"Turtle" Park

Dear Friends,

First of all... SORRY!!! I know I have not written in FOREVER and a day... So, again, sorry!! Also, again sorry for the randomness that is my brain, and the lack of organization...

Oh Turtle Park! So much fun!!! We can easily spend three hours at the park... and I still have to make Chuckles to leave. To have a better understanding of my favorite park, here is a rough outlay...

I generally park in front of the soccer fields. This is usually where we start our play... Chuckles loves to play soccer (kick the ball around the field) and watch people practice or play soccer... So we could actually sit contentedly for a good 20 minutes at least just watching some guys play soccer... another 10 to play soccer himself... then we move on to the pond.

To the right of the soccer field is a pond. In this pond there are turtles, fish, frogs, lily pads...etc... At least during the summer all these critters are present!! Chuckles is obsessed with water critters... Turtles especially (he really loves sea otters a little more but that is not relevant to my story... I digress) Because of this fascination with turtles, we (and by we, I mean I) have dubbed the Mason District Park-"Turtle Park." Rolls of the tongue a lot better and sounds way more fun to little kids!! So, naturally, we spend a bit of time feeding the turtles (they like goldfishes best and there are NO signs posted to NOT feed them... I walked all the way around to make sure!), and listening to the bull frogs and watching the dragonflies and bees and once there was a blue heron in there... SO PRETTY! Unfortunately I only had the camera on my phone! :( Sadly none of the pics came out. :(

Okay, so just up from the pond, across the sidewalk and down a small hill is the playground. He climbs and slides and jumps (not off the high stuff) and has a blast there! Then, further up from the playground and a little to the right is the tennis courts.

I park at the tennis courts when I only want to be at the park for an hour or less... I just keep Chucklesfrom going down the path that returns us to the playground or the soccer fields... We throw tennis balls up and down the courts and chase them. He just got a kiddy tennis racket so now he attempts to hit the ball... when I bring the racket... But that is still pretty new. If there is someone playing tennis, we sit and watch for a while. This is a good time for a snack... usually. Then we either take the long path through the woods or the short path directly to the amphitheater.

This amphitheater is pretty cool. It is just to the left of the tennis courts only a few hundred meters... We come in at the top of the seating... There are probably 7 rows of wooden benches. These benches are pretty tall. They are probably about bar height to Chuckles… We play with acorns, and rocks and bits of mulch. He really likes acorns though. We have even found some walnuts and pine cones on the ground. My favorite time however is when we actually get to the actual theater! There are 3 doorways on both the left and right and two in the center. The center is actually a floating wall with one doorway behind it; you can go out either way… It is so much fun to play hide and seek. Or to just go into a different door than Chuckles went into and scare him when he comes looking for you! We throw a tennis ball around here too!! It is so quiet there and we always have the theater to ourselves. Chuckles also uses his imagination to play at the amphitheater which is probably the other reason I like it so much. Got to keep that little mind going!! 

Now, when we head out, I usually take the route down to the soccer field. (The other option is to take a path back to the playground) I prefer this route because it is so much prettier, there are trees everywhere and even a small stream that Chuckles likes to stop and watch. Also, I only have to hit the soccer field on the way back to the car, and by this time we have usually been at the park for 2-3 hours… and I am probably hungry… I mean Chuckles is probably hungry…LOL… ;) If we go back via the playground, we stop and play at the playground again, then the pond and the soccer field. I usually try to skip the second round of soccer field if we go this way.

Well, that my dear friends is “Turtle” Park. My favorite place to go with Chuckles on a nice day… I am going to have to come up with something new now the weather is changing…  But with Chuckles, I know we will have a good time!! 

God Bless,

Jules