Fresh Air

Carter got in three days of school this week post-COVID.  He still had to mask through the weekend but with temperatures over 70 degrees in the first week of November and knowing we were missing out on a little adventure in Pennsylvania already, we had to get out and have some fun.  As I mentioned in my last post, I was torn about Carter masking on the playground.  He'd get looks if he did, and I figured that the odds of him passing it to anyone at this stage, outside, while having limited contact were slim.  So off we went, to the playgrounds we were supposed to go to on the day he tested positive.  

The playground time ended up being a bit short-lived.  He really wanted to play tag, but given how busy the playgrounds were, I couldn't do it with him (my rule is only if the playground isn't busy--I don't want to be getting in the way of other kids) and it was a little awkward trying to do it while trying to do it with other kids to keep some distance.  So he did a few things at the first playground, including a couple rides on the "olives"...

...and then we moved on to the next one.  He did a bit more there, but we were probably only there less than a half hour.  

But he did enjoy the big spinner (and the little one)...

...and insisted on a dinosaur photo op before we left.

We went across the street to the pier on the lake.  It was a breezy day so I was wondering what the waves might be like, but the wind direction must have been from the south because there wasn't a wave to be found.  Our last visit here was last October, and we were surprised to see how much lower the water was in the creek on the path toward the lake.  You can view our last visit here, and notice how much the creek is down.  You can't see it as much in this recreation of a picture we took last time, but the next couple make it pretty obvious.

We couldn't get over how little water was in this spot this time.  

Last time the water in this section was up to that line of light gray rocks and a stump on the left, on the bottom half of the picture.  There was just a tiny stream going from Mill Creek to the lake.

This looks beachy but it was a lot of zebra mussel shells gradually turning into sand, with a lot of stones.  The shells were in tiny pieces under the top layer of rocks and sand.  Carter loved digging in the wet stones and zebra mussel shells along the edge and ended up dredging his own tiny canal (twice), and it actually did get water flowing through it.  

He did this first loop and then extended it later.  

For a kid that's never been much of an outdoorsy fan aside from riding his big wheel or randomly running around, he did so good just making his own fun in the water.  It was neat watching the water just flow through once he was done.  

I found a little friend digging through the leaves along the edge.

I spent the time picking up the tiniest pieces of beach glass.  They were everywhere!  I guess maybe since this hasn't been uncovered for very long there was a lot to be discovered and I guess the beach glass seekers just hadn't been here.  Unfortunately, most of them weren't very smooth.  It was a haven for tiny pieces of newish glass.  As many as I picked up, I probably threw as many back into the shallow pools to give them more time to smooth.  I couldn't get over how many there were--almost everywhere I looked there was some color peeking through.  I found a couple bigger pieces after I took this picture, but it was so fascinating to me how they were all so tiny.

I can't emphasize enough how lovely of a day it was.  It was so peaceful there.

After a long time digging in the water, we finally started our walk out to the pier.  I took a similar pic to this last time.  You can definitely see the difference in the distance.

It was such a perfect day out there.  So peaceful and beautiful.  The lake was clearly a bit low too, because the algae was quite visible on the breakwall rocks--so green!

We carefully stepped across rocks to the pole at the end of the pier.  

It was such a lovely afternoon.

Back on land, we walked up this stairway, mostly to get a view from the top.  There was some sort of event going on at the old house event space about 50 yards from the top of the stairs so we didn't linger long up there, but the view down the leaf-covered stairs was really pretty.

We took a little side path back toward the car and added a photo to our series of photos of Carter with fun leaves!

We walked under an overpass back into the park across the street (the same one the last playground was in) and had a nice view.  I can't help but wonder if the creek is a little low due to all those trees at the end (beaver dam?).  We've been short on rain, too, so that's probably the main reason, but who knows.

Because Carter was a little disappointed by the playground experience and because it was still such a gorgeous day, I decided we needed to add one more stop--one of the last playgrounds currently on my list.  With Carter getting older, I really tried to squeeze in as many as we could this year, because who knows how he'll feel about them by next spring.  Sigh.  I saw this interesting-looking playground one day when I was driving through the city, and upon further research I added it to the list.  I knew it was right down the road from the Memorial Art Gallery so I figured one day we'd check out the sculpture park and walk down the road.  Well, this was the day!

We parked at the Memorial Art Gallery near closing time and wandered through part of the sculpture park.  I still remember seeing a horse sculpture on my Dartmouth trip in 2015 and having to research if this was the same artist--it wasn't, but I always think of that one when I see it.

The "Creation Myth" sculptures at the corner are always a favorite, from the massive concrete pieces to the tiny bronze ones.  Carter and I had walked through here a bit when we came to the gallery a couple years ago but the winter cold and snow kept it short, but I will always remember our walk around the sculpture park when he was three.  He was so adorable then, and he still enjoys it now.

We walked through pretty quickly because I wanted to get to the playground and back before it started getting dark.  It's not a bad area, but I can't say the city has been particularly trustworthy lately.  It was a cool walk because it's the Neighborhood of the Arts and there is art everywhere!  This was on the outside of a tile store.

Multiple lampposts in this area had gorgeous mosaics.

This used to be a police station and the entrance was so classic and well-maintained. 

This was a sculpture for the business in the police station building, just outside the playground.

This was right at the playground entrance.

The playground is like no other I've ever seen.  It wasn't huge.  It was basically this apparatus plus a smaller one with similar features for little kids to the right.  But what was there was fun and challenging!

There were very swing-y platforms (in red below) to climb up to the slide, and then there was this chain link cargo net at the top.  I did it a couple times and it was fun and challenging.  There were other ways to climb to the slide as well, one from each side.  Carter loved making his way up and flying down the slide--it was a fast one.  

This looked like a swing, but it actually spun!

I enjoyed the warm breeze and the quaint city neighborhood.  There wasn't a lot to do but Carter enjoyed all the climbing.  We were probably there for about 20 minutes before it was time to walk back to the gallery and keep exploring.  

Back on the gallery grounds, we looked at the other sculptures.  We also passed by a wedding as they took photos around the artwork.  It's always fun to wander there, no matter how many times I've seen the art.

Check out the reflection!

I had to have Carter recreate a few shots.  Most of them you can see in the post linked above from when he was three, but this one didn't make it.  Just a bit of a difference.

He easily ran through the underside before...not anymore!

The gallery grounds were looking lovely with the reds and yellows.

This one wasn't here last time, so we had to add this one to the collection.
 

The horse had leaves caught in his mane and tail, and Carter was trying to help him out.

I had to tell him the story of how he pretended to be a penguin, and after I showed him, he did a great job recreating it!

We had to avoid this area for a while because of the wedding party, but once most of them were back on the bus (while the brides were taking photos elsewhere), we came back to this spot.  It's one of my favorites.  

We wrapped up with a shot at the Unicorn Family before heading back to the car and heading home for dinner.  

I have no idea how he got so big--I miss that little guy but the big one is pretty fun, too!  It was a lovely sunset on the way home.

We finished up the night with a takeout dinner from one of Carter's favorites (where we hardly ever eat), Texas Roadhouse.  We picked them over Olive Garden because a half dozen breadsticks cost $5 and a half dozen rolls only cost $2.50.  And Texas Roadhouse was more generous with free ones anyway, and cheaper in general.  It was such a good dinner.  We've been eating together at the dining room table at opposite ends, which has been nice after him eating alone in the basement all week.  We may have some screen detox to do in the coming days and weeks after all of this screen time he's had squirreled away down there.  It's been hard with him being sick because we just hadn't been able to spend a lot of time together.  We did start reading together masked at bedtime after a few days, but no snuggling at bedtime, no mealtimes together until this weekend, and very little hanging out of any sort.  Yesterday was helpful for feeling a bit more like normal (other than him masking in the car), but I am looking forward to life getting back to normal this week.  

Sunday was a pretty quiet day at home.  We did church in the morning and then I came home and immediately headed outside to clear out my flower beds.  You don't get 65 degree weather in November too often, so it was nice to get the dead stuff cleared out before winter so we're not stabbing ourselves with spiky coneflower remnants when we're playing in the snow.  I did parts of the backyard and then did the entire front flower bed, all before lunch.  It was around that time that Jacob's team lost (they ended 1-2 for the tournament; he had a couple threes), so the boys would be home later in the evening.  Most of the rest of the day was spent relaxing (and watching a crappy Bills game).  Onward to another week--a short one for the boys.  One more quiet weekend (I hope) before things get rolling...