Peter Pan and Pease Park

For our most recent outing, the boys chose to spend the morning playing mini-golf, followed by an outing to a sprinkler park. 

And for mini-golf, our favorite location is Peter Pan mini golf just south of the river.

How can you not love a place that has been around for 65 years? 

Peter Pan is just about as old school as it gets.  There are no electronic moving parts, it doesn't glow in the dark, there are no light-up obstacles, but it is still lots of fun. 

 

It's two 18-hole courses have a collection of fairy tale characters, a loop-de-loop and a huge dinosaur to putt under. 

We've been coming here for a number of years and we were pleased to see it had recently gotten a new face-lift. 

All of the obstacles have received bright new paint jobs.  And we weren't quite sure, but it seemed like even some of the obstacles were different than last year?

Each course takes about an hour to complete, and you can choose whether you want to do just one or both (with a discount on the second).  And after the completion of the course, Peter Pan offers snowcones for a dollar a cone!  Pretty awesome!

It has been our tradition to head over to Butler Park after we finished both courses... But since the boys and I have already been to Butler Park a number of times this year, we decided to try something new.

I haven't been to Pease Park in years, but I had recently read that the park had a new splash pad, so I thought we'd check it out. 

As we pulled up, I saw the small concrete pad and limited number of fountains and was a little worried.  This clearly was a park for younger children.  I figured we'd eat our picnic lunch, pack up and try a new location.  But after arriving, the kids really wanted to get wet.  So I let them play for a bit.

And as often happens, 'a bit' turned into an hour.  Then they wanted to climb down to the creek bed below the splash pad.  There they spent another hour catching frogs, minnows and feeding the birds bread. 

We then checked out the playground for half an hour or so.  The playground was nicely divided with a section for younger children and one for older.  And it had one of the largest collection of swings that we've seen in awhile.

The kids' attention was then drawn to a group of older men who were playing an unfamilar game.  It turns out they were from the French Legation and they were playing Patanque - a game that seemed (to me) similar to horseshoes. 

The men were very friendly, explaining that the group frequently hosts the game at the park, open to all bystanders.  We watched for about ten minutes, until I looked at the clock and realized it was time to go.  Some how, our 'little bit' turned into three hours.  :o)

Peter Pan Tips and thoughts:  We always try to get to Peter Pan early, as the course gets uncomfortably hot in the afternoon.  As another option, they are open late, and you can play after the sun has gone done.

If you are only going to do one 18-hole course, the west course is more challenging than the east course.