I blogged a few weeks ago about visiting Place to Play #11: Elizabeth Park, but the weather and our schedule hasn't cooperated since then to hit another one until this past weekend. It was a dry enough day Sunday to head out, so we opted for Place to Play #18: Lake Padden Park. Except we never actually made it to the park. You see, Lake Padden has a 2.6 mile trail around it, so we parked just off of Samish Way with the playground to the East and we headed West, with the intention of walking around the lake, ending at the park as a reward, and then heading home for lunch.
Unfortunately, we grossly underestimated our children's ability to last that long and barely made it 1/4 of the way before the whining and complaining was enough to send us packing back home. It's partially our own fault, because once we got to the dock, we decided to head to the right down a trail we'd never been down before. It goes along Padden Creek and to Padden Gorge and was a really nice trail. A steady incline down to the gorge, but not too much that even the littlest couldn't handle it. Unfortunately, our little detour tired them out and by the time we got back to the dock, we knew there was no possible way they'd make it the rest of the way around the lake.
We sat on the dock and watched some kayakers as well as the various ducks and small birds that were hanging out, enjoying the sunshine that was making its way through the clouds. The boys especially enjoyed a brave duck couple that let them get dangerously close (dangerous for the ducks, that is!).
Sorry I couldn't provide pictures of the playground, but we've been there before and the kids do enjoy it. Next time, we'll go with our tried and true method of making it to the park, which is to ride our bikes all the way around with the boys in the bike trailer. We move a lot faster that way, anyhow. :)
