a mini vacation: at the park

We really lucked out with our mini vacation. We had a great room (two rooms and two bathrooms, which meant that even Indy got his own space.  A bathroom, but still). We loved the beach. And the kids loved the park.

We developed a bit of a morning routine. Indy would wake early, and Jim and took turns running with our not-so-quiet boy in the jogger while the girls continued to sleep. Then the girls would wake and we'd all get ready. Eventually everyone would be presentable and we'd head to breakfast. Once the kids had had their fill of pancakes and bacon and fruit and yogurt (they didn't discover the fruit loops until the last day), we'd grab a to-go cup of coffee and take a walk to the park.

We had only to walk a few blocks (though it didn't even seem that far, since we followed a nice trail along the beachfront) to get to the park. We had no idea what a great park it would be.

We could tell as we approached that our little people would be pleased -- we spied swings and slides and a giant turtle.

It wasn't until we walked around to the other side of the park and looked back that we could really appreciate its clever design. Two pirate ships! And a dragon!

The girls were really excited about the dragon. It was a perfect element -- Jim and the girls had been reading My Father's Dragon. They couldn't get enough of the book (in fact, they finished it on the second day of our trip) or the dragon at the park.

The slides and swings were -- as always -- a hit with our little people.  But there were these fun, new-to-us spinny things that the kids simply couldn't resist.  Everyone had a turn.  (They had similar things that had actual seats; even mom and dad tried those out.  They had us laughing out loud.)

Coming off one side of the larger pirate ship was a rocky ledge.  The girls called it "a plank" and insisted on walking it.  And, obviously, jumping off the end.

Since we didn't let Indy walk the plank, he simply tried to climb up alone.  I think this photo captures the chaos of our crew at a park... jumping, climbing, lovely chaos.

Not surprisingly, the park was our last stop before heading home.  I wonder if there's some sort of database we can search when we decide to take another vacation so that we can narrow our destinations to those with great parks!