I suppose I'm the very first person to notice that the word Twaters has the the word twat in it. There is a message there I just know it. Twaters annoy the crap out of me. Really I just don't get it. I mean, so you don't like Twilight. Well I don't like cooked spinach but you don't see me posting all over the web about it (other than just now, to prove a point). Speaking of points, my point is that you can not like but not love, mildly dislike, hate, or even despise something without going on and on and ON about how bad it sucks. 'Cause really it's a bit over-compensating if you ask me. If someone can point out to me why adults watching adults act like younger people in a movie is such a big deal I'll gladly have this discussion. In the meantime, stfu and let me have my little 2 hour escape from reality before having to get back to the daily working-poor grind, um-kay?
Speaking of daily grind. We visited the City Garden today in our attempt to explore all of the cool free stuff in our city. Well, I have a mixed review. It's not as glowing as most of the "wow this is awesome" blog reviews on the web. My chief complaint is parking. I walked away with a $25 parking ticket because there were delivery trucks blocking the signs that alert drivers (or parkers, rather) that the meters are a no parking zone from 3-6pm. Most frustrating about this incident was the behavior of the parking officer. His tip of his hat and "have fun" was really nice. Except that he did it at 2:55 after watching me wrestle all 4 bathing suit-clad children (and the stuff that goes with them) out of the van onto a busy sidewalk. It was clear we intended to stay, which follows that we weren't aware of the stupid parking-that-isn't-parking zone, and since the delivery trucks were blocking the sign, you'd think he could have said "hey you know this turns into a traffic lane in 2 minutes. But no. Just a "have fun" and a ticket the moment I turned the corner. Nice. Very friendly and hip. Beyond the sour parking experience the park is nice. I appreciated the "nothing off limits" atmosphere but did notice "staff" people telling a group of kids they couldn't stand under the waterfall in one of the wading pools. I'm not sure what that is about. Curious. The kids loved the pool near the pop fountains that had what looked from afar like a woman in a boat sculpture. I didn't get close enough to it to tell for sure because our stuff was laying in the shade and I didn't want to walk too far from it. Plus, to get to the neat little pool would have meant going allllll the way around or through the fountains. This leads me to my next issue. This place is huge. I had a 3yo who wanted to drive his car through the water from the fountain on the corner, 8 and 9yo's who wanted to swim under water in the deeper wading pool, and a 5yo who wanted to play in the pop fountains. These things are nowhere near close enough together to allow everyone some freedom. If you've visiting with a wide age or ability range or with children who have a certain idea of what the afternoon holds in mind, take an extra adult, lol. It was a difficult afternoon for me, exhausting really. On a positive note, we do intend to go back. I scoped out the parking around the park to make sure I know what to avoid next time. Next time I'll take the camera with me. Next time I'll have the stroller too. We'll explore a few more of the artistic installations and THEN jump into the pools. For today I give it a B, but it won't take much to turn into an A. Although, it just occurred to me that if there is ANYTHING going on downtown that place will be unreachable, so maybe it'll maintain that B status.
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