Gilroy Gardens Meetup
Amidst the busy weeks of midterms, OHS students had the opportunity to destress and have fun at Gilroy Gardens, an amusement park located in Gilroy, California. The amusement park, hence the name, is located in Gilroy, California, and students met on April 5th from 11 am to 5 pm. Unlike most amusement parks, Gilroy Gardens contains six botanical gardens, showcasing what was once a valley exclusively for farmland. One of its most notable gardens is the Monarch Garden, which is a 1.800-square-meter greenhouse. Other gardens, like the Rainbow Garden, have specialized tours, such as a relaxed boat cruise. Overall, the amusement park has a unique and assorted list of features, and there was certainly an activity for everyone to enjoy!
To explore the experience firsthand, we interviewed Isabelle Nguyen (‘27), a freshman at OHS. As someone who has been to Gilroy Gardens a lot when she was younger, Isabelle’s been able to enjoy its broad range of activities. While children typically opt for more tame rides, such as the park’s tours or its miniature steam train, Isablle expresses, “Now that I’m older, I was able to go on a lot of the more exciting rides, like the roller coasters.” An attraction Isabelle particularly liked was the Banana Split, which is similar to the Viking ship rides in other amusement parks. The giant banana swings its riders back and forth into the sky, and is located right next to a banana tree!
Although Isabelle enjoyed riding death defying roller coasters, she also appreciated other moments—one of her favorite moments was bonding with her friends as they walked around the park. While walking, Isabelle fondly recalls, “This adorable stray cat walked up to us and was meowing. It was super friendly and adorable, so we took some pictures of it!”
All in all, the purpose of this meetup, as defined by Isabelle, was to “reconnect with friends before finals started up.” Thus, under this definition, Isabelle attests that, “I would say it was a success!” Further, meeting in Gilroy Gardens, students reminisced on their previous meetups in an amusement park—namely, StartUp, which was located in Great America for NorCal. Having been to both events, Isabelle explains that, “I would say Gilroy Gardens (being in a forestland area) is a lot more peaceful and calming than Great America. Both are fun though.” Evidently, amusement parks are a promising location for OHSers to bond over shared thrilling activities. Seeing the past successes of similar meetups, attendees like Isabelle concluded that they should continue such traditions; we’re excited to see what the OHS community has in store!