On an even more beautiful Sunday afternoon, Sawyer, Mema, Pepa, and I drove to the Golden Gate Park in the hopes of finding Koret Children’s Quarter, otherwise known as the biggest and coolest playground in San Francisco (plus, it’s considered the nation’s first public playground). I knew roughly where it was, but I’m not all that familiar with that part of the city. As luck would have it, I found a parking spot just five minutes away. Sawyer was just happy that he got to see a double-decker bus on the walk there.
The first thing you see when rounding the corner is the historic carousel, originally carved in 1912. Sawyer immediately started in on his, “I wanna go in there, can I go in there, what’s in there, I wanna go see it, can I go see it?” routine, so the four of us got in line. From the moment I perched him on top of his brown and white striped zebra horse, he was all smiles. Looking at Mema:
And looking at me:
But he was positively beaming once the carousel started moving. Watch:
“All the animals are jumping.”
After the carousel, the four of us went out to explore the rest of the park. Sawyer, of course, gravitated to the swings first, but after a quick trip down the big cement slide on my lap, he happily settled in the sand. He managed to negotiate use of another little boy’s green truck and then proceeded to drive it all over, especially between Mema and Pepa:
It was nice and hot, too:
Sawyer and I took another spin on the carousel before leaving. It was the only way we were going to be able to walk past it. After that he insisted on racing his cars on anything at his level. I think he could have done this for hours:
Sawyer, that was the best park I’ve ever been to with you, and I can’t wait to go back with you very soon. Thanks, Mema and Pepa, for riding on (and paying for) the carousel too!
On the morning of our last day in Columbus, and yes I’m still writing about a trip that took place over three weeks ago, the three of us joined Aunt Sarah, Mema T, and Pepa T at a nearby park.
Pepa thought we might be lucky enough to have a train come across the tracks, which would have more than made his day. Unfortunately there were no trains in sight, so Sawyer had to entertain himself with the playground alone. (Of course, Mema T and I saw three when we went to grab lunch just an hour later. Oh well.)
I love his expression in every one of these pictures, and the dog’s expression too:
After he wore himself out on the dog, he convinced Aunt Sarah to push him on the swings:
And then asked Mema to take over:
There weren’t any trains, but he did see a bing-bing-bing:
He was clearly bummed about the lack of trains:
This was an equal parts sleepy and wiggly goodbye to Aunt Sarah:
This was the beginning to a very, very long day. He didn’t get a full nap in, and didn’t sleep a wink for the entire ten hours of travel, that is until he was five minutes from home.
Sunday afternoon, post nap for him and basketball game for me, Sawyer and I took a walk over to Mountain Lake Park. I had some bread to feed the birds by the lake, and I brought a ball to kick around in the field. Of course, all Sawyer wanted to do was swing.
I had to drag him over to the field, but once there he had a blast. There isn’t much to see in the video, outside of a handsome little dude showing off his new haircut, but at the very end he makes one of his classic Sawyer sounds:
I have no idea how he does it. I have no inkling of how to spell it. He stopped doing it for a while, but it’s back big time. I couldn’t be happier.
I had to entice him with a bus ride to get him to leave, but not before running circles around this wooden post:
I swear I stood there for a good five minutes. Safe to say he was exhausted by the time we got home. Me too, Sawyer!
The more I or anyone else tries to wear him down, the stronger he gets. Four trips to the park, four days in a row, three of them on the bus. He cannot get enough.
Thanks to an unbelievably warm and sunny Saturday afternoon, and a finally-feeling-better Sawyer, he and I hopped on the bus to go to Alta Plaza Park for some fun in the sun. The last time we went there, I captured one of my favorite videos of him climbing the steps to the park. He ran right up them again, without any hesitation whatsoever.
He knew exactly what to do when he got to the park too:
Up and down the slide, over and over again:
A picture can never do justice to this view:
He was a little frustrated that I couldn’t push him higher in the swing:
He’ll have to graduate to the big boy swings if he really wants to fly, but I’m in no rush to show him how those work.
You can tell he gets a lot of practice on the first 14 numbers since that’s the number of steps up to our apartment. After 14, well, things kinda fall apart. Can’t blame him for trying though:
This was after running up the hill from California Street too. The playground at Alta Plaza is one of the best in the city for Sawyer, but the park itself not at all easy to get to. It’s a workout no matter which side you come from.
Needless to say, Sawyer slept well that afternoon. Come to think of it, we all did.
My favorite memory of the previous week, aside from the dinner I shared with Abby for our fifth anniversary, was the crazy concrete slide. For some reason I thought it would be fun to take Sawyer down too, even though I had never even done it by myself. It’s a good 20 - 30 feet long, has a dip in the middle, and an abrupt end as you will soon see. Oh, and you slide down on a cardboard box!
The beginning:
So far so good:
Pretty sure Sawyer is airborne in this one:
We’re really moving now:
And then, ouch! The slide flattens out all of a sudden:
As if that wasn’t enough, I had to figure out how to stop our momentum without tossing Sawyer into the sand:
It was far from graceful, but we survived, and Sawyer wasn’t even bothered in the least. In fact, I think he kinda liked it. I know my Dad loved it.
Well, I can’t say for sure, but I do know that he loved every second of the “up and down” game. My parents bounced him most of the way home from the park on Thursday, and had it been up to him they never would have stopped:
Here’s three generations of Truitt men. I love this picture:
It all started at the park:
Many more pictures and videos to come!
Each park in SF is a bit different. Some have more toys for the kids to play with than others. We visited the Potrero Park last week after going to Mygym, because Sawyer has endless energy. He also is really good at saying “Park!” when we drive by one. How can I resist that?
Sawyer immediately gravitated to a few trucks.
A very short video of Sawyer pushing trucks in tandem.
At the end of this video, I had to keep him from running into the occupied swings. He could swing all day… unless he sees another kid touching the trucks.
Snippets of our time at the park today.
This merry-go-round is not light.
Through the tunnel.