and eat dinner at the food court. By the end of the night, we were asking ourselves why we’d ever do anything else but hang out at the mall with our kids!
The Shops at Mission Viejo is our closest emporium of consumer happiness. After circling the parking garage for more than a few minutes, our first stop was the food court. While it lacks waiters, which may be the only adult conversation a parent gets some weeks, it didn’t lack variety.
After securing Happy Meals for our boys, I coaxed my wife into trying the Mongolian BBQ stand. For $8, they give you a large bowl that you can load up with all kinds of fresh vegetables and thinly sliced meats. You then hand it to the chef, who stir-fries it with your choice of sauces. It was delicious, healthy, and easily enough food
for my wife and I to split.
Other name brand options at the food court include a Rubio’s, PF Changs, Hot Dog on a Stick, and a McDonalds. There’s also a Ruby’s hamburger joint and a Cheesecake Factory on the other side of the mall.
After dinner, we wandered down to the pet store and had a good laugh watching the puppies wrestle with each other. For more good laughs, we asked a store employee how much they were selling the puppies for.
Not far from the pet store, which is at the center of the mall, is the new Toll House Cookie kiosk. Every 20-30 minutes throughout the day, they pull warm cookies out of their industrial easy-bake oven. Four gooey cookies set us back about five bucks.
To cap the night, we grabbed a fresh cup of tea at Tevana, where they let you choose your loose-leaf tea from dozens of large bins. We then strolled over to the indoor playground and let our kids burn off any remaining steam before we headed home.
Other window shopping highlights include the Apple Store (with computers the kids can play with), Z Galerie (with all kinds of funky furniture and gadgets), and an interactive video game projected on the floor outside of the Old Navy.
The Shops at Mission Viejo are located just east of Crown Valley Parkway and the 5 freeway in Mission Viejo. The mall is open until 9 PM on weekdays, 7PM on Saturdays, and 6 PM on Sundays.
The Shops at Mission Viejo
[where: 555 The Shops At Mission Viejo, Mission Viejo, CA 92691]
