Welcome to Highland Park… just a block up the hill from my parents house and my favorite place for an easy afternoon picnic. My friends and I went up there almost everyday with a sac lunch, a blanket and a frisbee or ball 25 years ago to eat, talk, adventure and swing in the trees. It got to the point where the squirrels were so comfortable with us that they brought their friends to accept our offerings in large numbers. One time, my friend Amy and I counted 27 of them sitting all around our picnic blanket. Generations later, I’m sad to say that there were no squirrels today to surround our lunch party.
Many of the trees I walked among as a teenager are now gone with the ice and wind storms that have taken a toll on the area over the past 20 years. But many old trees remain with younger ones planted and catching up in size. Great pine trees abound. I miss this park.
Rick and I climbed up the road with 6 kids to enter the park and picked a place by the path that would stay shady for a while. We are “tree” people. Greg said it was a good spot he and his Aunt had picked out before.
Nathan enjoyed stretching his legs and playing catch with a ball.
Nathan loved the park. He didn’t mind the grass on his toes at all, unlike last Autumn.
The kids wandered into the clearing just beyond our picnic blanket to find “Big Bertha” off to the left. This was a favorite sledding spot where we spent hours in the bitter cold winters sliding down it’s steep icy side. It was great fun! Some of my kids have been sledding on some of the easier nearby hills during winter excursions to the Northeast. Some of them have yet to experience a sled.
This is the view opposite Big Bertha. Beyond the trees slightly to the left is the Conservatory.
In the summer it is a steep climb up the path to the top. Our kids ran up… enough to tire any adult contemplating the thought. The kids should sleep well tonight. Today the kids decide to roll down from the halfway point. It is DIZZYING!
Tristan has endless energy and never slows down if you notice him in these pictures.
Some kids tested out the idea of running down starting at lower points to test the waters and then moved to higher elevations for their runs.
Pure joy of running!
After a while it was time to get out the sandwiches. Greg wasn’t too impressed with his “HALF” sandwich but that’s all any of us had and their was a good variety of food to fill everyone’s bellies.
My teens/pre-teens discussed lyrics to a song they were writing.
After the kids had eaten and investigated every tree and bush in the area and made houses in the surrounding evergreens, the biggest lawnmower you’ve ever seen came and chased us from that location. We moved over to a shady spot on a nearby hill where the mower had already been and sat under a tree where we used to swing from a rope someone had long ago tied to the lofty tree branches. The rope has long since disappeared.
Then we got out the cookies!
Nathan thinks Oreo’s might be his favorite!
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