Heritage Square

If you grew up in G-town, you know Heritage Square. It's legendary! Most people we know have worked there at some point in their lives (including JZ and me!), and everyone has ridden the alpine slide, seen a show at the Music Hall, and watched fireworks on the 4th of July. Well, that was then. Now Heritage Square is a little...smaller. Many of the stores have closed and the restaurant I worked in is about 1/4 the size. But, the alpine slide is still up and running, and the number of rides has doubled, so not all is lost.

A few days ago, JZ and I took Caden to Heritage Square for the first time. We weren't sure what to expect - new place, new things - but he had a fun time. Mostly. Don't expect many smiles in these pictures, but no tears either - they'd already dried up by the time we snapped the pictures!

The first ride we went on was the banana scrambler. CP thought he wanted to ride. Then when he started getting buckled in, he changed his mind. We made him go anyway, and he ended up having a blast(ish - again, no smiles, but no tears either).

Next, we rode the carousel. Caden has ridden many a carousel in his day, but this time was a little more fearful. Apparently black horsies are bad news. This carousel had LOTS of black horsies - uh oh! Luckily, we were able to find a white and purple horsie instead.

Afterwards, we had a little lunch at a kiddie picnic table outside, and made some new friends (Cade and Cole that were visiting from Texas and Ontario, Canada).

And then you-know-who had a great time jumping in the misters

After the misters we decided to go on the little train that goes around the park. Caden likes trains, but he's not so sure about going on them (remember, a little fearful these days). We had been trying to get him to go on the train all afternoon. He kept saying, "No train." So, what did we, the kind, understanding parents do? Why, we put him on the train, of course! We decided that we needed to show him that it wasn't scary. We thought he'd stop crying once the train started (that's what we told the conductor anyway!). He did, but he rode the whole way like this...

Eventually he got super brave and lifted his head

Part way through the ride it started raining. Hard. We couldn't do anything except laugh. It was a funny way to end our fabulous day at Heritage Square!