Rhododendron Gardens

We met fellow homeschooling transplants from Brooklyn at the Rhododendron Gardens a couple of days ago.  I'm beginning to realize the Park's department here is crazy amazing.  This little park (thank goodness our friends recommended it!) is shockingly beautiful, just a couple minutes from our house and... isn't a fancy Botanical Gardens.  There were no security guards yelling at kids (like at the gorgeous one in Brooklyn) for slight infractions.  So the kids could rock hop and splash and play to their heart's content.  P, of course, fell in love with this space :)  And came home very wet, and very happy.

It was the perfect space to re-make a friend.  There is a pond, just primed for rock hopping.

And more water, for bark boat floating and dam adjusting.

And just plain 'ol jaw dropping beauty.  With ducks.  To feed.

And, of course, collecting :)

As our new/old friends left, P (who had been a bit nervous of this "blind date") declared how much he adored them.  Its fabulous fun to watch him come out of his social shell....

Forest Park Fun

In Brooklyn, we had Prospect Park.  And it rocked.  The park I've most wanted to scope out here is Forest Park, one of the country's largest urban forest reserves (with over 70 miles of trails running through over 5100 acres!!)  So that's what we did Saturday...

But E wanted to take the scenic route.  Which led us through Washington Park (home of the zoo, the children's museum, the arboretum, the rose gardens and a bunch of other stuff we are excited to visit) and as we followed the tree lined curves up and around we glanced A View.  So we turned around and pulled over.  It was breathtaking!  We have yet to look up which mountains these are (Mt. Hood is much closer and not pictured), but E was guessing Mt. St Helen and Mt Rainier fit in there somewhere.  Yeesh we're newbies ;)

 There's another peak to the right that you can't see with this shot - we could see 4 peaks with the city just below.

Then we pulled off in Forest Park and the child popped out and took off running - so excited to hike!!!  I tried to catch a shot of him, but really just got his bum-side as he left us in his dust...

While not as "surprisingly breathtaking" as the gorge hikes, it was lovely and relaxing.  The kid had more than enough to look at and mess with and the smell was deliciously fresh "eau du rainforest."  We also saw almost no one the entire time.  The fact that it was actually in the city was a major bonus too ;)

The kid really wanted to walk down this fallen tree.  It was steep and my belly is just too big to balance beam these days, so he tried it solo for a bit.  Then he requested Papa.  Then he tried it again solo.  It was high enough above the ground to actually make the little climber nervous, but he couldn't quite not climb either :)

I can hardly wait to be belly free and be able to trail run here with the kid.  The soft trail beds are heaven to walk!  And then there is the smell and the sounds (we were all overwhelmed with a faint buzzing at one point, which is a surprisingly unnerving sound to not be able to place.  Walking further we finally found the source - bees and more bees, buzzing just off the path in bushes ringed with flowers - but this went on for many curves of the trail, making us giggle in evolutionary ignored discomfort:)  Good thing we have about 68 more miles of trail to discover in this park, cuz we really liked it :)

Fabulous Fountains

Seriously pretty place to play.

Funny faces are becoming de rigueur for photos lately...

P's been in a home sorta mood.  We might putz around the park or the nabe or have a playdate, but the city hasn't seen us lately.  Its fascinating to watch him wax and wane.

But last week we made it to the best water park downtown.  Or, at least, our favorite :)  Its typically pretty empty, shaded, and fabulous fun.

The trees have these hot pink, yellow, red berries (they look a bit like rainier cherries, actually).  P adopted them as BB stand-ins.  Berry BB floated down countless torrent filled tunnels and washed into water spurters and flooded flats. The child squealed.  A lot.