That day began with an early morning horse ride at a Dude Ranch in West Chandler.
After we parked the horses we had a McDonald's visit before heading north to Mesa, that being the location of two parks we intended to visit, one of which I have wanted to play in with David, Theo and Ruby ever since I first saw it last year.
The first Mesa park is called Riverview Park. This park is adjacent to the Chicago Cubs Cactus League version of Wrigley Field.
In the first photo you see Theo climbing on some ropes arranged in a climbing device. In the distance you see a taller climbing device shaped like a pointy pyramid.
When Theo reached that pyramid he quickly climbed high, like a monkey in a tree. I tried to follow, but soon gave up due to shaky ropes and shaky nerves.
But soon Mamas Michele and Kristin followed Theo in monkey mode.
That is yellow Kristin on the left, and pink Michele on the right, with Theo far above them.
And then Mama Michele somehow monkeyed herself higher than Theo. We assumed this playground attraction has been rigorously tested for safety, that if one fell one would catch oneself in the mesh of rope before actually falling to the thickly padded ground. But, I did not want to test this myself.
Neither of Ruby's brothers were brave enough to take the zip line ride. Ruby is a bit of a daredevil.
Mesa's Riverview Park's playground is impressive beyond any I have seen anywhere else. And unlike what I see in some town's parks in Texas, this park had zero outhouses, but did have an extremely modern large restroom facility.
Mama Michele whilst infosearching Mesa parks, after I had said I would really like to take the twins and David to Riverview Park, found another Mesa park, near downtown, called Pioneer Park.
Miss Daisy and I saw Pioneer Park last February whilst looking for a Mesa concert location. Since then almost $8 million has been spent upgrading the park with a playground of the likes I had also never previously seen.
Also with no outhouses, but with a modern restroom with attributes I had never seen, such as the hand washing sinks were outside, used by both genders. And the interior facility was so large the men's wheelchair stall had someone using it who had brought his mountain bike in the stall with him. That seemed a bit odd, but it did seem a good way to make sure the bike did not get stolen.
Fort Worth might want to send some sort of study group to towns like Chandler and Mesa and just check in on the quality of their parks. This might provide big clues as to why when a corporation looks to relocate they take a look at Fort Worth and decided to locate elsewhere. Outhouses in your public parks really do not a good impression make.
So, Ruby went from swinging on a zip line at Riverview Park to a different type swinging at Pioneer Park.
We had never seen a swing before like the one above. A tandem swing. Uncle Jake saw this and opined if our dad had seen such in a park he would have managed to build us a replica in our backyard. So true.
Above that is Ruby in the air on the left, with Theo pushing on the right.
Below is the centerpiece of this playground in Pioneer Park. I had never seen anything like this in a park, that was not a waterpark.
Ruby and Mama Kristin were the first to go up this thing, whilst the rest of us watched. At the top a little kid panicked at the point Ruby and Kristin were at the final climb to the crow's nest at the top. It took several minutes to get the panicked little kid back down the crawl space.
Above we are seeing Ruby shoot out of the tube, graceful, at high speed, landing on her feet like an Olympic gymnast.
Followed by Mama Kristin who used a different exit strategy, while proclaiming she felt like she was having another birthing experience, only this time being the one being birthed.
And then Mama Michele and I decided to give it a try. The climb to the crow's nest was more arduous than I anticipated, involving some knee crawling through tighter spaces than my claustrophobic self finds comfortable.
Before making the slide to the bottom we tried to photo document how high we were, via selfie mode, which I am quite adept at doing, taking only a minute or two to get my phone ready to take the photo you see above.
No photos were taken of Michele and me making our slide exit. But I can tell you we were graceful, like Ruby.
When I realized how accessible this playground was I talked Miss Daisy out of her chariot on to her non-mechanized mobile device. What you see above is Miss Daisy and David in a sort of treehouse accessed via the elevated walkway which give anyone mobile access to the various locations on the playground installation.
Now, the above slide looks like no big deal, doesn't it? Aunt Jackie was the first to slide down it. She was quite vocal whilst doing so, some screaming may have been part of the vocalizing. I thought she was exaggerating.
And then it was might turn.
The slide is made of rollers. One slides down at high speed, faster the more mass one is blessed with. So, David, Theo and Ruby did not slide fast, until they slid down the slide in front of me, with that extra mass making for a fast slide.
Above I am on my one and only solo slide, with Ruby at the bottom, Theo at the side, and Mama Michele and Uncle Jake at the top.
You can use the rubberized climb at the side of the slide to get back to the elevated walkway, or use the more sedate way to get to the same location.
In the above photo you can see a section of that elevated walkway.
So, Mesa has two extremely impressive parks the likes of which I have not previously seen.
At some point during exploring this park someone sarcastically opined that this is an example of that horrible socialism right wing nut jobs find so disturbing.
Someday, hopefully, the right wing nuts jobs will be no more, and America will be a democratic socialist paradise, and backwards towns like Fort Worth, Texas will have public parks with no outhouses, with modern playgrounds, and public pools....
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