GARDEN GROVE : A Real Find: Atlantis for Kids Only

In this New Age era of channeling, spirit guides and harmonic convergences, not a few people have hunted for the fabled Lost City of Atlantis which, according to legend, sank beneath the waves thousands of years ago, drowning an advanced civilization.

Not quite lost, but certainly tucked away, is a local version of Atlantis. It is populated not by geniuses and philosophers but by suburban boys and girls, and you don’t need to experience a past-life regression to find it.

Just go to Atlantis Play Center, at 9201 Westminster Ave., next to Garden Grove Park, between Brookhurst and Magnolia streets. There the city has built an unusual park with a watery theme, exclusively for kids.

“The play equipment is unique,” says Roxanne Kaufman, community services supervisor who oversees the park. “Since the theme is Lost City of Atlantis, we have equipment that you won’t find anywhere else--it was designed especially for the park.”

On the four acres of Atlantis, the young visitor can slide on dragons or whales, teeter-totter on a sea horse or sail a Viking ship.

“No adults are allowed into Atlantis unless accompanied by a child,” Kaufman said.

Dianne Moon, 36, of Garden Grove, who brought daughter Erin to Atlantis for a fourth birthday party, said: “I like the idea of the park being enclosed. Not having to worry about her getting lost or worse means a lot to a mother.”

All these submarine names and notions began in the late 1960s--a time, Kaufman acknowledges, when “budgets were a little plumper. The parks department wanted to try something a little different,” and Atlantis opened in 1969.

An estimated 77,000 children and parents visit annually. The center is open 11 a.m. to 4 p.m. Tuesdays through Fridays, 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. Saturdays, noon to 4 p.m. Sundays. It is closed on Monday.

Although it has a number of pint-size alumni, many residents are not aware it even exists because its entrance is at the end of long Atlantis Way, several hundred yards from busy Westminster Avenue.