Picnic

Rochester has a ton of parks - over a 100.  Even though I grew up here, I have not been to many of them.  I found online a chart that lists all of the parks and what kind of things are available at each park (i.e. playground, trails, etc).  It also lists which parks have some sort of historical significance.  Since I find historical sites to be cool and interesting (and only 6 parks in town were classified as having a historical site), I thought it would be fun to go to ones that I hadn't been to.  I had also been wanting to go on a little family picnic, so I figured we could kill two birds with one stone.  So, this past Friday, Ann and I picked Tom up from school and drove down to the Thompson Mill Race park.  When we got there, we found it was pretty much just a little field (that was full of dandelions) next to the river that goes through town.  We found a spot by a tree that wasn't as densely populated by weeds, laid down our blanket and had dinner.  I think Ann was a little confused when Tom and I started eating, but she soon was okay with just walking around eating her peanut butter sandwich and cantaloupe.

Tom smiling between bits of food (we ate Subway sandwiches, for those of you who are curious.  It was kind of a last minute decision to do a picnic so I didn't have much other food prepared).

Eating cantaloupe, a favorite fruit

Heading off with daddy to explore after finishing dinner

Looking at the river from the bridge

Back at the car momentarily to put the picnic stuff away so we could wander around a little.  Ann wasn't happy that Tom told her we weren't going to open the car for her to play in.

"but Daddy, I want to pretend to drive the car!"

I can't remember if she snuck in when we opened a door, or if we just gave in and let her play.  Either way, she was pretty happy to get to sit in a big person seat.

Yeah the door is shut and I get to play with the lock!

The method of coaxing the 2 year old out of the car so we can walk around?  Getting out her umbrella stroller and telling her she gets to push it around.

The river

Did you think I forgot about the "historical site" part of the park?  After we got there, I looked around trying to see what historical site was there, and finally noticed this little stone structure on the other side of the river.  Since the park is called Thompson Mill Race, we assume it was once a mill.  There wasn't anything we could find that gave any more of a description (and my quick search online isn't really telling me anything either).

Tom: (trying to get Ann to look at him) What color is mommy's shirt?

Ann: blue!

She let me push her up the gravel part of the trail

I think I look like I'm about to start dancing in this picture

Tom got ahead of us and took pictures of Ann running down the hill towards him.  I wish I also had a camera so I could have gotten a picture of the adorable hug she gave him once she reached him.

Checking out the trunk of the car as we prepared to go home.  We had a good time and will have to do something like it again (and check out a different park!)