An Evening at Mt. Trashmore

Last Saturday, (yes this post is late), Mark asked me to take him to the rec center.

Well, by the time we were ready to go the rec center was closed. So we decided instead to go to Mt. Trashmore.

What the heck is Mt. Trashmore? you ask.

The story, as I understand it is this: Several years ago, before Virginia Beach was as big as it is now, this was the local dump.

The city was encountering 2 problems. First, the dump was getting too full, and second, the city was growing to close to it.

Someone had the bright idea to cover the whole pile of garbage with dirt and call it a park.

Thus Mount Trashmore Park was born.

Now this might sound like an odd idea, but it was successful. And this park is one of the best in the city.

There is an awesome wooden playground called Kids Cove. Plus several other playgrounds scattered around, (but Kids Cove is the best).

CJ and Mark played in the park while I had a quick run around the 1.85 mile paved path that circles the perimeter of the park, even going around the lake.

Mark had brought his scooter and wanted to go into the free skate park, but he forgot his helmet and wasn't allowed in. (Though I saw one teenager whose helmet was a red plastic firemans hat that they give out to kids at a local restaurant, and apparently, that was enough to get him in).

After my run and after the boys played in the playground for a little while, we ventured up to the top of the hill.

There is a good breeze on top of the hill and several people were flying kites

At the top of the hill I turned around and took a picture of the view, including the Kids Cove.

If the hill was a little higher I probably could have seen all the way to the ocean, which is only a few miles away.

On top of the hill there are 2 pipes like this one that release the methane gas from the decomposing garbage underneath us.Turning 120 degrees to the left you get this shot of the downtown city skyline. And another 120 degrees gives you a shot of the lake that I ran around.

We walked - actually, I walked and the boys ran- down the hill to the lake where they, in true boy fashion, spent a glorious 15 minutes throwing dirt and rocks into the lake. CJ likes the camera. Why is it impossible to take a picture of yourself without it looking like you are taking a picture of yourself? But since I like to give at least one of my bloggies a hard time for never including pictures of herself on her blog, I want to put one up of me.

The park closes at sundown, so I took this as we walked back to the car. It was a glorious evening, and I had a great time with my boys. Tell me when you are coming to visit me and I will take you to see Mt. Trashmore. You will love it too.