Saturday, March 24, 2012

Reptile Show

Richmond Nature Park
The Richmond Nature Park hosted a Reptile Show at their facility today. With the kids going back to school from Monday, this seemed like a pretty fun outing to end their 2-week long Spring break. It was a sunny day too and that was another reason to be outdoors. More than the Reptile show, it was the nature park that I was all excited about. Sunny outdoors, clear blue skies, natural surroundings and kids make
up for a great photo op. One that I did not want to miss.
What? A reptile show? Me? To be honest, I absolutely cannot stand anything creepy crawly. Snakes and lizards are on top of the list. As a kid I remember having nightmares about lizards. One that I still remember till this day was a big giant humongous lizard that was sitting right on top of the wall at the entrance to the Farmhouse's bathroom. The farmhouse had only one bathroom and it was like the lizard had a no entry sign just for me. All the older people had absolutely no trouble with that reptile up there. But my picnic was definitely not fun after what I saw.
Flash forward to today and I find myself "petting" one such giant humongous lizard so my kids can overcome their fear of the creature. Of all the things that I would never do otherwise, this was one of them. Aaliyah reluctantly touched the lizard after seeing me unscratched and unharmed. I was even thinking of hanging the Boa Constrictor snake around my neck and take my daring attitude to the next level. Nasir did not find the idea very appealing so we moved on. I just settled with taking pictures of the snakes, the frogs and the turtle. We then went on to explore the trails at the nature park.
The kids had fun running around, watching the birds and enjoying the sun. I had fun capturing these moments. I loved the park. I pictured myself coming here just for a morning walk. Walking here will be better than walking around the block or on a treadmill. This is definitely going on my things to do list. As long as the weather stays like this, I see no excuse not to come here every once in a while. I am not sure about the kids though. They are working on making this park more kid friendly by installing some additional play structures. Hopefully, by summer we will see an improved park. And with over two months of summer holidays, this place will definitely be revisited.

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