Playground Bonanza

So once again this will be an entry without photos. I just haven't had much time to pack the camera around and get new pictures. However, I do have an interesting story to tell.
Yesterday Geddy and I went into Provo with Scott. I had made a last minute decision to visit my doctor (whole other story, not too important). The weather has been sunny and clear the last couple of days, and hot. To kill time between my appointment and picking up Scott Geddy and I always look for things to do that are fun and inexpensive (preferably free). We visited the library and several playgrounds and even a couple of museums. The most eventful parts of our day were at the playgrounds. The first one we went to in the morning. We fed the ducks at the nearby pond, watched the rushing river go by and then headed to the swings. While swinging we kept hearing what we thought was a meow. Geddy wanted to investigate, so off we went into the little forest. Sure enough there was a tiny white kitten pouncing around the shrubs. Geddy being the smart boy that he is didn't want to touch it, but he kept telling it that he loved it and wanted to take it home but if he did his "big old cat Spanky would probably eat it". I had to convince him the kitten was smart enough not to jump in the river and get washed away before we could leave the park.
After having lunch with Scott and my appointment we had a couple more hours before Scott was done with work so we went to another park closer to the mountains. Geddy loves this park because there are two playgrounds and hardly ever any kids. This time there were some little boys to play with and he was ecstatic. The oldest boy was 5 and just barely taller than Geddy. He was kind of a wild child on the equipment and Geddy wasn't too impressed, especially after the older boy took quite a fall from the top. Geddy told me, "that is why I am careful. I don't want to do what he did!" The boys eventually left and Geddy and I headed down the path to the other playground. After about 15 minutes we went back to the upper playground where the car was parked. Geddy and I were talking about all the bugs and birds around so I wasn't paying very close attention to what was on the path ahead of us. I saw something out of the corner of my eye that I thought might be a stick until I saw it move and then figured it was a snake. I was still not too concerned as there are lots of snakes around and they generally slither away quite fast. Then it started making a very distinct rattling sound and gathered itself up to a striking position. I immediately stopped, lifted Geddy up and froze. Yes, it was definitely a medium-sized rattlesnake about three feet in front of me. I took a very slow step backwards and it went off the side of the path still making its lovely sounds. It was still within a few feet, too close for comfort. It was mostly in the shadows now so we couldn't see the whole thing, but we could still see its rattler shaking away. Every time I took a step back it started rattling again. I didn't want to turn my back on it or move too fast, because it was obviously still watching me and I had no idea how far it would launch itself in an attack. The whole time I was softly talking to Geddy and explaining to him what was happening and why I couldn't pick up this snake like I could the ones in our yard. He thought it was funny a few weeks ago when I caught a snake on our front porch and it peed on me. I told him this one would do a lot more than pee on me. After what seemed like ages, but was probably just a couple minutes, the snake quieted and we quickly went up another path. This time I was very much on the lookout for anything on the path. After getting settled in the car, I realized how close we were to what could have been a dangerous situation. Usually I let Geddy wander a bit ahead of me on the paths. I have never really worried before as they are paved and fairly open so I could keep him in my sight. I was so glad that this time he had been asking me questions so I was holding his hand.
We finished our afternoon by getting a couple of nice cold drinks at the Creamery then going to the Dinosaur Museum and the Bean Life Science Museum. We saw several stuffed rattlesnakes at the Bean and Geddy pointed out that he couldn't hear them so they couldn't hurt him. Our eventful day ended peacefully though I still can't get the sound of that rattle out of my head!