Last Sunday it was so nice that I couldn't stay at home. Of course we had plenty of work or things we could have done but I needed to get away from the house and enjoy the outdoors. Originally we thought about going to Lake Padden riding around once and then John and I running while the kids rode, but decided to ride from Barkley Village over to Blodel-Donovan Park and back. We are trying to get our tax-payers money out of the bridge over Alabama. We take off from Haggen and instead of going straight we decide to explore some of the side trails. We have been in Bellingham 7 1/2 years and have never gone to Big Rock Park. The trail is uphill and soon the kids abandon their bikes in a patch of nettles "so no one will take them". Up we head. Another side trail leads us to Barkley Boulevard and a great climbing wall. Again back on this "new" trail we come to a tunnel under Barkley Boulevard. The kids loved running back and forth through the tunnel, making noises, going by themselves. I think we stayed 20 minutes there doing that. Finally onto this Big Rock Park that a walker told us about. It was about 4 pm and we were the only ones at the park. We went through looking at all the sculptures that were placed in the park. The sign said something about it being restful for the wildlife. Job made some kind of comment that if squirrels make it through the hole in an art piece that they would score a point, if they didn't make it, they'd just go splat. They ran from art piece to art piece. Finally it was time to go home. The kids ran 1/2 mile to their bikes while John and I rode ours. Very fun outing. Home in time to eat dinner and go to our church group at 6pm. Love discovering things about our town.