Rising Park: 100 year celebration

A few years ago, we had driven from New Knoxville to Lancaster for Tara's participation in the Lancaster Festival, and one day I took the boys to the park. It was a fantastic park (yes, New Knoxville's local park was a nice one, and it was within walking distance, which we loved), but Rising Park was fantastic.

It was only about 7 months before we were appointed to Millersport, and another 4 months before we moved, and we found ourselves frequently going to Rising Park. The first trip there (as area residents) was rather surreal - it felt like a dream.

Anyway, today they were celebrating 100 years of Rising Park, and of course, we were there.

The day started with a 5K run, which started on the hill, giving us a good, long downhill out of the park. This time I didn't go out with the sprinters, and I ended up having one person pass me the whole race. It was kind of lonely out on the course: two guys battled it out for 1-2, and there were four more who emerged as the "lead pack" and the rest of us kind of straggled out behind. It was a fun race and a very fast course, but the best part was having my family there to cheer for me (and Jonathan had this little "horn" he was blowing to cheer me on, and I just loved hearing it).

I finished in 21:05, but I figure the course was 1/100 mile long, so I might have managed to finish under 21 ;-)

After the awards (I won my age group), we headed around the park. There were inflatables for the kids to play on, and we were the first ones there, so they had free reign. Awesome.

Then we headed around the loop and found that they had tons of free stuff. Like free hot dogs (I know, I don't like hot dogs. But they were free, so I had two). Like free apples, bananas, candy, bottled water, apple/cinnamon or strawberry breakfast bars, and ice cream!

They had speeches, historical reenactments, and even a kids' fishing area.

It made for a fantastic morning with the kids, and sometimes I still wonder if it really is a dream.