It’s been a long time coming – a park has finally arrived in Conception Bay South, NL! Today is Friday Reflections: a end of the week period where I write about some places I visited and the funny moments that happened: visiting the park, and finally chilling on the beach in Topsail. Sit back, pour up a coffee or tea, have a treat, and enjoy another post from The Eason Clan.
Checking out the CBS Community Park
There is a splash pad, a long section of swing sets, and a modest playground to the left of the area – everything a child needs to have fun at the park. I was actually quite surprised by the quality of the new park, located just behind the Dominion grocery store in Conception Bay South, just off of Bishops road. The parking area is smaller (a narrow strip for about 12 vehicles), however there is overflow parking on the main CBS road.
While my oldest children were at soccer with our family, I took my youngest son to the park for some one-on-one time – boy oh boy, we weren’t disappointed. With a nice groomed trail, with newly planted roses and shrubs, we made our way towards the playground. The playground area has the soft, rubbery material for the ground (for kids falling, or possibly an over-zealous parent) and the layout is really well done, with benches and picnic tables on the perimeter. Right next to the playground section is the water park, with some cute water spraying cannons; colourful containers up high on a post that tip over when filled with the water, and a cone shaped fountain spraying on the left (this area is also surrounded by a small wall that adults can sit on to watch their children). There’s public washrooms in a small rectangular building in-between both areas.
Overall I was impressed.
When I was growing up, Conception Bay South had nothing like this community park. The most comparable area was an old swing set and a few rusty Teeter Totter’s by the swimming pool. Gradually as the town grew bigger, smaller playgrounds popped up by subdivisions, however nothing on the scale that this park has.
Now mind you, if you are used to Bowring Park or the park in Paradise, you might not be impressed with the one in CBS; however you might be surprised by its neat setup and quality equipment. At Bowring park, the layout is not circular as the one in CBS, so now I can have a full view of my children at all times – and as a father of four, that’s important.
So if you are passing through CBS on a day where you have some spare time, make sure you check out the new Community park, it’s worth the visit.
Face planting on the beach
After our excursion at the park, myself and Isaac grabbed some ice cream and headed to Topsail beach (the soccer field section, not the big topsail beach). We sat down by the water on a nice beach rock at around 7:00 p.m., and slowly ate our cool treat. The picture above is of Kelly’s Island, located just to our left.
I find that sitting by the ocean often brings out deep questions about life. Isaac, true to his talkative self (I wonder where he gets that from?:P) popped the first question.
“Dad, how big is God?”
Hmmm, I never had that one before.
“Oh, he’s pretty big, buddy.”
Smooth.
“Yeah, but how biggggg? he asked.
I paused to give it some thought and a proper answer.
“His pretty big, pal. He is all around us.”
“Oh.” he replied, and took another spoonful of ice cream.
After this deeply philosophic conversation, I noticed something out of the corner of my eye -a huge black beach-spider. He crawled his way up the large rock that was next to us.
I don’t mind spiders. Yet, I also don’t like being right next to one or having one approach me. There is just something about the memory of Shelob, a massive, monstrous spider from The Lord of the Rings that stuck with me over the years – and the idea that it’s beady little eyes are zeroing in on me for the kill.
Anyway……
I watched the spider get closer and closer. I decided to take a video (you know I’m part of that generation when), since he was so big. As I am filming, Isaac walks over in his pure Hill Billy fashion.
“What’s dat?”
“It’s a big, black spider,” I replied.
“Where? Right der?” he points as he asks the question.
“Yes.”
Holding the camera with one hand and watching Isaac slowly approach, I warned him not to touch it.
“I’m gonna kill em!” he shouted and *smack*, he smacked that spider right into the rock.
Backtrack.
Now as he was swatting it, I might have shrieked a little and called my youngest son crazy (which he was), but man oh man, I couldn’t believe that he gave it to that huge spider like that. Not one ounce of fear in him for bugs.
You might be saying, “What kind of cruel, gladiator son, do you have?” If you read the gardening post I wrote about Isaac weeding, you’ll find your answer there.
Growing up, I myself wasn’t friendly to bugs, however I didn’t have the guts to touch a large spider. In saying that, I believe in the biblical principle: You reap what your sow.
About five minutes later I said we had to leave, so Isaac leapt off a large beach rock and face planted into a rock below. Dang bro, it was bound to happen. You killed a spider for no reason, and now you face planted into a beach rock in return.
Thankfully he wasn’t hurt, just a small bump on his forehead.
When I asked him why he killed the spider, he quickly exclaimed, “That spider bit God!!” And with that he motioned with his hands and said, “Go chomp like that! God gonna come down and suck him up!”
Oh son.
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Thank you for reading and I will see you again soon.
Christian
The Eason Clan 