bday67 girls' trip: bonnet springs park!

Christina found this one for us - most excellent!!!

Bonnet Springs Park is on about 160 acres of what once was a train yard in Lakeland.

Now, it's walking trails, playgrounds, exercise sites, picnic areas, various gardens, and even a first-class museum.

All of it's free, too, except the last one.

There's even a free shuttle to get people from one site to another, and multiple parking areas for folks to use at their favorites.

 

We started at the Welcome Center, on the far right on the map, parking there, then being on foot for most of the rest of the day.

The girls loved playing on the train, but we convinced them to try out another playground after we'd been there about thirty minutes.

Following the squiggles, our path led across the Heritage Gardens and then veered left, over to the base of South Mountain, going toward the Circulator (shuttle road).

What a fabulous hill!!!

And look!

It has three trees on the top, just like there are three people on its slope!

Now what are they doing?

Why, the first niece is trying to teach Miyah and Chloe how to roll down the hill!!!

Oh, joy!!!

Chloe was very good at it!

Miyah kept throwing her arms out, not realizing that was actually stopping her roll.

I'm sure she'll get the hang of it with more practice!

I didn't hang around to watch, though, wanting to have a little birthday adventure of my own!

Up, up, up I climbed the South Mountain, reaching the crest!

Then down, down, down I carefully sidestepped until I reached the parking lot for the Florida Children's Museum.

That place had an incredible giant alligator - made of metal, with traffic cones as teeth and the spines on its back - that begged for children to play on it!

They reached the patio entrance just a little after I did, having circled around the hill.

Ready to go in?

Yes, yes, and look at D.O.T. hanging from the ceiling! The colorful dragon of toys that it took 47 people to make! 

Yes, yes, and look at the giant yellow alligator outside to play on!

Yes, yes, and look at the science area with the lab coats and race tracks!

Yes, yes, and look at the Watermelon Seeds play area inside where it's nice and cool!

Yes, yes, and all it cost us was $3 apiece, thanks to my Senior SNAP card.

Hallelujah for the Museums For All program!

Soon enough, we were all ready for our picnic lunch.

That meant going back to her Christina's car at the Welcome Center.

Time to check out the shuttle service!

Oh, but a lightning warning came into effect, so Mark - the driver - had to pull over to the Nature Center (left of the lake on the map) until the "All Clear!" was given.

That just gave us another place to explore, along with the pier and boathouse.

 

Within an hour, all had the signal to move along, which was good.

We were definitely hungry!

Thanks to my first niece, we had a picnic lunch ready to be eaten: sandwiches, chips, tiny Slim Jims, cold beverages, and cookies for dessert.

Yes, yes, she loves us so very much that she even plans our meals while on vacation! 

She's the best!!!

(smile!)

What was next to do???

Should we stay afoot?

No, let's take the shuttle over to the Owl playground!

I don't know, just look at that dark rain cloud coming up fast.

Why not take the car and drive there instead?

Hey, here's a better plan!

We'll drive back to the museum and y'all can play inside until they close, okay? 

So that's exactly what we all did!

We returned to the FCM for their last forty minutes, with the girls' choice to go to the second floor to explore.

They fell in love with the City Play area!

Child-sized grocery store and pet doctor, pizza stand and police office -

so many career paths to follow and move on!

Too soon closing time came and we couldn't stay there.

However, we could be part of the departure parade, waving banners and banging drums and marching happily along!!! 

I even marched, too, with a yellow ribbon banner, celebrating on this Tina Tuesday -

what glorious fun!!!

And guess what?

This was such a big hit -

and such a big park -

that we're going back tomorrow!

Hooray!!!

Thank you, Christina, for finding this place!!!