An Autumn Drive part 3

A Surprising Park

After saying goodbye to the Stanley and leaving Estes Park we started the winding journey through the Big Thompson Canyon towards home.  Right at the outskirts of Estes Park and just about the time we started thinking about having lunch little raindrops began hitting the windshield.  Since it looked like a little storm, we decided to drive and when we were out of the storm we would stop and have lunch.  We'd packed a picnic and wanted to enjoy it outside, rather than enduring it inside the car.  We wound our way through the Big Thompson Canyon... I took a couple of pictures, unfortunately none of them turned out...

About 40 miles later... we were in Longmont and it finally stopped raining.  As we were driving down the main drag I spied a large grassy area... it looked a likely spot so we doubled back.  The park we had stumbled across was Roosevelt Park and in all honesty it was THE BEST PARK EVER! 

(Sweetheart?)

As are most parents, I am a play park connoisseur.  I like the parks that have the newer equipment...easy for the kids to play on and much safer.  Most of the parks in my area suck as far as set up.  Usually there is a bunch of blind spots where you can't see all your kids playing, so you have to march around the equipment like a demented sentry to keep all the kids in view and make sure the little ones aren't trying to kill themselves...or each other...or some stranger's kid...  This park however was set up perfectly, there really wasn't a bad vantage point. 

(Climbing 4th of July)

It was kind of shaped like a butterfly, all the climbing stuff was located in the middle with 2 twisty slides, one on either end.  The equipment was flat enough that you could see either side from the ends and from straight on you could see both slides as well as the swings in the background.  As a bonus, a kid would really have to try hard to fall, there weren't many areas where a little one could take a nose dive off the equipment.  It was a great park for one parent to be able to watch several kids... which was good for Chris!  Whoever designed this playground had been to a park with kids they cared about. 

(Peace)

Wha...?  Good for Chris?... you might be asking.  Oh hell yeah, I was off doing my own thing and Chris and the kids were on their own.  Attached to the park was a wonderful Rose Memorial Garden for Veterans.  Normally I think of a Rose garden as being a tragedy of some struggling bushes on the edge of the lawn that  have been forgotten.  I don't know if it's because there is a senior center right there or if they just have well trained park personnel; whatever the reason these roses were well taken care of and very healthy.  The blooms were huge, the leaves glossy and green and many of the roses were taller than me.  It was beautiful and the smell... heavenly. 

(Pink Peace)

(Sterling Silver)

Just for the record, I am not a huge fan of the rose bush, I think they are kind of ugly plants.  Very leggy, tall and then they have large flowers located only at the top ... makes them look kind of unbalanced... bunch of green at the bottom and topped with blossoms only at the top.  Plus, I like a tight planting and roses need room to breath or they end up with all kind of health problems. And then there's the care.... roses need some.  The pruning, fertilizing, pruning, watering, disease control, insect control, winterizing, pruning ritual starts to break me down really fast.

But on Sunday, I was sure excited to see so many rose bushes in one place.  It really brought back some memories. 

For years and years I worked in and managed different greenhouses learning all about plants, their care and how to grow them.  I've missed it, and I think that contributed to my excitement.  I actually wished I had some pruners on me since some of the bushes had flowers that were faded... plus a bouquet would have been a great souvenir of the trip.  I'm pretty sure the parks dept would have frowned on random strangers doing some pruning, but eh... how much jail time would I get for that offense?  In the end, I realized I liked my freedom so instead I snapped a bunch of pictures rather than stealing a big bouquet.  A couple of years ago I probably could have told you the names of all of the roses, but now I only know a few off the top of my head.  The garden had the bushes all labeled and the smart person would have snapped pictures of the name before or after each blossom... but I took the pictures (and not the aforementioned smarty pants.)

At a certain point, I had to give up on the photographs... not because I had enough pictures of roses (strange phrase enough and pictures... individually they make sense, put them together and ???)  but, because the battery in my camera was dying.  I didn't bring any extras batteries so... I sat down and had a lovely lunch with the family.   Soon after it started to get really hot as the clouds cleared off  so we decided to head home.  All in all it was a great adventure, we had a lot of fun and I got a lot of great pictures out of the trip. 

Thanks for coming along!!