{13may2011: new park}

The other week I ran a bunch of errands and decided to take Darwin to a new park. We tend to go to the same parks so I thought I'd see if we could find a new one to add to our list. We stopped at Jose Rizal Park in the Beacon Hill neighborhood, just south of downtown Seattle. As I pulled up the park I pulled out my phone and read a review about how it's a nice park but seems underutilized and garbage from transients laying around. Uhhhhh.... I got a little nervous, because I'm a little scaredy cat sometimes and worry about being attacked, or mugged, or rapped. (I won't take Darwin on the trail near our house by myself even in the daytime because we've seen tents and know homeless people hang out there, even though I've seen other ladies walk/run their dog through that area.) Even though Darwin's a big dog and I'd assume most people would be wary of her size alone, she's a bigger scaredy cat than me and I think if someone ran out and jumped me, she'd run away barking. hahaha.

Anyway, back to the park. As I was sitting in the car contemplating I saw a girl and her dog walk in so I figured it had to be ok (it was the middle of the day, on a week day). We entered the gates and from there you have to walk down a curvy path to a smaller open grass area. It had been raining a lot that week so it was pretty muddy, but Darwin loves the mud so she had fun. She got a little playtime in with the dog we followed in and another pittie that showed up, but other than that there were no other dogs (or people) there. It's a smaller park just off the freeway, but it had a great view of the city.

It was fun to check out someplace new, but I don't think we'll be adding that park to our list of regular stops, just not enough activity or space for a big girl like Darwin.