Alrighty. Part 2 of the best weekend we’ve had in a long time. Sunday we finally hit up Community Days. I had no idea what to expect, and I was totally impressed. For starters, I was walking up to the park entrance and ran into my neighbors, who also live next door to my in-laws. They are really cool people and so we walked up together and they insisted on buying my admission. I don’t know how to fully capture in words the sense of community that Pittsburgh is steeped in, but that generous gesture by my neighbors sort of exemplifies it. People here are generous, courteous and care deeply for their communities. They are friendly, welcoming and supportive. For me, moving here…living here has been like stepping into a television show. It’s the stuff I’ve always dreamed of, the life I fantasized about for so many years. The community festivals all year long, Kennywood (you can’t understand unless you go there,) neighbors who actually know each other and wave at you when they see you out in your yard. For me, having grown up in what is basically a retiree destination in Florida, this is surreal.
But anyway, back to the topic at hand. Community Days is put on by the local fire department, I believe. There were booths with people selling trinkets, crafts and services lining the paths through the park. A couple of booths were offering facepainting. There was an area dedicated to food and picnic area with tables. There were several inflatable “attractions?” I don’t know what to call them. One was an obstacle course, one was a huge slide and one was a standard moon bounce. There was also a bungee trampoline thingy.
I let Dagny get her face painted while we waited for James to park the car. She sat so still and was so well behaved my head almost exploded.
I was shocked. The kid is a spaz. I was bursting with pride at how perfectly focused she was. She loved it. Once James arrived we bought tickets for her to do the bungee jump thing and a couple of the inflatable things.
So yeah, we let her do the bungee jump. It sounds worse than it is. I think. They strapped her into the harness and she was swimming in it. The operator assured us there was no way she would fall out and he even flipped her over to prove it.
Obviously the guy doesn’t have kids because he had NO IDEA how much that freaked me out as a parent. But once I caught my breath, I totally reveled in Dagny’s squeals and laughter. She freaking loved that bungee jump. She was fearless.
Next we took her through the obstacle course and super big slide. Again, she was fearless and thrilled. Unbounded joy. Which we had to squash by not letting her do it over and over and over again like she wanted.
We ate what I call “fair food” aka “carnival food” and it was awesome. There’s a distinct difference in the types of food available at events here versus what I’ve experienced in Florida and Colorado. Here there is almost always pierogies, gyros and haluski. And sausage. So we had our fill of the greasy delicacies and by then it was time to head for the car.
So yeah, that was our Sunday. Pretty awesome, eh?
