Around TownPullen Park

The Babies enjoyed going to Pullen Park, located near the NCSU campus and the NC School for the Blind. There is plenty of room there, and in some places, I could let the Babies off their leashes so they could run free. I had to pick a quiet day to make a trip out there. Andy had anti-social traits. He did not like strangers or other pets. On the weekends, Pullen Park filled up pretty fast making it difficult to find parking. There were picnic areas, shelters, an indoor Olympic size pool (when I say Olympic size, I mean 50m long), a pond filled with ducks and other birds. The park provided paddle-boats for rent. There were also some rides such as a carousel and a mini-train. That train looked so fun to ride on. If I could have taken the Babies on it, I would have.

(I used the past tense because Pullen Park is undergoing renovations. I don't know how it's going to look when it opens back up.)


One time out there, we came across a few stray tennis balls by the tennis courts. Since no one was there, we had a fetch session on the courts. Andy had a wonderful time. I don’t know if I would have remembered that day had Andy not poo-pooed on the tennis court. He had just retrieved a ball and halfway back, with the ball still in his mouth, he squatted down and did his thing. Despite the scatological nature of the incident, it was still cute.

I worried how the Babies would react to the birds. Before they approached the pond, I leashed them just in case one of them bolted. The birds were not thrilled to see the Babies. They didn’t scramble away but they did move away from us in a deliberate way. Andy didn’t pay them much attention. Abby stared at them with a furrowed brow. She was a little worried and scared but intrigued.

We would walk all around the park grounds. We would spend well over an hour there. There must have been a buffet of smells in that park because of the high visitor volume. The Babies almost always had their noses close to the ground taking everything in.

By the time we returned to the car, they were tired and thirsty. I always had some water for them in the car and gave them some. They would take turns drinking. We would then go home.