Anthropomorphic garlic bulbs are the mascots of Gilroy Gardens.

You haven’t truly lived until you’ve been inside a garlic bulb that’s bigger than a car and spun and spun until you wondered whether you were going to be able to hold on to those garlic fries you just ate.

You can make that dream a reality at only one place in the world: Gilroy Gardens, one of the Bay Area’s most distinctive theme parks. It’s not a completely garlic-themed park — plenty of other natural wonders get their time in the sun there — but let’s face it: At the major attraction of a place so famous for its garlic output that there’s a bulb in the city logo, there are going to be a lot of ways to celebrate the “stinking rose.” Besides the Garlic Twirl, a spinning attraction that really does whirl riders around inside garlic bulb ride cars, there are also garlicky foods, garlic-themed games, singing garlic animatronics and enormous anthropomorphic garlic bulbs — wearing sunglasses, of course — wandering the park for visitors to take photos with.

The Strawberry Swing is one of the many fruit- and vegetable-themed rides at Gilroy Gardens.

Gilroy Gardens is as much an appreciation of nature as it is a theme park. While it offers plenty of rides, it dedicates just as much space to manicured gardens, green spaces and unique agriculture. In fact, the whole thing started as a park.

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