Thursday, July 29, 2010

St Vital Park

I had no idea this park was as big as it is or as nice as it is!



St Vital Park is located north of Bishop Grandin Hwy on the East side of the Red River.

I went to this park for a BBQ event with the Independent Living Resource Center group yesterday and had a very nice time. I am new to the group and just starting to make friends and to learn what the group is all about.

The park really was an ideal location for the event. We met up at a shelter area with accessible bathrooms by a big duck pond. There was a large field across the road where some people went to throw around a ball or fly kites and there was a nice sidewalk going around the duck pond where we could go for a stroll. On the other side of the trail was a small but really lovely flower garden and we also spotted a children's playground not too far away.

The ILRC staff set up a scavenger hunt for us to do in teams. It was really a lot of fun, walking and rolling around the area looking for things like bark, feathers on the ground and lady bugs... and a 1974 penny!

Bob stayed for part of the time and we hiked around a bit checking out the sights of this park. There were a ton of ducks and geese with a whole lot of babies. A surprise creature we spotted was a fat little muskrat. There was also an authentic BC totem pole that was donated to the city years back. It seemed a little out of place to me but was a very nice looking one.



One startling thing was that the duck pond was a vivid green... It is thick with duck weed. I personally kind of enjoyed watching the ducks swimming around leaving little trails in their wake. It was unusual enough that it made the news last night.




At one point we stopped near a bench for Bob to retie his shoes and we realized that the bench had a plaque on it dedicating it to the memory of a man we knew through Scouting. I am sure our Scouting friend would have approved of us stopping by.

Friday, July 9, 2010

Bob at Birds Hill

Bob had some spare time before picking us up from Girl Guide Camp so he went wandering around Birdshill Provincial Park and took a lots of great pictures.