Park it! Or don’t.

Since living in San Diego, we have never taken advantage of the Balboa Park Tuesday promo. Each Tuesday of the month, different Park museums offer free entry to county residents. We’ve talked about it, but never gone. Until today. Sort of.

We stopped and grabbed some sandwiches to eat at the park. (By the way, Whole Foods Turkey Bacon Avocado wrap? Awesome.) When we got there, we knew things didn’t look good when all of the parking lots were full. But we stumbled upon a lot we didn’t even know was there and voilá a few empty spots.

Today’s museums included Reuben H. Fleet Science Center and the Natural History Museum. We walked around for a while, looking at things and making our way towards that end of the park. Oh lordy.

It was so crowded that they wouldn’t let you take strollers inside any of the free places. And we have a crapload of stuff in the stroller – diaper bag, cooler with milk, my purse. Which means we’d have to unload and carry all of the stuff PLUS our 35 lb. toddler. No way I’m leaving any of that stuff in the stroller. And we have to carry the boy. We can’t let him walk around — he’ll get creamed. He’s still a little wobbly and needs plenty of space to wander around.

And a crowded museum ain’t it.

I really wanted to see the museums, but it’s abundantly clear that we need to wait until the fall, after school starts. Then maybe the crowds will be a little more reasonable.

The kid fell asleep as we walked around anyway, as it was way past his naptime.

We decided to head home for a bit to give all of us a chance to rest before J’s archery practice later. And then we headed back almost to the same place. Yeah, a little silly, but we were all pretty tired.

While J does his archery thing, the kid and I walk around. There’s a playground, but he’s still just a little too young for it. Too many bigger kids running around who wouldn’t watch out for him. But nearby there was a nice area of grass. I put his shoes on him and let him go.

Have I mentioned how much my child hates shoes? He’s a regular little hillbilly. His grandparents would be so proud! He’d much rather run around barefoot. But in a park where I don’t know what’s been in the grass, sorry kiddo, it’s shoes for you.

He didn’t walk much last week, but this time he took off. And when he gets to the sidewalk he really takes off, squealing and grinning the entire way. But after a while there were too many bicyclists zipping by. And with us so close to the sidewalk, it would be easy for him to jet out in front of someone.

So when he wouldn’t hold my hand, I had to put him back in the stroller. Did I mention the boy has quite an independent streak? Um, yeah.

But really, can you resist that face? I don’t think so.