Sunday, August 23, 2009

swimming at Turkey Creek




If we had handed Dennis a vacation catalog and asked him to pick out what to do, he could not have chosen better than what Gigi had planned for us today! First we went to Turkey Creek, a park with a very very long fenced-on-both-sides boardwalk where Dennis got to run and run as much as he wanted to ("we go FAST Mommy"). There are numerous swimming platforms along the boardwalk, but we chose to walk all the way to the end and swim there. The water was refreshingly cold, which was wonderful since we had worked up some heat with the long walk. I thought Dennis might fuss at the cold, but he seemed to like it. The current unnerved him a bit--we'd tow him upstream a little and release him for someone standing a little ways away in the water to snag him as he came rocketing by. He tried to paddle around and go where he wanted to, but the water is fast-moving and he learned to swim along with it. He didn't swim for too long before he said "want to go on the dock now" and we all got out and dried off and walked the long walk back. We stopped at a little preserve to see a deer family with a newborn fawn and then we headed back to Gigi's place for a delicious lunch and a long nap.

Next we were off to the Best. Playground. Ever. It's called Children's Park, and there are MANY play structures scattered around a very big area with decks and picnic tables overlooking them, and best of all, a large area of big structures that sprayed water all over happy children! When Dennis got in the gate, he took off running, trying to see and do everything as fast as he possibly could. He pushed a button on a big tower and a big flood of bubbles came flying out of the top, and he pushed up on another metal structure and heard a train whistle (and he had to repeat both actions many times). He climbed and ran and played in water for over an hour before he began to tire and stumble around, and we dragged him screaming away from the park. When we got in the car he said "I had so much FUN!". Back to Gigi's we went, for a very incredible steak and crab and salad and sweet potato dinner, and pretty soon Dennis was off to bed, dreaming about the perfect toddler vacation day.

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