We got a nice jump on the day as it was going to get hot. So we were down to CGP by 9 to give us some cooler time in the park. We went in the back entrance, and first August got down and walked/played by the statue of an American soldier.
We then walked into the park proper and walked some paths in the southeast part of the park we had never been on. We’ve now probably covered 95% of the park…
He was falling asleep for an early nap and was asleep by the time I got to Peace Coffee right at 10. I ordered a drink, and walked outside to claim the one empty table. As I was mere feet from the table, a group of teenage boys came up the stairs and ran past me to claim the table, yelling and literally bumping into me. And waking up August. I yelled at them, but they just stared at me. August wasn’t going back to sleep, so I got my drink, left, and threw away the drink.
We went to the children’s museum. He played well, if a little tired, in the water area, then we had lunch. I changed him, and he fell asleep again. It was now 11:30 and I returned to the cafe. The tables outside were still taken by boys – whether the same ones or different, I wasn’t sure – and they were laying on the tables under the umbrellas, taking naps. Can’t blame them too much, as they were on a field trip, left alone by their teachers to work on some writing assignment (when they left the area was trashed, and they’d left s lot of their worksheet behind). So they behaved pretty much how you would expect.
But there was a nice table available inside, so I sat there and read War Trash while August slept for the next hour.
When he woke up we went to the children’s zoo. August was more interested in going in the tropical animal building and playing with the humidifiers. From there he really wanted to play with water, so we went to a set of faucets I had seen earlier by the walking course. He played there quite awhile, playing both with a rock under the water and a plastic coffee lid under the water.
When he started to slow (15 to 20 minutes) we headed towards the front of the park to see if the floor fountain by the water education center was on. It wasn’t when we got there, but would be at 2, in a few minutes. So we went inside the water education center.
We played with some of the displays – particularly one in which you push buttons to produce bubbles – but August was most fascinated by the ball pit (no, I have no idea why they have a ball pit in a water education facility). Buy you had to be 5 to go inside.
So we went outside. The fountain was on, but he wasn’t interested as he was still asking for the ball pit. So we went around the corner and back to the children’s museum and to the ball room there. He did something odd at this point, as he insisted on climbing over the little barrier and getting in with the ball tubes. A tight fit. He spent 15+ minutes in there. Playing a little, but also just watching other people in the room.
When he got out, we wandered to exhibits on the first floor we hadn’t played with before. He was just tall enough to play with all of the tables in the light room. He also played in the design room, where you could put colored cotton balls into a design grid on the wall, and use magnetic strips on the floor to create a pattern or picture. He would play at one location for a couple minutes, wander off still holding a piece, find a new location, set down the piece, etc. I kept returning pieces to their rightful locations as we walked past the previous exhibits.
The best moment was when he was wandering around the middle of a room, holding a magnetic strip in each hand. He spotted someone and started waving with both hands, flapping the magnetic strips. He then continued to wander around the room, and spotted himself in the mirror. I got the second half of that on video.
Made it home without incident and a pretty normal evening.
Looking up up at the statue:
Making bubbles:
Light bars:
Silliness:
