Where to Park?

I tried to bribe my son today with a trip to park in exchange for a nap. I know, maybe not the best parenting technique but with his latest trends of screaming with even the notion of sleep, it seemed like a good idea. So after an hour of my future lawyer 'resting' - we throw around the notion of when and where to park.

Our resident source of family fun, my husband, has been holding onto the nugget that Newton's Southside Park is having Shakespeare in the Park at 5:00. AWESOME! Not only do we get to hold true to the bribe, but it becomes an excellent family adventure. So here we go to the southside and a little kid culture. Yeah, no. Due to the excessive rains we had the first of the week the park is CLOSED. I mean locked at the edge of the road closed. No Shakespeare, no park. We go to Plan B.

We drive to the other park in Newton with it's empty playground. Why you ask? That would be the blazing hot metal which burns you before you even touch it. As much as I love the Newton Recreation Department's offerings, should I question why one park is dead center of a flood plain and the other has NO shade trees around a full metal playground?

Plan C. Again, Stephen saves us. Let's go to Claremont park - it's not that far and gas just dropped down to $3.51. As you can see, my hopes for a pdf were not in vain.