Gwen B. Giles (Catalpa) Park.

Completely by accident, Michele and I discovered a park we had never noticed before. We got diverted away from our planned route by a marathon of all things and there, driving through a neighborhood we almost never visit, on a road we never drive, was a vision of everything Sean in a park. I vowed on the spot to visit this park. I kept my vow.

I'm on call this week. I was on the phone with customers until 11:30 PM. At 12:30 AM, I finally got to sleep. At 2:30 AM, I woke to the phone ringing, again. I took multiple calls through the morning and at 6:30 AM, I headed to work, since I knew I wouldn't get any decent sleep. On the way, driving alone for the first time in a really long time, I decided to stop by the park. I took lots of pictures. I also scraped my shins, bruised my right heel and got impressive grass and mud stains on my pants. It was great.

I don't have the ability to get my pictures off my phone right now but I did order a data cable for my phone so soon, I promise. These pictures should be worth the wait.

I'll try to catalog a few of the features that have me drooling over this park. A large wooden play structure, probably 30 feet long or more, with lots of room for climbing, ducking, etc. Numerous formations of short, wide, wooden posts stuck in the ground, some in lines, others in patterns, and still others in clusters. A couple rails at 3 inches above the ground, for balancing on. Dual monkey bars. 3 foot diameter concrete pipes for crawling through and climbing over. A play stage coach and a play viking ship and still another regular jungle gym feature. Large metal post swings, suitable for climbing on. Two sets of great stairs, one with huge parkour potential. Several small cannon emplacements. And throughout it all, large 2 foot to 4 foot boulders bordering everything, just perfect for climbing and running and jumping on. And I guarantee I've left some things out. This place just begs to be played at.

And speaking of, I managed to persuade 3 people from my office to go back at lunch today. It is frustrating that I can't do the monkey bars but I had a blast climbing all over everything, running through the boulders and just making a fool of myself. I could spent months there just playing for exercise.